Warmen, or “Children Of Bodom keyboard player Janne (Wirman) & friends”, was the early showstarter for Sunday. With a vast array of lightning fast melodic hooks and catchy choruses delivered by a super star group of singers (namely Alexi Laiho, Pasi Rantanen and Jonna Geagea), what’s there not to like on a sunny Sunday afternoon?

Fans at Tuska Festival,

The second full album theme show of the weekend was delivered by Stratovarius, who played their Visions album in its entirety. Honestly, especially in the case of Visions, if you’re not a die hard fan of the band that’s doing something like this, it’s hard to justify having the filler tracks on the set that they’d never play otherwise. It seems like shows like this would be better suited for a club environment.

Alice Cooper, photo by Timo Asoaho

Alice Cooper’s bombastic show saw all his famous, over the top rock and roll antics taken to the max. The slot was well chosen, as some people were showing some members in attendance were showing some wear and tear from the weekend. It was nothing short of a real snake, apparently borrowed from Mr. Lordi, a guillotine, and what have you to keep people’s spirits up before the day at the office tomorrow creeping closer and closer. Alice closed his set with local living legend Michael Monroe of Hanoi Rocks fame to join his friend Alice for ‘School’s Out’ to close the weekend.

The festival reported seeing 25,000 visitors during the weekend. It’s pretty difficult to pinpoint what it precisely is that gives Tuska its loyal following and good reputation from some other European festivals, but yet again plenty of Tuska first timers I had the pleasure of sharing beers with swore to come back next year – and mainly for the occasion, only secondly for the bands.

WORDS BY LH

PHOTOS COURTESY OF TUSKA FESTIVAL/Timo Asoaho/Aku Axel Muukka