Battle Beast is a Finnish power metal band established in Helsinki in 2008. Their big breakthrough came by participating in the international Wacken Metal Battle in 2010, competing against thousands of bands from all around the world. They got through to the finals, which were held live on stage at the famed Wacken metal festival in Germany, in front of some 80,000 fans. They didn’t just do well – the won the whole thing! This gave the band intense media exposure, a record deal, and a real kick-start to their career.
Twelve years later, the band have just released their sixth album Circus of Doom. They are well and truly established as one of the more popular bands in their genre.
Battle Beast play European power metal with a blend of keyboard-steeped 1980s pop, post-disco and new wave influences, blending intense metal arrangements with highly melodic passages, percussive drumming, and catchy melodies. The band is made up by Joona Björkroth (guitar), Juuso Soinio (guitar), Eero Sipilä (bass), Janne Björkroth (keyboards), Pyry Vikki (drums), and… that amazing voice.
While the band is rock solid, they have one of the most remarkable voices and best frontwoman rolled into one. Noora Louhimo has incredible range as well as an intense delivery, full of power, fire, and grit. And seeing her Battle Beast persona on stage is also something else!
Circus of Doom is an amazing album – easily one of the albums I have spun most frequently so far this year. I have honestly enjoyed all of their albums, so to me it’s not a return to form as such, but the band had a tendency on recent albums to focus more on the melodic and catchy 1980s side of things. On Circus of Doom, the band has returned to their former emphasis on metal and bombast – possibly more so than on any other album since their self-titled 2013 release. Many have missed that side of the band, and the move feels very natural and like a step in the right direction.
The title track opens the album, showing a band keen to stretch their wings and make a musical statement. Starting with the tones of an eerie music box, Circus of Doom quickly establishes itself as a symphonic metal track with choirs and classical instruments adding layers on top of their metal sound. Easily the most ambitious track on the album, it is glorious in its pomp and circumstance and an amazing opener.
Just to prove that the band hasn’t totally changed, the more well-known melodic hooks and poppier elements come to the fore on the follow-up track Wings of Light. Battle Beast have always excelled at walking the fine line between these two worlds, putting down a slamming metal backing track while also making sure it is full of hooks and catchy elements.
In many ways, what Battle Beast is doing is not too dissimilar from what bands like The Night Flight Orchestra is doing in terms of bringing on board 1980s/vintage melodic elements. The inspirations frequently come from a similar place, but in the case of Battle Beast, these elements are combined with a modern metal approach rather than going all-in on the 1980s sound. Those elements inspire the sound, they do not dictate it.
Songs like these are pure vocal showcases for Noora Louhimo, who is the total package as a vocalist. She has an octave-spanning whirlwind of a voice, frequently projecting intense power with a vibrato capable of shaking the foundations. There is also a great emotional register. She can be tender and emotional, or she can be fiercer than a hundred angry grandmas. She can sing from the lungs and she can sing from the guts. A natural performer, she lets whatever feeling she is tapping into influence both her voice and her performance.
Master of Illusion is such a song. Very theatrical and full of storytelling, it has interesting musical elements as well as the symphonic elements which make a return alongside the larger than life choir.
Where Angels Fear To Fly is a melodic gem of a song with yet another larger-than-life opening. Noora soars on this epic-sounding track, where the band is riffing away on the bottom end wile symphonic arrangements and choirs are layered above. At the peak of the song’s climax, you almost expect David Gilmour to appear on top of the imaginary mountain of speakers to play the guitar solo to end all guitar solos.
It says a lot about the album that a song like Eye of the Storm, which would have been the epic and intense one on most other band’s albums, feels like it provides time to take a breath of fresh air here. At this point in the album the sound is well and truly established, and songs like Russian Roulette and Freedom keeps up the momentum while providing hard-hitting yet very melodic and catchy metal moments.
With Noora frequently delivering gutsy performances, she usually pulls the overall presentation towards metal, even when the music pulls towards a more polished and melodic sound. Other times they switch roles. The bombast is still ever-present on both sides. It’s a beautiful marriage.
The Road To Avalon offers something a bit different. While on the surface this fits in nicely with the other songs, it does a better job of weaving a tale and providing space for the lyrical side of things. Everything is not turned up to 11 all the time. The song has a touch more ebb and flow, and sound effects like bells add a lot. An interesting tune which spins a mythological tale.
Armageddon, on the other hand, feels like Battle Beast writing a contribution for the Eurovision Song Contest (and I mean that nicely). This is super-catchy pop metal with a very memorable chorus. It sounds like an all-out 1980s disco extravaganza, complete with ABBA-style vocals combined with the pop-metal sheen of Ghost. It makes complete sense, but I can’t agree with myself whether the song is the one on the album closest to missing the mark or whether it is one of the most fun moments on the album. Perhaps it’s not work overthinking. The song does provide some needed variation, and… well, why not?
This takes us to the end of the album. Place That We Call Home brings forth chugging guitars again, along with an overall heavy arrangement. More than anything, this song ends the album on an epic note similar to how it started. Along with the opening title track, this is the only other track that feels like a genuine anthem, compete with bombast and epic arrangements. It is a glorious way to end things on. Bookending the album with these types of songs is a smart move, giving the album a sense of cohesion – or full circle element. This may or may not have been intended, but it still works.
But wait, there’s more! At least if you picked up the version of the album with two bonus tracks. The interesting thing is that if these tracks had been on the album, they would have been the heaviest tracks on offer. They are also of indisputable quality – easily superior to some of the tracks on the main album. They would also have added some variation to the sonic expression, especially in the mid-album stretch.
The first of the two, The Lightbringer, is a fierce song with emphasis on pure, bombastic metal. Gone are the 1980s pop overtures. The same is the case on Tempest of Blades, which is very much a speed metal number in the style of Helloween and Gamma Ray. The band sound incredible on both of these tunes.
The intensity of these bonus tracks will find particular favour amongst those who have been quick to dismiss Battle Beast over their flirtations with 1980s melodic rock/pop. Not only because they bring the metal in a big way, but their sheer quality independent of this is staggering. It says a lot about the band’s musical ambitions that they opted not to include any of the heaviest hitters in favour of a track like, say, Armageddon. These bonus tracks are not even added to the main disc, with the band opting to put them on a separate, second disc where they have to live out their life on their own.
At the very least these tracks are available and out there, and the fact that the band has surplus material of this quality is an extremely good sign.
To repeat myself from the intro: Circus of Doom is an amazing album. The band’s increasing focus on metal and bombast is a welcome one, as is their continued skilful combining of these elements with influences from decades past. The two bonus tracks are amongst the heaviest things they have ever done, and one has to wonder if that signals a continued development in a heavier direction in the future. In any case, said future has never looked brighter for Battle Beast.
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