Battle Beast - Unholy Savior

In January of 2015 I did a review for Battle Beast’s song “Madness.” I chose to talk about “Madness” because it was the fresh new single that had just been released by Battle Beast at the time, and it was also my first exposure to the band. I had a lot of raw feelings of excitement to express, which typically leads itself to some meaningful commentary.

At the time I wrote my mediocre impression, but highly enjoyable experience, listening to the band; I wrote: “The guitar solo is not going to win any awards but is serviceable. The rhythm sections is solid and heavy but nothing world breaking.” I had not listened to their second album (self titled) yet, I had not listened to the newly released “Unholy Savior” yet, so I did not know.

I did not know, how freaking badass everything about Battle Beast was. “Madness” is a very fun song, but it possesses a touch silliness with the questionable English, and the obvious attempt at being demon warrior hardcore metal. It is a good song, a very good metal song, but, it is not Battle Beast’s best, in fact it pales in comparison to the title track from “Unholy Savior.”

I did not know.

The self titled album blew me away after I finally got my hands on it and listened to it in full. “Let if Roar,” “Out of Control,” “Into the Heart of Danger,” and “Machine Revolution” are all amazing metal songs, each one of them make me want to go on an epic journey to fight demons and robots, and despite however much I love the “Battle Beast” album, I am only so confident in saying that it is slightly superior to their third album “Unholy Savior.” The only reason I am so torn, is the strength of the title track “Unholy Savior.”

Had I known just how perfect “Unholy Savior” is as a song, I would have skipped over “Madness” and gotten right to the point; “Unholy Savior” very good album, but the title track is a mind blowing awesome song.

I have often written about the ebbs and flows of music intensity. Low valleys make for more dramatic heights. Soft moments in the metal song make the furious moments all the more meaningful. Balance is the key, and “Unholy Savior” is a perfect example of rising action, climax, rest and second climax. Exactly the story structure I most enjoy.

The intro; the hum of the keyboards, the sound of a toiling bell, a quiet scream, a muffled roar, and then drums and guitar blast together. The machine gun drums burst out in well paced bits, jumping out every time they are needed and silent when they are not. Another valley, the first verse, where we take in all the dark words by singer Noora Louhimo.

The volume of everything increases on the first chorus, but things slow a little for the second verse. This second verse is noticeably more aggressive than the previous, not eclipsing the rage of the chorus, but the drama has heightened.

The chorus hits a second time, no louder than the first time, but it stays with us longer, and leads us to the guitar solo.

Then everything drops off and we get this sad little poem:

“I'm a shadow in the corner,
Begging to be found.
Suffering in silence,
As the world spins round and round.”

Than one last time, the chorus hits, only with greater fury than before. Like an explosion of unbridled wraith is let loose when Noora sings and the bands erupts in violence metal music.

“Unholy savior awakens within.
Salvation in disguise,
The undreaming darkness,
A graven image, a hero to some,
Destroyer, cold as death,
The slayer of hearts.

Unholy savior, forever to be.
Salvation in disguise.
The undreaming darkness.

Salvation in disguise.”

It might be easy to handwave away “Unholy Savior” as a song about the devil, which would fit in nicely with my musical tastes, however I think this song is more universal than that. Battle Beast is a metal band in love with fantasy, it comes up in many of their songs, and they have an obvious fondness and the darker elementals of that genre. It is possible the “Unholy Savior” refers to a specific anti-hero in a fantasy story I cannot at this time pinpoint, or as I suspect, it is probably generic, to all dark heroes from all possible tales of fantasy adventure.

I love everything about “Unholy Savior.” It was possibly my favorite song of 2015.

- King of Braves

Battle Beast - Madness

I really like Nuclear Blast. It is the only record label on youtube.com. I follow. At first it was the obvious place to go to keep on news on bands like Blind Guardian, Edguy and Sabaton, but it is has also proven to be a great way for me to discover bands and songs I would not have heard otherwise; speaking of which, Battle Beast.

In December Battle Beast released their first official video for their third album “Unholy Savior” and the song is “Madness.”

“My name is madness,
And I’m the light you need,
In darkness,
You can’t escape from me,
Cause I’m madness,
And I will tear your soul apart.”

Yeah that rocks.

This is my first exposure Battle Beast and I am impressed. I am very confident the grungier, angrier, more “brutal” metal fans may consider Battle Beast a pop sort of metal, but I have no time for such pretension, this song rocks. The guitar solo is not going to win any awards but is serviceable. The rhythm sections is solid and heavy but nothing world breaking. Everything is good, but what might make Battle Beast truly special is the front woman, Noora Louhimo. She just sings her ass off.

Noora Louhimo

There is intensity from Noora’s singing that we have come to expect from metal but we rarely see from female singers. Most notable female lead singers have been operatic in their vocal approach, and I love that, and those that have taken to the hard angry shouting/singing have been mostly male. Noora nails the shouting angry lead singer thing; in fact I think she is one of the best I have ever heard, and this spice of life and energy really shows off the importance of a strong front person.

Battle Beast kind of remind me of Warlock only with more energy, which is saying something since Warlock was fairly energetic power metal band. Hey does anyone else remember Warlock? Because I do.

The new album “Unholy Savior” is coming out January twenty-seventh of this year, and enough goodwill has been earned by the song “Madness” to convince me to pick up the album. I also intend to pick up their second album, the self titled “Battle Beast,” when I make my amazon purchase because I also really like the song “Out of Control.” To me it is a little crazy but apparently the first Battle Beast album had a different female lead singer, Nitte Valo. Now obviously I am just learning about this band for the first time so it is not as if I have much knowledge about the topic, but it is hard to imagine this band existing without Noora. After listening to some tracks from Battle Beast’s first album it is impossible to deny that Nitte was also fantastic, but, even with limited knowledge on the subject at hand I am already partial to Noora and I love the addition she makes.

Out of Control

Browsing over Battle Beast’s songs I could not help but notice the reoccurring theme of, wait for it, madness.

I mean clearly the song “Madness” is about madness, and that is great fun, but it also comes up in “Out of Control” with the opening line “Welcome to my kingdom madness,” and the chorus makes reference to fighting a madman, as well as “defying the gods of hell” which is just such a bad ass thing to say, makes me want to go slay demons. The other released track from “Unholy Savior” thus far is “Touch in the Night” and it has the line:

“Here I am in the dark chained to demise and agony,
Madness is creeping in,
'Cause what I see cannot be real,
Or can it?”

So maybe insanity will be the primary subject matter for this power metal band, that will be fun, also it might make “Madness” a potential flagship song. Also insanity can fit in well with the band’s other reoccurring themes, such as, dark adventure and fighting demons and machines; basically pure fun. Battle Beast is pure fun. Listen to the new track “Madness” and hear for yourself, great fun is upon you, all you have to do is listen.

It looks like Finland has done it again. They really know how to rock out in Scandinavia. It just seems like all the metal I enjoy nowadays comes from central Europe and lucky for me there is so much of it.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- King of Braves