Tuska Open Air Metal Festival, day one (Ziltoid)

Saturday:

*FM2000 - An interesting combination of furious metal and old time traditional Finnish music, the Finnish version of System of a Down isn't a very bad comparison. Lots of youngsters in the audience, going crazy, dancing, moshing, something I don't seem to be so much into anymore now that I'm old and tired with my whopping 24 years  Good show, but the two tricks they had got a bit tiring.

*Devin Townsend Project - Epic, massive, f**king brilliant. Perhaps the best of the year so far. I can't even begin to imagine how much I would have enjoyed it if I'd known more of his solo material from before. Stuff like Earth Day and Seventh Wave were so great on first hearing that immediately after the show I went to a record store tent and bought a couple of his older albums. Devin is a perfect combination of funny showmanship, serious music and sheer professional perfection.

I don't think I really watched any other shows that day as Mastodon cancelled. Hung out with friends mostly, with Kamelot and Nevermore blasting in the background. Didn't make the least bit of impression, the singer of the latter especially was one phlegmatic bore.

Sunday:

*W.A.S.P. - I've never listened to them apart from I Wanna Be Somebody, so my surprise was huge when they turned out to be the second, well, third best thing of the festival after the Devin shows. Great good time rock anthems, fantastic stage presence (too bad I was away taking a piss when the guitarist tumbled over during a long solo, I was told it was a funny sight and sound) and Blackie's voice was really really good. Here's a band whose albums I must get to know some day, at least the classics.

*Cannibal Corpse - A perfect 180 degrees from Devin, who did his last guitar solo on Saturday with his pants down trying to chase down his stage manager or somebody. Brutal music played by brutal guys with no wink whatsoever in their eyes. A song or two of this stuff is fine, but a 45 minute show I can't take so well. But the moshpit seemed huge and people were having a good time. Not my cup of tea in portions this large.

*Megadeth - The songs were good, the band was tight, the sound was great. But Dave Mustaine's voice was absolutely horrible. Some of the clean parts sounded really painful when he was just trying to make any kind of sound come from his throat. It did some serious damage to the songs. This combined with the fatigue of three days of metal made me leave before the set was over. Hopefully he has a chance to let his voice rest, it was really that bad.

I'll look into the other threads to.

A slight compensation came right after I finally made my way into the area, when Barren Earth's guitarist Janne Perttil� came staggering by and drunkenly complimented by Bruce Dickinson Europe 2002 shirt. He was gone before I understood who it was so I didn't have the chance to tell him how much I liked their album, but he probably wouldn't have understood anyway in that state. After meeting up with a bunch of friends, they too in various states of drunkenness, and my fianc�e, it was already time for the main event: The world premiere of Devin Townsend's Ziltoid the Omnicient.

After a long series of hilarious opening videos (who or what the hell is Meatball? ) showcasing the unique Devin sense of humour the man with his three man backing band hit the stage. "My name is Devin f**kin Townsend! Let's f**king do this!" This event was the first time ever that he had played any of the Ziltoid stuff live (perhaps excluding Hyperdrive, which is also featured on the DTP album Addicted) and he was clearly excited and enjoying every moment. It was in a way a very faithful reproduction of the album, all the songs were played very much like the recorded versions, with the help of pre-recorded backing tracks, and most of the Ziltoid monologue parts were shown on the video screen. But there was a lot of sweet surprises as well, among which were an Eddie-like visit from Ziltoid himself, a guitar solo and insult duel between Devin and the on-screen Ziltoid (Here's Ziltoid's mighty axe), an intermission with the Ziltoid-Eddie serving coffee and Testament's Chuck Billy appearing as Planet Smasher. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Billy's definitely got one of the most massively powerful metal voices around. Two extra tracks were also played, which I didn't recognize at the moment but later learnt that they were Kingdom from the Physicist album and brilliantly closing the show was Deep Peace from Terria.

I was watching the show a few meters before the mixing booth, and the sound was most of the time very good, but sometimes the backing tracks were drowned under the band, which resulted in a loss of some vital melodies. If I hadn't heard the album it could've felt pretty thin, but luckily I was able to imagine the barely audible parts around the ones I actually heard. Despite this and the eternal curse of all Finnish summer outdoor shows, the sunlight making any light show invisible, it was a hugely enjoyable performance and a very special occasion to be a part of. I think Devin said during the show that it was the first Ziltoid show of many to come, so perhaps you'll get so see it too.

Now it's the second day, the first bands are already playing and I'm still at home. Should leave perhaps...