Tuska always manages to put together a line-up that speaks to a lot of people through its diversity. Every year they surprise us with bands we wouldn’t have expected them to book. For the 2022 edition we might be a bit less surprised since a majority of the bands had been announced already for the earlier editions that were cancelled, but that doesn’t take away anything from the epicness that will take place in Helsinki the first weekend of July.

Take the headliners, where they always seem to go for bands that are either quite legendary or bands that are future headliners for bigger festivals. This time they pulled the card of the legendary bands with Korn on the Friday, Mercyful Fate on Saturday and Deftones to wrap up the festival on Sunday.

But that’s not all! A wide selection of big names of the Finnish and international scene, but also smaller and more quirky ones. Some of our favorites are: the glorious return of Northern Kings, local boys Lost Society to destroy the main stage again, popular French synthwave act Perturbator, the amplified history pagans of Heilung, the wicked cosmos driven Oranssi Pazuzu, stoner sludgers Baroness, Hevy Devy, German thrashers Kreator and the official Ukrainian ambassadors Jinjer that will kill it again on stage while bringing everyone’s attention to the war going on in their country!

If the “main” line-up doesn’t satisfy you enough yet, for the 2022 edition, Tuska has added a 4th stage named “Tuska KVLT”, which will showcase some of the most talented and up-and-coming bands from Finland besides the classic “Tuska-Torstai” winners (Numento on Friday and Sacred Dimension on Sunday, highly recommended). Some of the bands are even just there because they are volunteering and participated in the Tuska KVLT activities! You’ll be able to catch bands taken from a wide variety of genres and a bunch more Finnish bands will be able to reap more souls among those who didn’t know their music yet.

We highly recommend you to try and catch the shows of folk metallers Verikalpa, ex-Fear of Domination vocalist Sara‘s new project Shereign, modern metallers Detset, old school power/heavy metal band Amoth, the Satanist industrial metallers of King Satan, the metalcore party that is One Morning Left (just back from a European tour with Electric Callboy), black metal act The Mist From The Mountains, the more proggy/djenty music of Edge Of Haze and Humavoid and of course Atlas, who we baptized as “the Insomnium of metalcore” with their latest album!

As one of the biggest metal festivals in Finland taking place in a city, the location is amazingly convenient. The by now trusted event area of Suvilahti with its signature buildings and gas tower is a wonderful place to have the festival, located at one of Helsinki’s biggest malls, REDI. Getting there is really easy by the metro that stops right in the mall. A couple of stairs down and a couple of minutes walking and you’re right at the gates of Tuska’s hallowed grounds! And since you’re that close to the city, if you afterwards still want to have a couple of drinks to celebrate the amazing day you’ve had, there should be plenty of bars to choose from! This year they’ve also rearranged and expanded the festival area, looking to make the experience even more epic…

Tuska is so much more than just a metal festival. Every edition of Tuska they seem to try to experiment with new features and services, most of the time with great success. By now the “Tuska Forum” is an established activity where you can go listen to music professionals talk about certain aspects of the industry (with this year one of the guests being Attila Csihar from Mayhem!). The last Tuska back in 2019 introduced “Tuska Expo”, inspired by the metal expo that used to take place in Helsinki every year. Following its great success, it seems they’ve expanded somewhat with even more exhibitors. You’ll find the following exhibitors at Tuska Expo this time:

• Cybershop: The place to be when you’re looking for alternative and underground clothing and accessories, often with a splash of bright or neon colors added.
• Dick Johnson: Grooming products with an attitude. Besides an offer of some of their products, you can drop by and get a proper haircut, beard trim & styling for only 20€!
• Glimmering Deep Design: Handmade jewelry ranging all the way from viking and medieval to goth, steampunk and even some pin-up and fifties.
• Impossible Bodyart: Quality body piercing and jewels. Including a talented crew of tattoo artists.  The Crew has experience and passion for multiple styles, so you can choose from the flashes drawn by the artists or bring your own tattoo idea.
• Icebreakers for Vikings: The ultimate party drinking game for those who are into Norse mythology, Vikings, gloomy humor and finding a reason to drink (if you need that). Go get your deck of cards early enough and you might get an extra surprise.
• Kaamos Company: Cruelty free and vegan, but extra brutal cosmetics & co, inspired by metal!
• Keltainen Jäänsärkijä: The quite legendary record store located in Helsinki right next to legendary venue Tavastia, been operating since 80’s, simply had to be at the Expo.
• Tonefest Lounge with Tonefest Guitar Gallery store, Vuorensaku Guitars, Skipper’s Amps, Weird Antiques and Tuulentalloja jewellery and engravings.
• Viides Askel: An  independent publishing house, specialized in occult philosophy.
• Viking Drinking Horns: The name says it all. If you’re looking for a quality drinking horn of any size, this is the place to be!
• Metalheads Against Bullying: Too many bullies around, MAB is a community and charity trying to activate and grow a healthy community and unite metalheads in the fight against such despicable behavior. Go give your support!
• Routa Design: Custom jewellery and art inspired by Finnish mythology and traditions, with all products handmade in Finland.

As you can see, a wide range of interesting things to check out and spend some of your hard earned money on whenever you’re having a break from the shows going on.

The people behind Tuska are a pretty amazing bunch. Every year they try to improve things to make the festival the best possible experience for every visitor and really listen to the feedback given to them. Even when their plans don’t turn out as great as they expected, it wouldn’t be the first time they start changing things overnight in the middle of the festival weekend when they receive complaints about something. Talk about dedication… Some new features this year that were added to make everyone’s life better: completely contactless payments by card or MobilePay app and a dedicated “harassment officer” you can message with in case of inappropriate behavior, during and even after the festival!

Festival food is too often the same kind of overpriced crappy food. At Tuska you get plenty of other options every time. Besides the by now pretty legendary Tuska burgers and Black Dining restaurant, you can find the following:

• Joen Ruokapriha
  Fish and game dishes
• Calamari by Pobre
  Modern Filipino / street food
• Pretty Boy
  Marinated chicken wings
• Satamabar
  High quality vegetarian based Eastern and Northern African food
• Mo7
  Moroccan street kitchen
• Papa’s Smokery BBQ
  Smokey meat goodness
• Bun & Yi Premium Asian Food
  Asian cuisine
• Premium Loaded Fries
  Crispy fries loaded with sauces, fresh herbs and tasty sides
• Haapasalon Hatsapuri
  Georgian street food
• Thai Papaya
  Authentic Thai-food
• Feastie Boys
  Curry wurst etc.
• Vanhan Porvoon Jäätelötehdas
  Almost local artesan ice cream
• Just Vege
  Delicious vegetarian food with flavours from mediterranean and middle-eastern of kitchen.
• Treffi Pub & Bistro
  Fresh burgers grilled on a open fire with a selection ranging from meat to vegan options!

Since Tuska is in the middle of a city, music already ends by midnight on Friday and Saturday and at 10 PM on Sunday. But don’t worry, if you’re not exhausted yet and want more, there are the Tuska afterparties. In the past some of those have been pretty legendary happenings with sometimes (possibly drunk) surprise guests appearing or getting to catch bands that are future big stars. During some Tuska weekend we caught Blind Channel giving us an early taste of what they had in store for us whenever they were able to do bigger productions. And look at them now…

This year you’ll find DJ’s playing heavy music till the early morning at the famed Praha bar and bands playing at On The Rocks with on Friday Finland’s most dangerous heavy metal band Tyrantti, on Saturday the groovy thrashers of Misterer with Pakko Aja! and Sunday to close the festival weekend in style, the triplet of melodic rockers One Desire, symphonic metallers Crimson Sun and thrashers Maniac Abductor. For the On The Rocks nights you need to buy an extra ticket, but with your Tuska wristband you get a cheaper price. So what is holding you back still?