To open the festival, it seems they tried to recreate last year’s successful placement of a popular bigger name early on the day on the main stage by this time bringing in the popular Germans of Lord of the Lost. It might not have brought out as many people early in the day as last year’s edition, but it was definitely a proper start of the day! They took over the stage with high energy and got plenty of people really excited quickly. With a setlist full of LotL classics and high energy tracks like ‘Full Metal Whore’, ‘Loreley’ and their Eurovision entry ‘Blood & Glitter’, it was a proper party in the sun. Rounding up with their cover of Käärijä‘s ‘Cha cha cha’, which has quickly become a staple in their Finnish shows, the party was complete and we were ready for a great first day!

Opening up the Radiocity tent stage on this day, we get a serving of some proper black metal dedication with the Finnish supergroup I Am The Night. Put together by Markus Vanhala (Insomnium, Omnium Gatherum) as a dedication to one of his favorite black metal bands Emperor and the 90s era of the genre, and filled out by colleagues from bands like Horizon Ignited, Swallow The Sun, Endless Forms Most Gruesome, Before the Dawn,… It was the first time we got to catch these guys live, and man, it did not disappoint. As one of the very few black metal acts on this line-up, it was great to see a real proper one bringing that old school vibe back. If I’m being honest, while I’m usually pretty satisfied with the Tuska line-ups, I wouldn’t mind seeing a comeback of sorts for these kind of acts to the line-up. More of this please!

A huge inflatable rubber ducky arises on stage… that can only mean one thing: it’s time for some Alestorm! As always, their shows are just one big party filled with folky pirate hits that gets the crowd dancing, laughing and having fun throughout. Opening with ‘Keelhauled‘, the vibes were good right from the start, and as somewhat of a surprise guest they brought out Patty Gurdy who in my humble opinion took some of their songs to a higher level with her hurdy gurdy and vocals. Tracks like ‘Hangover‘, ‘Shit Boat (No Fans)‘, the classic ‘Drink‘ and set closer ‘Fucked with an Anchor‘ brought the house down and for many this was probably the party of the day. Myself, I feel I probably outgrown their music a bit compared to when I always went wild during the heydays of folk metal, but it’s always a welcome reunion to see these guys again live from time to time.

Probably one of my favorite bands that have steadily been moving up the ladder in the modern metal scene, would be Infected Rain. Album after album they impress me more and more, and live they always bring an absolute beast of a show. Vocalist Lena Scissorhands is always quite the sight to behold with her energetic and passionate performance, while guitarist Vidick always seems to have an endless pit of energy to dig from. The addition of Alice Lane on bass has been absolutely amazing as well, while the old iteration of Infected Rain was top notch, it feels like this one just found the right combo to take things even higher. With mostly songs of their latest release, it was really a showcase of the present version of the band with here and there a taste of earlier work with tracks like ‘Fighter‘, ‘The Earth Mantra‘ or ‘Sweet, Sweet Lies’.

After Slayer said goodbye to Finland at Tuska back in 2019 on their ‘Final World Tour’, I wasn’t really expecting to see the legend that is Kerry King back on the Tuska stages. But here we are, Kerry released a very well received solo album and took that album around the world with his a band build with his friends and colleagues of bands like Hellyeah, Slayer, Vio-lence, Death Angel, Metal Allegiance,… The show wasn’t necessarily spectacular, but it was that old school kind of heavy metal and thrash metal show that is so damn enjoyable and pleasing. All of the guys on stage are seasoned veterans, and you could really see and feel that experience throughout the show. While the majority of songs played came from Kerry‘s recently released album, it wouldn’t be a Kerry King show without the obligatory Slayer songs sprinkled in here and there. Pleasing the fans who showed up to see him live with ‘Chemical Warfare’, ‘Black Magic‘ and of course the iconic ‘Raining Blood‘, this was a really solid metal show.

Even though I’ve been listening to the amazing Zeal & Ardor for about a decade by now, somehow they’ve always managed to evade me and I had never seen them live. Until now. The expectations where absolutely high and I was almost dreading that I’d get disappointed by those high expectations set in advance. But I didn’t need to worry one bit. As soon as the show kicked off, the atmosphere in the tent stage was something otherworldly and special. Tracks like ‘Wake of a Nation‘, ‘Götterdämmerung‘, ‘Run‘, ‘Death to the Holy‘ and as good as the whole set were immaculate live and Zeal & Ardor has really grown into a proper band that really works properly with tons of chemistry. You wouldn’t even believe anymore that it started as a one man project about a decade ago. For me personally the absolute highlight was of course ‘Devil is Fine‘, the track I got to know this band with, it was really something special! I can’t wait to see these guys again as soon as possible in hopefully a club setting where they’re the headliner. I can imagine the vibes will go that much harder when everyone there shows up for just them.

The headliner for the first day of Tuska 2024 was really something rather leftfield for a metal festival. Pendulum was definitely not the obvious choice to be headlining. But I was not complaining one bit about this! Always having been a pretty huge fan of their music and the fact that they recently started doing some more rock band stuff compared to the purely drum ‘n’ bass music of the past, I got quite excited about getting to hear (hopefully) some of my favorites live finally. And yeah, Tuska organisation did well, really really well with this one. There were way more electronic beats and bass coming from the main stage than ever before, but man it was good! Some of my favorites like ‘Propane Nightmares’, ‘The Island’, ‘Witchcraft‘ and ‘The Tempest’ all came by and for the time being I felt about a decade or more younger, bringing back some good memories. The inclusion of the much more recent ‘Halo‘, that I’ve been playing a whole damn lot lately, was very much appreciated as well. A very risky choice to book them, but I wouldn’t say no to more of these kind of bookings! What a closer for the first day of the festival weekend!