For the
uninitiated: Tuska Open Air is the biggest and oldest running extreme metal
festival in Finland.
By no means am I trying to say that it’s also the most beautiful or that it
hauls, year after year, the most exciting line-up conceivable for a puny human
being, such as yours truly. Instead, those of the unlight may be better off
choosing another, smaller event to satisfy their need for all things heavy and
obscure. Nevertheless, if the priority is to raise glasses with both hands and shoot
the breeze with those old, graceless buddies whilst enjoying a mixed amalgam of
metal’s more popular stalwarts ― complemented with a small, chosen bunch of
more unknown acts from almost all over the genre map ― there’s probably no
better fiesta to partake in than our twelve-year old juggernaut of a metal festival,
which, of course, is largely due to the fact that you can bring in your own
distilled beverages, if you can keep the vinos and vodkas inside plastic
bottles before pouring them down your throat.
Unfortunately
and just like reaching one’s puberty always does, 2010 marked an end of
an era
for our beloved soon-to-be teenager. The fact of the matter is, Tuska
has grown
out of its old rags, which means that this year’s festival was the last
one to
take place in the Kaisaniemi park, which is a beautiful place, standing right
beside
Helsinki’s main railway station, practically in the heart of our
nation’s
capital. Luckily, the Tuska organization decided to deliver a
valediction of
badass proportions for its faithful servant by mustering a real
blitzkrieg
battalion of bands; one that would make the previous casts look like
Thomas
Müntzer’s scattered mob of peasants with nothing but flimsy spears as
their
weaponry. Indeed, artists from Cannibal Corpse to W.A.S.P., Ihsahn to
Overkill and Nile to Megadeth were about come, see and conquer with a
spearhead that would make people go berserk in ecstasy. Namely, it was
announced already a couple of months prior to the celebration that none
other
than Devin Townsend would indulge the attendees with two sets; one of
which would
be the world exclusive performance of Ziltoid.
This was,
without the slightest doubt, the bacchanal to experience. Therefore, Metal
Review’s most lethal tag team of Melissa Zappa and Unidentified Drinking Finn
teamed with Stalkermusic’s camera crew, Markus Rask and Mikko “Monni” Reinamo,
to try and capture some of the magic of this unique occasion on videotape. I’m
just going to unashamedly blow our collective trumpet and state that, in
retrospect, we did pretty fucking well and simply achieved what we set out for. So ―
without wasting more letters, syllables and words ― here’s the first episode of
our three-part video report, summing up the Tuska Friday with interviews with
singer Mikko Kotamäki (Barren Earth/Swallow the Sun), Obituary and promoter
Toni Törrönen, who kindly brought Mayhem to jam at one of Friday’s post-party club
sessions. Enjoy, my dear comrades!
Post scriptum: to be continued...so start holding your breaths.
Posted
Jul 30 2010, 06:00 AM
by
Juho
Filed under: Cannibal Corpse, Nile, Devin Townsend, Megadeth, Juho Mikkonen, Ihsahn, Ziltoid, Melissa Zappa, Tuska Open Air, Overkill, W.A.S.P