The past couple of editions, Tuska has opted to bring in a bigger international name to open the festival on the main stage with Avatar and Lord of the Lost, but this time around they went back to their roots and put a Finnish act that has been on the rise of late on there. With Horizon Ignited you get some of the highest quality melodic death metal you can want for, in the veins of Dark Tranquillity and In Flames. And their latest album ‘Tides‘, released earlier this year, is an absolute masterpiece. So please, make your way to the festival early so you won’t miss out on these future greats!

If you’re looking for something that just oozes rebellious fun and riotous chaos, the Nordic Energy Stage is the place to be early on in the day, because the misfits of Blood Command are going to blast everything and everyone away with their blend of punk, metal, rock ‘n’ roll and anything you could think of. Not a single song of t heirs sounds the same while still sounding exactly like Blood Command sounds like. And live the whole band is an explosion of energy and pure unadulterated fun, but especially vocalist Nikki is a force to be reckoned with. This “Norwegian Deathpop” band will blow you away and put down one of the biggest parties of the weekend already this early on! Be there!

We’ve been following Knocked Loose every since their monstrous release ‘Laugh Tracks’ back in 2016, and ever since they’ve only gone up in our appreciation and in their overall popularity and notority, especially with their latest album ‘You Won’t Go Before You’re supposed To’ that features the hit ‘Suffocate‘ featuring Poppy and performance of that song on Jimmy Kimmel Live. And now finally they are in Finland to hit us with their relentless hardcore on the main stage. From images and videos we’ve seen of shows over the years, we’re expecting this to be one of the most violent and massive shows of the day, if not weekend.

One of the acts of the weekend that is somewhat out of the “heavy metal music” norm of the festival, but fits oh so well on the bill, is the true crime industrial act SKYND. We’ve been there with them from the very beginning when they released ‘Elisa Lam’, ‘Gary Heidnik‘ featuring Jonathan Davis of Korn and ‘Richard Ramirez’ back in 2018, and I think I can say that there hasn’t been a single track they released that hasn’t impressed us massively. The way they are able to turn these gruesome crimes and acts of violence into little pieces of art where they share the perspective from both the perpetrator’s side and victim’s side, and how indepth their knowledge and research seems to be on every single case, is an amazing thing to see. And it helps that they are incredible songwriters, creating alternative pop and electro tracks that are catchy as hell and that SKYND herself is a very talented vocalist, managing to sing with different voices, telling a complete story just on her own. A must see for sure!

With deathcore basically blowing up through frontrunners like Lorna Shore and Slaughter To Prevail (both also playing at Tuska this year), people started to notice all the talent in that genre within their own countries. And Enemies Everywhere is definitely among some of the best around, where tracks of their latest release ‘Endless Discord’ could rival Lorna Shore‘s epicness and sense of grandiose atmosphere while remaining absolutely brutal as fuck (find our review here). They’ve only been around for a couple of years, but damn are they impressive already! They did have a big line-up change recently with their vocalist leaving and being replaced by Sasu Mikkola, but maybe more the reason why you should go check these talented dudes out live, to get a taste of the new iteration of Enemies Everywhere. We can promise you, you’ll be impressed!

Bambie Thug was one of the revelations of Eurovision in last year, with their eclectic alternative pop song ‘Doomsday Blues’ blending catchy melodies, harsh vocals and cold industrial music into an absolutely unique piece of music. The overall aesthetics, the sound of her “ouija pop” and overall feeling of an artist who is there for the misfits and freaks, makes Bambie Thug a perfect fit for a festival like Tuska, even though it’s not metal per se. And they already had a pretty successful European tour that resulted in a completely sold out Helsinki show not all that long ago. We’re really looking forward how the theatrics and great songs will come to life on the Radio City Stage in the early evening of this first day and we’d highly recommend you to be there with us to have a great party!

You want old school heavy metal with a modern touch? You just want to bang your head and raise those horns in the air? Look no further and go see the Finnish heavy metallers of Tyrantti on the KVLT Stage today! They sing in all Finnish, but even if you don’t understand, you’ll understand the old school heavy metal spirit and torch they’re carrying. High pitched vocals, catchy melodies, killer riffs and blistering guitar solos all brought to you by a couple of leather clad dudes that seem to never run out of energy. Go see if you can match that energy and keep it up from start to finish… It’s only a set of 45 minutes, but be ready for it, they’ll be dropping bodies for sure!

One of the last bands of the day on the KVLT Stage is one you won’t want to miss out on. We’ve seen Bokassa a handful of years ago with a killer show at On the Rocks in Helsinki, and their blend of stoner rock and hardcore punk is simply a blast every time. They’ve been so impressive that back in 2019, through the endorsement of Lars Ulrich, they got to open for Metallica on the European leg of the WorldWired tour that year! The riffs are hard hitting, and the guys are always up for starting somewhat of a riot and following rock ‘n’ roll party. You’ll honestly regret it if you don’t go, people will be talking about this…