PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Finnish metal band Battle Beast are back with their third album with the UK release being the same day the band play London alongside Sabaton and Delain. Singer Noora Louhimo has a great voice – really powerful and perfectly suited to a traditional heavy metal style, but also capable of handling the softer parts as easily as she handles the screams. Battle beast have a sound that in the past I’d have described as traditional heavy metal, but on this new album there is a lot more variety and it’s not so easy to categorise. The keyboards play a strong part – it’s not the first time that Battle Beast have thrown in some keyboards that would sound more at home on a pop record – on the last album, “Let it roar” started off the album very much like that, but on this album they’ve taken it much further, particularly on “Touch in the night”.
Brief comments on a few tracks…
The album kicks off with “Lionheart”. It’s a song that is likely to go down well with the fans – plenty of guitars, powerful vocals and some keyboards give a great metal track.
Title track “Unholy savior” opens with a slow keyboard build up alongside some sound effects before a keyboard fanfare takes us into the main part of the song. After a short loud and heavy part things suddenly slow and it becomes more of a ballad with soft vocals but again there is more change to come and the power builds back up and the vocals take on a heavier more screaming form
“I want the world…and everything in it” is one of the heavier tracks on the album and I love it – those powerful vocals really work well with the guitars and drums giving plenty of power to the music too.
“Touch in the night” was the first song released and was certainly an unusual choice to release ahead of the album since it’s not at all typical of the album. It’s more 80s pop than metal. It’s light cheerful syth sound and the pop style vocals make it stand out from the rest of the album. Despite it not being metal I have to say there’s something about it I really enjoy. Check it out and hear it for yourself…
A couple of weeks after the release of “Touch in the night”, “Madness” was released which reassured fans that while “Touch in the night” was a radically different song to previous albums, not everything on the new album was like that, and “Madness” is certainly a song fans of the first two albums will love. – check out the video….
“Sea of dreams” is the ballad on the album. Noora’s soft vocals sound fantastic and are very different to her normal style vocals heard on the rest of the album. It’s a beautiful track and serves as a great change of pace.
This is definitely the most ambitious album from Battle Beast – there’s far more variety musically and vocally and in my opinion it’s their best album yet. Well worth a listen.
“Unholy savior” will be released on 12th January 2015
1. Lionheart
2. Unholy savior
3. I want the world…and everything in it
4. Madness
5. Sea of dreams
6. Speed and danger
7. Touch in the night
8. The black swordsman
9. Hero’s quest
10. Far far away
11. Angel cry
- 10.99
