Here is the follow-up to last year’s debut ‘Steel’, but in the intervening period they have brought in a new lead singer in Noora Louhimo, and blooded her by undertaking a tour supporting Sonata Artica. They are one of the bands that these guys are musically similar to, but that list can easily be extended to include groups such as Hammerfall, Children of Bodom and Nightwish with old school classic rock such as Dio very much in evidence. This is symphonic power metal that is incredibly heavy, but with a female singer who can sing like an angel when she wants to. It’s just that the mood doesn’t strike her very often. She can scream like a good ‘un, and has incredible range and power and this combined with the very melodic but very heavy backdrop makes for a very powerful combination indeed.
This is in your face, with lots of twists and turns, and loads of bombast and energy. Thirty seconds into opener “Let It Roar” and this Finnish band already had my attention. Classic rock combined with the heaviness of a band such as Children of Bodom and the melody and hooks of Nightwish means that they tick all of the musical boxes. It is extremely well produced (by the band themselves, mastering was done by Mika Jussila at Finnvox Studios) and they have some wonderful cover art (the battle beasts on this cover also appeared on the debut). Add to that the look of the band themselves who are fronted by someone who looks like a much younger version of Doro Pesch and I can’t see how these guys can fail.
This is a superb symphonic power metal album, highly recommended.
www.battlebeast.fi
