New Beast in Black album came out this year called “Dark Connection.” This is so new in fact it looks like they just released the rest of the album literally two days ago, so I have very necessary European metal to listen to after and while I write this. Unlike last review’s Ronnie Atkin’s new album, I did not need to click instantly as soon as I saw new Beast in Black in my recommendation feed, because this time it just auto played on its own without any action taken by me. Thank you, algorithm you did good this time… this time.
So, I am at one of my jobs (the one with an office) and I am listening to music while I work, as you do, then, as explained, the algorithm auto-plays “Moonlight Rendezvous” and the first thing I hear is this:
"Huh, yeah, that's right I'm a monster.
I'm the monster society created.
I'm the thing they blame for recession and social problems.
I'm the scapegoat.
If humans don't want me, why did they make me?"
I pause, and I think to myself “I know this.”
Bear in mind at this point I do not even know what I am listening to, and I am busy enough that I do not check. I know it is Beast in Black. I would recognize Yannis Papadopoulos’s voice anywhere. However, that was the extent of my thoughts at that moment, I needed to complete some month-end financial reports.
But I knew that intro bit from somewhere.
“Moonlight Rendezvous” plays again later that same day, now I see the cover art with the redhead and everything, and that opener plays again, and I know it from somewhere. I could not place it, I had to google it, it is from the English dub of “Armitage III.” I saw “Armitage III” when I was a teenager, I rented the VHS tape from the video store. What I remember most was that Kiefer Sutherland voiced the male lead. Bryan Cranston was in it too, but I do not remember him being in it, but he did a fair amount of voice work back then.
Anime again; interesting Beast in Black.
While I do not remember “Armitage III” all that well, and honestly, I have little motivation to prioritize watching it again now, I do remember it was about an unlikely friendship and later romance between a human detective (I think) and the cyborg warrior Naomi Armitage. I do love this one line from Naomi “if humans don’t want me, why did they make me?” I find that line troublingly relatable. I like the blurred line between humanity and artificial intelligence becoming truly sentient.
It is important to be interesting. After Beast in Black’s first album “Berserker” I was very excited for their second, “From Hell with Love.” However, when I listened to “From Hell with Love,” I felt very little. It was a big step down in quality after “Berserker.” It left me with very little to say. It was a good album that had the misfortune of following a great album.
Recreating lightning in a bottle is a fool’s errand, better to try something new, and that is exactly what Beast in Black have done with “Dark Connection.” I am just listening to the rest of the album now and it is a very new adventure for Beast in Black, and I really like it. While I am enjoying listening to the rest of the album, the momentum of love I have for “Moonlight Rendezvous” continues to steal away my attention and focus.
Having very nearly placed the opening anime intro did give me an extra surge of interest in “Moonlight Rendezvous,” afterward I started to project what I could remember from “Armitage III” onto “Moonlight Rendezvous,” but I quickly found it easier to equate the lyrics to “Alita Battle Angel” or “Blade Runner.” The music video gives mad “Blade Runner” vibes, it is cheesy, and I love it.
(As I write this “Blade Runner” the song track from “Dark Connection” auto played, so as everyone expected already “Blade Runner” is a major influence on this album. I love “Blade Runner” the movie, so I am in.)
I love the chorus:
“I'm a phantom of flesh and fantasy,
A machine with a soul in agony,
Is there anything left to save of me?
Be my remedy.
All I want is to feel your love break through,
Every piece of my heart belongs to you,
With a kiss we will paint a flawless view,
Of a moonlight rendezvous.”
It is almost blunt in a way that forces us to hear the charged energy of the longing, wanting pleas of the narrator. A machine that is nearly human. Maybe it’s the “Armitage III,” but I sense the narrator perspective is female, which is interesting insofar that Yannis does not shy away at all from pouring all his soul into it; like he always does.
Viewing the comment section, I noticed other Beast in Black fans pointing out similarities between “Moonlight Rendezvous” and guitarist Anton Kabanen’s former band’s Battle Beast track “Torch in the Night.” I happen to love “Torch in the Night,” so if Anton revisited that song’s layout to create “Moonlight Rendezvous” then my response to that is simply “good work.” When Anton left Battle Beast he went ahead and made an even better band in Beast in Black, and a micro-example of this talent is that took a song of his and made an even better version of it. “Moonlight Rendezvous” is now one of my favorite Beast in Black albums every, a compliment I was unable to give any song from “From Hell with Love.”
Enough talk, I am going to go do the logical thing and listen to the rest of this album and presumably buy it as soon as I can. Anton and the boys are rapidly becoming one of my very favorite active metal groups. I really hope a global pandemic will not cancel my chance to see them live next time around; I had tickets purchased and everything. Next time Beast in Black. Next time
- King of Braves
