Saturday, June 12th

Whilst Doom Unit, Suburban Tribe and Germany’s Grave Digger were playing, I was just waking up in the gutter. With East-European magicians (they make shit disappear!) anxiously prowling my body like vultures, I gnawed myself back to life before I was to lose my other liver and the valued press pass, that I clenched with my fist. Also, the rain had weakened, but the wind… the wind was still there. Oh, and speaking of the press pass, examining it further made me wonder if I had missed something: The paper seemed to indicate that I was writing for a pornographic magazine. “Teet of Divine”. Has a nice ring to it.

Saturday seemed to be dedicated to Finland, with all but two bands coming from the woods nearby. I dragged my numb body to the festival area, just in time for Finnish hard rockers Peer Günt. There’d been some changes to the line-up since the last time I had seen the legendary band on stage. If the musicality of the show was anything to go by, the changes have been for the better as the band looked concentrated (read: sober) to bring out the rock – which they did.

STAM1NA showcasing whirlwind fighting tactics.

Stam1na was presented with a golden record (10k copies sold) for their album Viimeinen Atlantis on the main stage, where they moments before had rocked it out blasting songs from pretty much all of their albums. An energetic performance, but that’s to be expected from one of the most popular and hardworking metal bands in Finland. Too bad the two latest albums haven’t really touched me in any particular way.

POISONBLACK! See! I saw ’em! I has the proof!

On the smaller stage, Poisonblack quieted things down a bit. Truth to be told, I remember watching the band perform but for some reason, I can’t muster up anything to say about them. So, perhaps by mentioning Sentenced, I’ll generate a few more hits to the site. There!

AMORPHIS’ Tomi Joutsen goes ‘Ooomph!’

Like Tarot, Amorphis too has become quite a common commodity at Finnish festivals. With Tomi Joutsen at the helm, the band does seem rejuvenated but at the same time a bit too safe. Not surprisingly, Joutsen-era songs were getting the majority of attention. A good show; nothing less, and definitely nothing more, either. I don’t think I’ve heard the new line-up perform any songs off Tuonela ever. They should. It’s an underrated album.

Super-cover-group HAIL! were responsible for the biggest surprise of the festival. With Tim “Ripper” Owens, Andreas Kisser, Paul Bostaph and James Lorenzo in bass (who had stepped in to replace the now-departed Paul Grey), there’s no doubt it was going to be good, but HAIL! were still able to exceed the premise.

Songs from Sepultura, Motörhead, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden were granted, but what was a nice surprise was the amount of Dio-related stuff in the set. The show wasn’t without its shenanigans, as Death Angel’s Mark Osegueda and Rob Cavestany appeared on stage to do Kiss’ “Gold Gin” and Marco Hietala botched up some of the lyrics in Black Sabbath’s “Neon Knights”. Some of the in-between jokes included a debate about soccer, I mean, football, that earned an evil eye from Andreas.

Abuse that guitar, Andreas Kisser!

Overall, the set was basically a hit after another – hardly a bad way to spend an hour, especially when everyone, the band and the audience, were having hell of a time. It’s a shame Ripper has been a mercenary most of his career, as the guy is truly a grade-A entertainer as are the rest. Especially Lorenzo’s bass playing deserves an extra notion.

At this point, I was pretty much done, but being the good trooper that I am, decided to stick around for Saturday’s fin-n-isher, Sonata Arctica. I tried to figure out if the band had become so big as to warrant the headline spot, but based on the amount of people standing in front of the stage, it seems so. The band took stage one by one, everyone sporting a white shirt before giving the audience the white, melodic, spunk they’d been awaiting for.

When I first saw the band live around 2002, singer Tony Kakko sucked vocally on stage. In 2010, however, the guy seems to have gotten a lot better and the guy’s a decent of a yodeler as well. A bit of unintentional humor was introduced at one point, when the singer forgot some words and began to snicker uncontrollably. Sonata Arctica seemed like they were enjoying themselves, playing all good-natured and shit. Especially Kakko, who seemed to have taken a few too many cups of coffee. Overall, the show seemed to be on the safe side. Yet, thumbs up to the band for not taking things too seriously.

Tony Kakko dropped by.

After the band played “8^th Commandment” from their debut album Ecliptica (the only Sonata album I care for. Mmm. Cheese), I was finally content. Well, I had been but at that point I figured I’d done enough. I grabbed my shit, went past the toilets, the second stage and the beer stands without looking back. Lazily venturing deeper into the heart of Tampere. To give myself closure, I later found myself munching a McDonald’s meal. I wish I hadn’t.

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