TUSKA OPEN AIR METAL FESTIVAL 2010

words byВ Evil Trin, photos: Evil Trin

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Day 2, 3 July2010 - Tuska 47

It seems that turning up late is becoming a habit. Stargazer still plays in my head and my hands are rather dirty. - On my way downtown the bike chain fell off and since the men with me were mostly useless, I had to deal with the situation by myself.

I have missed the local Blake on the main stage and Torture Killer and Sotajumala in the tents, but either way one of my main goals in life today is to see Hypocrisy on the main stage and they are just about to start.

The photo pit has turned into a proper pigsty and everybody is threading carefully waiting for Tägtgren and co. who have the serious task of annihilating us.
“I should probably yell “Fuck the sun” like my friend Abbath said last year, but I won’t”, grins the mad Swede and unleashes hell upon us.
In spite the heat, the crowd jumps up and down, screams, fist bangs and raises the horns – there is no other way – Hypocrisy headbang non-stop and nail one hit after another. Killing Art, Pleasure of Molestation, Weed Out the Weak, Adjusting the Sun, Let the Knife Do the Talking (announced as a love song, at which the audience chants “Kill! Kill! Kill!” with particular enthusiasm), A Coming Race, Warpath, Eraser, Fire in the Sky and Roswell 47, whose hysterical chorus transforms into “Tuska 47”.

A large portion of the crowd moves from the main stage to the Sue stage, which is hosting Crowbar. The first row is mostly kids, which prompts Kirk Windstein to comment that perhaps most people in the audience were 2-3 years old when Crowbar played in Finland the previous time 14 years ago.
After seeing Windstein with Down a couple of years back in Sofia, I am curious to see him with Crowbar. Unlike Hypocrisy, who were so full of mad energy, Crowbar hardly move on the stage and play slowly, very heavy and somehow sleazy.

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What comes up next is Devin Townsend Project, episode 2.
Unlike the night before, when I didn't dig the entire hoopla around Ziltoid, I really like these songs.
One of the first songs in the setlist – Supercrush! from Townsend's latest album really grabs my attention and holds it almost to the end. The songs are diverse – there's the death growl, there are the opera arias. It is obvious that not liking Ziltoid means nothing and I have to familiarise myself with the other albums more carefully.
At some point Devin Townsend decorates his bald head with a bucket hat and has fun pulling faces at the crowd from the edge of the stage. The mood is almost beach-like.

The real crowd pleaser for the night, however, are Kamelot. The pyro starts with the first song and creates some thermal discomfort for us in the photo pit, but such are the occupational hazards.

Kamelot play a song from their new album, followed by the favourites Center of the Universe, The Haunting, during which Khan is joined by Elize Ryd from the Swedish band Amaranthe, When the Lights Are Down, The Pendulum's Fall, Karma, Rule the World.
Khan plays with the crowd, hands out water bottles to the first rows and Forever is expanded by a 10-minute massive choir. The set ends with March of Mephisto and more pyro and on the next day the band's Twitter says: “Thank you, Finland! You RULED!”

Overkill are up next in the Sue tent. They can only be described with one word and it is “energy”, much living up to their name. Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth is completely rabid – he runs about like a madman, jumps on the monitors, eventually unbuckles his belt and unzips his fly and remains like this at least for the first few songs. The kids in the front row are about to unhinge their heads, but Overkill's energy is so infectious, that it is quite understandable.  

On my way out of the photo pit, I almost collide with Peter Tägtgren who is watching this insanity with a rather straight face, while a long-haired kid, which I assumes is his son (Tuska is an event for the entire family), is standing on some case for a better view.
I mumble an excuse, say “Hi” and manage to outshout Overkill and to ask when is the Hypocrisy DVD coming out. “January or February next year”, comes the polite answer.
Nice – the whole world shall see what a rabid crowd the Bulgarians are.

The security guy is staring at me with menace in his eyes, so I hurriedly file out past him and go to the Inferno tent with the vain hope to see Bloodbath.
The crowd is so massive, that it is absolutely impossible to even get a glimpse of the band, so I only listen for a while, but it is a bit too brutal for my taste so I take a walk about the festival grounds.

Next on the main stage happens the largest disappointment of this year's festival – the headliners Nevermore. They are substituting Mastodon who cancelled their tour for health reasons.
I kinda like Nevermore and got excited that I'll have the chance to see them, but in retrospect I am really sorry Mastodon cancelled.
The big disappointment comes as Warrel Dane who appears bored to death and absolutely miserable on the stage. - I suppose the convicts sent to hard labour in Siberia look the same.
The other members of Nevermore are doing their best to compensate the ennui of Dane and smile all the time, but his sullen faceВ  is a massive killjoy.

After the three songs in the photo pit I go out in the audience, wiling to give Nevermore a second chance but Warrel Dane remains in foul mood and looks like a person who hates what he's doing and certainly isn't paid enough for it. I am so bewildered that I just forget about it and go backstage to drink, expecting that any minute Warrel Dane will just leave the stage in a huff.
It transpires that almost everybody who witnessed the Nevermore “show” were just as disappointed as me. “Nevermore? - Never more!”, comments over a beer Barren Earth's Kasper Mårtenson on the next day...

GALLERY DAY 2