Label : Nuclear Blast Records
Review by Tony Cannella
You like true heavy metal? If bands like Manowar, Crystal Viper, Holy Hell, Zed Yago and Accept are your speed, than this band is must-listen metal. They are Finland’s Battle Beast and they have just released their excellent, gloriously over-the-top heavy metal debut “Steel”. To put it quite simply, “Steel” is an album will not relent. It just keeps hitting you over the head with loud, heavy guitar riffs and all things heavy metal. The opener “Enter the Metal World” is great and a perfect introduction to Battle Beast. Just by looking at the song titles, you can pretty much tell what this band is all about and where their inspiration lies. “Armageddon Clan” is next and is quite simply phenomenal. Is that Udo Dirkschneider on male vocals? No it isn’t it’s one of the other members of the band (not sure which one, sorry) but he does sound a lot like Udo to go along with Nitte Valo’s vocals that remind me – at times – of Jutta Weinhold from the criminally underrated band Zed Yago. “The Band of the Hawk” is next and features some tempo changes and a catchy and memorable as all hell choruses, that reminds me of Accept in their “Restless & Wild” glory days. Nope, there is no let up with this song either. “Justice and Metal” is next and starts off with a bit of Uriah Heep vibe maybe? All be it, much faster and heavier. This song is just a straight-forward, head banging heavy metal anthem. The opening riff to the next track “Steel” has a bit of a similarity to “Balls to the Walls”.This is another great anthemic track which the band does very well. Battle Beast is not just a group of people living out their heavy metal fantasies. The songs on “Steel” are good and musically well played. Just check out the songs: “Die Hard Warrior”, “Cyberspace” and the excellent “Savage and Saint” which starts off as a ballad before bringing back the metal half way through and vocalist Nitte Valo offers her most passionate vocal performance. I really grew to love the directness of Nitte’s vocals. Her vocals are just pure in your face metal vocals. The final track “Victory” ends “Steel” as it began in a blazing glory of heavy metal thunder. Battle Beast will surely not appeal to everyone, but there is always a fan base out there for a heavy metal band like Battle Beast. There is no doubt that they sound like they could have existed in another era, but that doesn’t make them irrelevant today. On “Steel” Battle Beast proudly and loudly flies the flag for heavy metal and in the process has released a damn good debut.
Rating – 95/100
Tracklist
- Enter the Metal World
- Armageddon Clan
- The Band of the Hawk
- Justice and Metal
- Steel
- Die-Hard Warrior
- Cyberspace
- Show Me How to Die
- Savage and Saint
- Iron Hand
- Victory
Line Up
- Nitte Valo – Vocals
- Anton Kabanen – Guitar & Vocals
- Juuso Soinio – Guitar
- Eero Sipila – Bass & Vocals
- Janne Bjorkroth – Keyboards & Vocals
- Pyri Vikki – Drums
Links