Il portale della musica Heavy Metal

Tuska - Day 3 - 6/29/2025 - Suvilahti - Helsinki

While the weather had stayed mostly sunny or overcast after Friday, apparently the wind has been gaining traction so much that the festival crew ended up removing the back of the Nordic Energy stage for safety reasons. That made for quite the interesting background when Havukruunu came to play: smoke machine - with the smoke being immediately blown away - and clear skies were an unusual combination, but worked surprisingly nicely. The critically acclaimed “Tavastland” really put the band on the spotlight once and for all, so while the early Sunday time feels a bit tight for them, it was nice to see all these people already cheering for the band under the sun in the warmest hours of the day.
A band that’s been ever-present in Tuska, Turmion Kätilöt, came next on the main stage. It’s really not the same to see them with Saku compared to the times with Spellgoth, but it has also been already almost a decade, and they clearly have found their dimension with the vocalist known also for Fear of Domination and Stereo Terror. Joining them on stage was the daughter of the other frontman, Netta, who sang with the band for a good part of the set.
Speaking of daughters, Sunday afternoon as always was the “bring your own child at Tuska” day (or rather kids underage get free entry with their parents), so the audience was a hell of a lot younger for a few hours. While most of the set was focused on the last two albums, it was nice to hear also a couple of old classics from the younger days of the band.



After bringing an Eurovision act on Friday, today Tuska had a TikTok sensation, namely Kim Dracula, which - as someone who has never used TikTok in their life - we had absolutely no clue about until it was announced at the festival. The Australian performer was definitely one of the oddballs of the festival, but still lots of people seemed pretty excited by his show. Frankly it left us a bit baffled, but it’s clearly more mainstream festival material, and we are too accustomed to more underground music.
One of the audience favorites and always fun to watch, Apocalyptica took on the Karhu stage in the middle of the afternoon, entertaining with their cellos the big crowd here today with the songs from their sequel take on Metallica - “Plays Metallica Vol. 2”. Never been a big Metallica fan, but always appreciated the Finns take on these songs, so it was actually quite nice to hear their classical transformation live. These guys also always seem to have a blast when they play, and that affects the audience as well, so all in all it was one of the highlights for us today.



Back to some death metal with Cryptic Hatred. Having played already at Tuska when they were even younger, these guys have become by now a well-known name in the local scene, and have their own group of fans even here at Tuska. Having released last year their second full-length they came back with a slightly changed line-up to present the songs from that new record (“Internal Torment”). The enthusiasm especially of the younger audience was refreshing, as there are plenty of young people who appreciate these more underground bands, and not everyone went to see Whitechapel instead.
We stayed around the Kvlt stage for a while today - in fact for all the rest of the bands playing on it - so we could finally see Octoploid live, having missed the previous occasions in the spring. A bit confused as we were left with the idea that Mikko Kotamäki (Swallow The Sun, My Dying Bride) would have been the vocalist and instead we found Tomi Joutsen of Amorphis fame (in a more “hippie” version of himself), we had to admit that their really got something nice going with this band. That proggy take on melodic death, giving off some 70’s vibes felt really good live. and this was positively and genuinely a nice show - during which they even played a cover of Amorphis “Relief”.
It was also for once possible to move around the venue a little bit without constantly bumping into someone which was actually very nice for a change.



After a quick dinner snack we came back again at Tiivistämö, this time for some indie rock/goth mix still anchoring us back towards the same era, if not a decade earlier, and bringing that British-inspired sound that you don’t really hear often in young Finnish bands. Instead The Vantages did just that, and proved once more how oftentimes it’s actually a good idea to keep an eye on the lesser known acts on this stage rather than the main bands in order to find something new and… a bit different, if nothing else. These young guys actually pulled off a good performance and the crowd has been very much into their songs, surely giving them a good confidence boost for their work.
Eventually it was time to head to the main stage for Lorna Shore, who only a couple years back was opening the day on this very stage, and now came back as headliner. Quite the jump! This also testifies the shift in musical taste of the younger generations, who seem to be more into these kind of deathcore, symphonic stuff (or at times more groovy, or melodic, or whatnot, but still revolving around metalcore/deathcore and such).



The show itself was noteworthy: filled with pyros, fireworks and an impressive light show. We don’t feel like it would be correct to comment on the performance itself, as we watched it in bits and pieces (the beginning, some parts here and there while taking photos of the audience and the final part of their encore), especially as we wanted to check out the Finnish answer to Heilung (with due proportions of course): Noiduin. Their dark, pagan folk music is about local mythology and folklore, adding also a contemporary twist to it, but still performing with various traditions instruments, among which of course kantele and jouhikko, was a fine way to end this day music-wise, and of course by extension the entire festival. This is another band to keep an eye on for the fans of the genre, not to mention if you are into Finnish mythology and lore.
After Noiduin’s show we did our traditional crowd photos tour of the festival area, and checked out the final bits of Lorna Shore, before eventually celebrating the end of the festival with a couple of drinks.



What to say, Tuska these days is not the Tuska we remember 15, 10, or even 5 years ago. Lots have changed, the bands have changed, the audience have changed (mostly the bands have changed actually in order to attract a new, younger and more diverse audience). On one hand this has made many people complain over the recent past, on the other one has to admit that the festival is evolving and reflecting the reality of what many people - younger people, who are those who will keep bringing in money in the years to come - are really into nowadays.
There was a time when metal was a big thing, that time has long gone here in Finland and big festivals such as this need to adjust. The very fact that the first day marked a record of 22 thousand people as the most crowded first day of the festival, and the whole weekend saw around 20+ thousands a day here in Suvilahti, stands to prove that after all they are doing something right. Older people who came to see more traditional acts might not want to join in any longer, but there are other events that cater to those needs so to each their own. This year we decidedly wanted to focus as much as possible on the smaller bands, and the result mostly paid off, as we discovered some pretty interesting acts in the process, so that’s where, for us, Tuska really shines at the moment.
We have to respect what these guys do, and have done for many, many years, and trust that they are doing it for the sake of the festival and most of all to offer something interesting to the people who decide to attend. As far as we are concerned, we are curious to see what Tuska 2026 will bring to the table!

See all galleries from Sunday
People and festival area: the full gallery
Tuska 2025 - Day 2 report

Report a cura di Marco Manzi