Battle Beast
Battle Beast
Nuclear Blast
2013
When I first heard about Battle Beast and heard all the pre-release hype I was curious, when I first saw a video and heard their song, “Enter The Metal World” I though, WTF, are they talking about, this is not what you are describing... this is what you wish it “were”... it’s not Warlock for instance... at best, there was a lady resembling Steve Grimmet and Blackie Lawless, singing a terribly cheesy and badly written generic sounding metal song, with a voice that reminded me of a third rate Blackie Lawless... that’s not exactly something to “fall head over heels for”…
Now I had totally forgotten about the band, but it wasn’t until this year that I saw this vid with a fetching young blond lady with a rather Doro-esque voice singing a rather catchy song and I thought wow, that’s pretty good. Imagine my surprise when I found out that it was... (drum roll) Battle Beast! My mate, who runs the store, where the video was playing, informed me that the band had gotten a new singer by the name of Noora Louhimo (that fetching blond we were talking about? With the big voice, that’d be her!) and that this was a single from their second/forthcoming album… listening to some samples, I was pretty impressed, I actually now liked the band, quite a bit... by changing the singer, the had a win-win situation for me… both with getting a superior singer but also a more attractive front-woman (not that looks are the penultimate thing, but she’s got the sort of looks that are quite “fatale”)…
But enough on the Cosmopolitan side of things … let’s check out the album – the real test of what the band has been doing with their “Metal Barbie Girl”...in the studio…
“Let It Roar” opens slowly and would be an ideal a-rousing opener if not for the horrible idea to have some horrible male “4th rate” screechy, wannabe UDO, more like Bullet, vocals... that sound like oh well for lack of a better description “Shitty”.
“Out of Control” contrasts some nice catchy keyboard theme with some sharp biting guitar theme and some sensuous female vocals with some harsher ones that bring to mind Doro without the German accent and there are some “gang”/chorus type of vocals ala Accept that also make the choruses even better. Another keeper!
“Out on the Streets” begins with some cheesy keyboards and some 80s sort of guitars, and then has a very 80s pop-rock chorus that's just golden. More or less, what was true about the previous song is true here as well. There’s also a freaking cool solo around 1:30 that’s well worth listening to.
And the hits don’t stop as the disco-metal of “Neuromancer” just makes its impressive entrance. With a typical disco-beat, vocoders and even a robotic voice, it’s as moroderish as 1986, but it’s kinda cool in a retro way...
“Raven” is faster and meaner and leathery and marks the return of the “male” backing vocalist, which I am not terribly fond of. Also the blackbird, is the first song, that is not “that” impressive, it’s good... but…
“Into the Heart of Danger” is a very slow and paced song, that marched to its own “drum-beat” and is quite interesting as it changes the mood and the flow of the album by being placed here... again it’s OK, probably a tad better than “Raven” I suppose...
“Machine Revolution” however, with its “almost AOR” keys and hollow drum sounds to match sounds too wimpy and is rather boring, altogether, with the exception of a nice guitar lead and some backing rhythm before the crescendo of the track...
“Golden Age” is a short mellow instrumental that sounds almost pastoral and medieval inspired... leading straight to the...
“Kingdom” is a fast and staccato, song with furious vocal delivery and some quite “white metal” lyrics... as it begins quite furiously there’s a quite intricate mid-section with some impressive soloing and then more or less a stronger almost celebratory reprisal of the original melodies… impressive.
“Over the Top” is then a somewhat “wo-Manowar” like type of little number with a wimpy little chunky riffy getting repeated – but it’s like latter day Manowar… so you get the picture... not bad…. but not exactly, Valhalla, either…
“Fight, Kill, Die” now – this song – has more Manowar trademarked words than I care to point a sword at, in a random order, but it’s not too bad… I’d even be tempted to say that it might be even a little better than Manowar’s lame “Hail, Kill & Die”... being a little more ferocious and all… haha...
bah… bested by a girl boys…. bah bah bah….
“Black Ninja”... is probably the best song on the album... a bit of a daft anthem – about a female assasin… (?!?!) but it has a cool riff and a cooler chorus, so there you have it. Ms Noora, really, sings it like she means to stick a katana in parts of your anatomy where it would hurt (I suppose – anywhere would) so sharp are her vocals… like blades! Awesome and it’s no wonder that this came out as the first single and video as well.
Finally “Rain Man” closes the album, with the return of my beloved “screamo-dude” in fact doing the choruses, thus, making the otherwise not too bad mid-tempo rocker, a little harder to like...
All in all... Battle Beast’s sophomore album takes a band from shit and for me puts them a step before becoming quite “big”... with some pretty catchy songs... if they would make the “scream-boy”, thicken up or shut up, add more guitars and keep the keyboards at bay and keep Ms Noora where she is... I am guessing they could do really well! Beast On!
Now I had totally forgotten about the band, but it wasn’t until this year that I saw this vid with a fetching young blond lady with a rather Doro-esque voice singing a rather catchy song and I thought wow, that’s pretty good. Imagine my surprise when I found out that it was... (drum roll) Battle Beast! My mate, who runs the store, where the video was playing, informed me that the band had gotten a new singer by the name of Noora Louhimo (that fetching blond we were talking about? With the big voice, that’d be her!) and that this was a single from their second/forthcoming album… listening to some samples, I was pretty impressed, I actually now liked the band, quite a bit... by changing the singer, the had a win-win situation for me… both with getting a superior singer but also a more attractive front-woman (not that looks are the penultimate thing, but she’s got the sort of looks that are quite “fatale”)…
But enough on the Cosmopolitan side of things … let’s check out the album – the real test of what the band has been doing with their “Metal Barbie Girl”...in the studio…
“Let It Roar” opens slowly and would be an ideal a-rousing opener if not for the horrible idea to have some horrible male “4th rate” screechy, wannabe UDO, more like Bullet, vocals... that sound like oh well for lack of a better description “Shitty”.
“Out of Control” contrasts some nice catchy keyboard theme with some sharp biting guitar theme and some sensuous female vocals with some harsher ones that bring to mind Doro without the German accent and there are some “gang”/chorus type of vocals ala Accept that also make the choruses even better. Another keeper!
“Out on the Streets” begins with some cheesy keyboards and some 80s sort of guitars, and then has a very 80s pop-rock chorus that's just golden. More or less, what was true about the previous song is true here as well. There’s also a freaking cool solo around 1:30 that’s well worth listening to.
And the hits don’t stop as the disco-metal of “Neuromancer” just makes its impressive entrance. With a typical disco-beat, vocoders and even a robotic voice, it’s as moroderish as 1986, but it’s kinda cool in a retro way...
“Raven” is faster and meaner and leathery and marks the return of the “male” backing vocalist, which I am not terribly fond of. Also the blackbird, is the first song, that is not “that” impressive, it’s good... but…
“Into the Heart of Danger” is a very slow and paced song, that marched to its own “drum-beat” and is quite interesting as it changes the mood and the flow of the album by being placed here... again it’s OK, probably a tad better than “Raven” I suppose...
“Machine Revolution” however, with its “almost AOR” keys and hollow drum sounds to match sounds too wimpy and is rather boring, altogether, with the exception of a nice guitar lead and some backing rhythm before the crescendo of the track...
“Golden Age” is a short mellow instrumental that sounds almost pastoral and medieval inspired... leading straight to the...
“Kingdom” is a fast and staccato, song with furious vocal delivery and some quite “white metal” lyrics... as it begins quite furiously there’s a quite intricate mid-section with some impressive soloing and then more or less a stronger almost celebratory reprisal of the original melodies… impressive.
“Over the Top” is then a somewhat “wo-Manowar” like type of little number with a wimpy little chunky riffy getting repeated – but it’s like latter day Manowar… so you get the picture... not bad…. but not exactly, Valhalla, either…
“Fight, Kill, Die” now – this song – has more Manowar trademarked words than I care to point a sword at, in a random order, but it’s not too bad… I’d even be tempted to say that it might be even a little better than Manowar’s lame “Hail, Kill & Die”... being a little more ferocious and all… haha...
bah… bested by a girl boys…. bah bah bah….
“Black Ninja”... is probably the best song on the album... a bit of a daft anthem – about a female assasin… (?!?!) but it has a cool riff and a cooler chorus, so there you have it. Ms Noora, really, sings it like she means to stick a katana in parts of your anatomy where it would hurt (I suppose – anywhere would) so sharp are her vocals… like blades! Awesome and it’s no wonder that this came out as the first single and video as well.
Finally “Rain Man” closes the album, with the return of my beloved “screamo-dude” in fact doing the choruses, thus, making the otherwise not too bad mid-tempo rocker, a little harder to like...
All in all... Battle Beast’s sophomore album takes a band from shit and for me puts them a step before becoming quite “big”... with some pretty catchy songs... if they would make the “scream-boy”, thicken up or shut up, add more guitars and keep the keyboards at bay and keep Ms Noora where she is... I am guessing they could do really well! Beast On!