Battle Beast – Battle Beast

Battle Beast – Battle Beast

Band: Battle Beast
Album: Battle Beast
Record Label: Nuclear Blast
Release Date: 20th May 2013
Reviewed By: Mark
Track List:

  1. Let It Roar
  2. Out Of Control
  3. Out On The Streets
  4. Neuromancer
  5. Raven
  6. Into The Heart Of Danger
  7. Machine Revolution
  8. Golden Age
  9. Kingdom
10. Over The Top
11. Kill Fight Die
12. Black Ninja
13. Rain Man
 

Standout Tracks – “Let It Roar”, “Out of Control”, “Raven”

BATTLE BEAST hail from Finland and Nuclear Blast have just released their second album ‘Battle Beast’, now BATTLE BEASTs debut album (Steel) supposedly caused quite a stir when it was released and after looking up some reviews (and their bio) say they play traditional metal (with I am guessing at a hint of power metal as that is what bands seem to do nowadays). Also I remembered that BATTLE BEAST were meant to have a hot female lead singer that wasn’t a gimmick as some bands do, however original singer (Nitte Valo) has left and been replaced by Noora Louhimo (if you wanted to know they are both easy on the eye).

So I pressed play to see what BATTLE BEAST bring to the metal world, “Let it Roar” gave me some hope that this album will be quite good. Noora acquits herself quite well and her vocal range is very respectable and her voice goes well with the male voice, this reminds me of bands like JUDAS PRIEST, PRIMAL FEAR, ACCEPT etc. So by now I am getting quite excited by this album, however I wont drag this review out by going through song by song etc, however all I will say is that it gets worse and worse as it goes on. It is still a listenable album, but more as background noise which is quite a shame really.

So how does it all go so wrong for BATTLE BEAST? Well the main point is that the keyboards are overused on the album and they overshadow the guitars. The most sore point is that the guitars are abandoned for some riffs and they use the keyboard instead (ala CHILDREN OF BODOM), I understand doing this if your guitarists are rubbish. However when the guitarists are given the opportunity to shine they do it extremely well and the solos are over the top and exaggerated in true metal style, so I’m confused as to why they have let the keyboards dominate. Some songs verge on the edge of bubbly, happy go lucky commercial pop metal/rock, the kind of crap some yuppie who has never listened to metal thinks it should sound like…!!! (blood is boiling by now). Also the male back up vocalist (I think it is Anton Kabanen) on “Let It Roar” has an amazing voice, but he isn’t used again and the other male bands members are used instead and their voices aren’t as good…

BATTLE BEASTs first few songs on this album are quite good and it seems like they have written half an album and then couldn’t be bothered with the rest of the album. Some of the songs have sing along choruses but most aren’t memorable and the last song has what am positive is the same chorus as “Raven” but with the lyric Raven replaced with Rain Man…oh how original…!!! Also some of the lyrics are very cheesy (and not in a good way) and very laughable, listen to the song “Black Ninja” or “Fight Kill Die”. A shining light on this album though is vocalist Noora Louhimo who stands out and shows what she can do…its very a powerful voice she has.

Is this worth a purchase? Not in my opinion unless you absolutely love cheesy Euro-Power pop tinged Metal, however if you do then I am quite certain that there are a hundred and one better bands out there already but I don’t really know! Although I’ve still been told that BATTLE BEASTs debut album ‘Steel’ is still worth a listen as it is hundred times better than ‘Battle Beast’ so I might give it a go and let you all know.

SCORE – 5.5/10