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Battle Beast: Battle beast
03/10/13 || Habakuk
Alright, so these folks won a Wacken competition a few years back? No wonder I never heard of them. I harbor a deep mistrust against everything that bears that sort of commercialized touch in metal. Keep your fucking television competition decomposition bullshit, thank you very much. I want ugly fuckers wrecking shit in basements.
You know, with a “let’s invest more money” approach, the awesomeness of 80s Heavy Metal doesn’t quite transport into modern times. It doesn’t do so with Thrash or Death either, but that’s not the subject here. Battle Beast play Heavy Metal, we can agree on as much. So, many pitfalls await them as they nuclear blast their way into the metal spotlight, but they seem to avoid them all. Except for one, which they master: They jump head first in the spiked cheddar pit and devour it joyously, stalagmite for stalagmite.
Other usual problems like shit songwriting or terrible vocals are elegantly circumvented, the most striking example for that being in the vocal department. The recipe for win here is brilliant in its simplicity, but it also sounds easier than it actually is: putting a woman upfront. Has that ever worked?
Well, she sounds like Rob Halford, but manlier. As in, for real. And just so you know, I can hardly stand any falsetto dudes in modern bands anymore. This girl obviously has a somewhat more natural way of doing high vocals, plus her raspy second tone – where most women singers fail – works as well. So, surprisingly enough, in some weird-ass way this material is precisely walking the thin line of awesomeness. And those brilliant choruses (Raveeeen) get me time after time.
Another typical feature the songs boast is that unashamed use of (often synthesized) super catchy melodies backed by stompy 4/4 rhythms that only works if you’re Finnish. They are, and behold: it works. Which has the positive side effect that there is no room for the obligatory cheesefest ballad. That’s right, NO BALLAD. Instead, Duke Nukem & Ninja movie soundbits!
Yeah, who would have guessed – look at the songtitles. “Over the top”? “Black Ninja”? “Rain Man”??? Can somebody turn off the imdb 80s filter? “Machine Revolution”? “Neuromancer”? “Fight, Kill, Die”? Read those song titles to me without telling me the band and I’ll walk out of the room and return with a hatchet. Yet Battle Beast miraculously soothe their equivalent in me. Damn you, Finland. Damn you and your bullshit.
- Information
- Released: 2013
- Label: Nuclear Blast Records
- Website: www.battlebeast.fi
- Band
- Noora Louhimo: vocals
- Eero Sipilä: vocals, bass
- Anton Kabanen: guitars, vocals
- Juuso Soinio: guitars
- Pyry Vikki: drums
- Janne Björkroth: keyboards
- Tracklist
- 01. Let it roar
- 02. Out of control
- 03. Out on the streets
- 04. Neuromancer
- 05. Raven
- 06. Into the heart of danger
- 07. Machine revolution
- 08. Golden age
- 09. Kingdom
- 10. Over the top
- 11. Fight, kill, die
- 12. Black ninja
- 13. Rain man
