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Review: Battle Beast - Battle Beast
Battle Beast
battlebeast.fi
Battle Beast

Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Year released: 2013
Duration: 49:14
Tracks: 11
Genre: Heavy/Power Metal

Rating:
4/5


Review online: January 25, 2014
Reviewed by: MetalMike
Readers' Rating
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Rated 4.3/5 (86.04%) (53 Votes)
Review

As usual, I'm late to the party so Battle Beast's second album, Battle Beast, is my first go-round with these Finnish phenoms. Steel, the band's debut, got a lot of love here at The Metal Crypt but I never got around to checking out. Color me the fool. Anyway, I'm atoning for my sin quite nicely with Battle Beast, an album chock full of chugging riffs, squealing solos, killer vocals and more than a few Power Metal tendencies. New singer Noora Louhimo sets about, from the chorus of opening track "Let it Roar," standing up with, and maybe a little in front of, other female luminaries like Marta Gabriel and Ida Haukland. While she can definitely sing (as the verses on "Out on the Streets" prove) she is more often heard rending the living shit out of her vocal chords with a vicious, yet understandable, growl that would have Udo Dirkschneider offering her a throat lozenge. Battle Beast make expert use of the male backing vocal chorus and that gives songs like "Neuromancer" and "Over the Top" a definite resemblance to Accept. Many of the songs are mid-paced and while I generally feel like faster is better, it isn't the case here. The songs take their time steamrolling over you. Most of the songs are in the Accept vein but there are a few that have a more polished sound, with keyboards and even electronic drums. Songs like the aforementioned "Out on the Streets" and "Into the Heart of Danger," a "ballad" if you will, bring to mind Alice Cooper's "Roses on White Lace" (from 1987's Raise Your Fist and Yell), when Kane Roberts was melting the fret board. The combination of melody and speedy, proto-Power Metal is a heady mixture, indeed.

Battle Beast is not out to change the world on their second album, but they are out to play flat-out kick ass Heavy Metal. Battle Beast spills over with riffs, solos and catchy choruses that will have you singing and air-playing along in short order. 100% guilty fun, so grab a copy and enjoy.

More about Battle Beast...
Review: Battle Beast (reviewed by Luxi Lahtinen)
Review: Battle Beast (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Bringer of Pain (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Circus of Doom (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: No More Hollywood Endings (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: Steel (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Unholy Savior (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Unholy Savior (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Interview with guitarist Anton Kabanen and bassist Eero Sipilä on July 18, 2014 (Interviewed by Luxi Lahtinen)
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