Here we go again! After a great anniversary edition last year, where Tuska Open Air was celebrating its 20th birthday, we’re back at the holy grounds of Suvilahti for another serving of great heavy music. Having looked forward to get to enjoy one of the nicest “family” metal and rock events of Finland, we geared up and went very excited towards great bands, wonderful atmosphere and lovely people… The following is what took place…

The night before I didn’t make it to the official Tuska After Party at Virgin Oil Co., but with the bands that were playing on the second night I just couldn’t stay away. Earlier during the weekend I had a talk with 2 of the guys of Oceanhoarse (****1/2) and they were talking about how they added some show elements right from the start in their live performances, so I was really curious to see what I was going to see there! As soon as I arrived I got blown away by the music bearing a lot of influences from classic heavy metal but with its own distinct signature sound. Vocalist Tommy has one impressive set of lungs and definitely gives the songs a strong and energetic voice, reminding me of for instance Alice In Chains and the likes.

The show elements were actually very simple but pretty cool for such a “young” band: a metal framework with their logo made from a sheet of metal, on both sides of the stage a small staircase for guitarist Ben and bassist Jyri to climb on and a few light boxes at the front of the stage for Tommy to stand on. A nice setup that easily can be expanded and actually felt professional despite it being DIY work. Besides the few really strong original songs, they played some metal classics that perfectly fit their game like Pantera‘s Cowboys From Hell, to eventually end with their “anthem song” The Oceanhoarse during which the Oceanhoarse creature actually showed up! I can see this band going far with what they’re doing and well, doesn’t every really great classic heavy metal band have a mascotte that gets on stage? Looks very promising to me…

Headliner of the night was the perfect fit to get one more party going with those people that still had some energy left. The industrial/melodic death metal band Fear Of Domination (****1/2) is a hugely popular band all over Finland and never disappoints live. They just recently released their latest album Metanoia and were clearly ready for one hell of a night! They opened with New World and continued to treat their fans with some older work (including their classic cover of The Bad Touch by Bloodhound Gang) and only came with the first new song about halfway the set.

We got a little series of tracks from Metanoia with Sick and Beautiful, Mindshifter, Obsession and Face of Pain and later on the possible new anthem We Dominate. The guys were all over the place again, with some members on regular occasions going beyond the borders of the stage and Saku at a certain point ending up in the middle of the crowd. Latest addition and stage monkey Miikki had an arm in a cast, so when the moment came to crank out the marching band tenor drum, he got a bit of help by Saku… Yet again a great show by great people who clearly love their fans to bits, resulting in a party to remember. When they closed with real “oldies” Pandemonium and their real anthem Fear of Domination, they blew the roof off the building for real and simply ended with a bang!

For more pics, go to our photo coverage here.