They're as awesome as their name.Members
Battle Beast is a Finnish metal music band established in Helsinki in 2008. The initial line-up consisted of guitarists Anton Kabanen and Juuso Soinio and drummer Pyry Vikki, who were high school friends. The rest of the original line-up, singer Nitte Valo, bassist Eero Sipilä and keyboardist Janne Björkroth, joined the band after auditions.
Noted for Power Metal with significant classic Hard Rock/Heavy Metal influence, and for being huge sci-fi, fantasy, and manga/anime geeks, they first came to prominence after winning two major band competitions in 2010. Their first album for Hype Records, Steel, came out the next year and caught the attention of metal titan Nuclear Blast Records, leading to a first tour in support of Nightwish.
In 2012, Valo chose to leave the band after getting married, and was replaced by Noora Louhimo, who sings very similarly. Kabanen left in 2015 after the release of Unholy Savior, and formed the similar-sounding band Beast in Black.
They appeared in North America for the first time in Spring 2017, supporting Sabaton along with Leaves' Eyes. Sabaton also performed a cover of Battle Beast's "Out of Control" as a bonus track on Heroes.
Noora Louhimo also frequently features as a Vocalist in the Virtual Band Pentakill as Kayle.
Members
Current lineup
- Juuso Soinio – rhythm guitar (2008–present)
- Pyry Vikki – drums (2008–present)
- Eero Sipilä – bass, backing vocals (2008–present)
- Janne Björkroth – keyboards, keytar, backing vocals (2008–present)
- Noora Louhimo - lead vocals (2012–present)
- Joona Björkroth - lead guitar, backing vocals (2015-present)
Past members
- Nitte Valo - lead vocals (2008–2012)
- Anton Kabanen – lead guitar, backing vocals, songwriting (2008–2015)
Discography
- Steel (2011)
- Battle Beast (2013)
- Unholy Savior (2015)
- Bringer of Pain (2017)
- No More Hollywood Endings (2019)
- Circus of Doom (2022)
I wanna feel your tropes in the night...
- Album Title Drop: Shake the world with metal, shake the world with STEEL!
- Amazonian Beauty: Noora. Oh
◊ hell◊ yes◊. - Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: "Sea of Dreams".
- "Kingdom", since, well, You know.
- Badass Boast: "Die-Hard Warrior", natch.
- Concept Album: Unholy Savior is basically a Berserk tribute.
- Cover Version: They covered "Resurrection by Erection" by Powerwolf. Not on one of their own albums, but on the bonus disk Communio Luporum from Powerwolf's 2018 album The Sacrament of Sin.
- Cyberpunk: "Neuromancer", "Raven", "Machine Revolution", "Armageddon Clan" are all about a dark future where machines rule.
- Dystopia: "Out on the Streets" is focused on a person who's alone in a world like this, with nothing but a trusty axe.
- Robot War: STEEL.
- Cyberpunk Is Techno: Ahahahaha, no.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: "Enter The Metal World".
- Courtroom Episode: The video for "King for a Day" has the band putting the eponymous king on trial, with Noora as the judge.
- Dare to Be Badass: "Into The Heart of Danger" and "Push It to the Limit".
- Dark Messiah: "Unholy Savior".
- Demon Slaying: "Madness".
- Distaff Counterpart: Nitte Valo sings like a female Blackie Lawless.
- The End of the World as We Know It: Oh boy, where do we even begin?
- Enemy Within: "Madness", about Guts' Beast of Darkness.
- Epic Rocking: "Kingdom", "Iron Hand", "Die-Hard Warrior".
- Fan Disservice: The Unholy Savior cover art has a frontally nude woman...lying dead in the clutches of a bat-winged demon in the midst of a burning city.
- Gender Flip: Unholy Savior 's Japanese edition has a cover song of "Wild Child" of WASP. The lyrics of that song is about Blackie Lawless trying to impress a girl, boasting to be a better lover than her boyfriend. The lyrics of the cover are exactly the same, except that all gender specific words were switched to the female form, in reference to Noora. "You tell me. You tell me the lies you're telling her when you run away, 'cause I wanna know, Cause I, I'm sure it's killing her to find that you run to me when she lets you go"
- Genre Throwback:
- The band's output as a whole, while Power Metal overall, takes a lot of cues from classic Hard Rock and Heavy Metal.
- "Touch in the Night" sounds like a '90s girl group synthpop tune.
- "Familiar Hell" is very much a '70s hard rock song, on an album released in 2017.
- Gratuitous Ninja: SHE'S A BLACK NINJAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
- Heavy Mithril: Noora admitted in a blog interview that the band members are huge geeks, songwriter and guitarist Anton Kabanen being the biggest (which considering his post-Battle Beast project, Beast in Black, has done a song about Nosferatu Zod, comes as no surprise.). They've made a bunch of songs about Berserk (including half the tracklists of Steel and Battle Beast), as well as cyberpunk works such as Neuromancer and The Matrix. Several songs also use a wholly original world where "the Beast" fights in a Robot War.
- The Hero's Journey: "Far Far Away". There's also an instrumental fittingly called "Hero's Quest", which is about...you guessed it, Guts'.
- Hollywood Hacking: "Cyberspace".
- Horrible Hollywood: "No More Hollywood Endings", anyone?
- "I Am" Song: "Let It Roar".
- In Harm's Way: "Speed and Danger".
- Instrumentals: "Golden Age" and "Hero's Quest".
- Intercourse with You: "Touch in the Night", about Griffith's night with Princess Charlotte after Guts leaves him.
- Lady Looks Like a Dude: Most newcomers agree that they're listening to a man, then they see the credits, and listen to the singer sing softly.
- Noora's and especially Nitte's physique feeds this trope as well.
- Large Ham: Dear God, both singers put so much enthusiasm in their singing, it's epic.
- Mascot: The lions shown in their covers.
- Metal Scream: Both Nitte and Noora love the fourth type.
- Motifs: Determination, Dark Fantasy, and loads of sci-fi.
- Musical Theme Naming: There's the theory that their name is based on Zodd, from Berserk.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: "Bastard Son of Odin". Viking demigod on a flaming motorcycle, 'nuff said.
- Obsession Song: "Rain Man" combines this trope with Break Up Song, because it talks about sex and love, and about a girl who fell in love with a guy who doesn't give her as much love as she needs.
- One-Person Birthday Party: "Unbroken" starts with one of these.It was a sunny afternoon
Her name was on the cake
Lots of red balloons
But nobody came - Out-of-Genre Experience: "Touch in the Night", which has strong influences from 80's Synthpop. And does it well, too. "Dancing with the Beast" takes this even further.
- Panthera Awesome: The album covers.
- Pietà Plagiarism: Unholy Savior.
- Power Metal
- Precision F-Strike: In Noora's spoken-word rant on the bridge of "Familiar Hell".Listen to me!
What if we only believe that we can choose our reality?
What if the truth we know is just a profitable fantasy?
If we view the world with closed eyes
and only look after ourselves,
it's easy to swallow all the juicy lies,
but who the fuck is gonna clean up the mess? - Rated M for Manly: They sing about Berserk, Cyberpunk and determination. When they're not about that, it's about how you should fight with your heart broken.
- Remember That You Trust Me: "Angel Cry". Also You Are Not Alone.
- The Smurfette Principle: Noora is the ONLY girl in the band. Nitte Valo was the previous singer, also, the only girl.
- Soprano and Gravel: Downplayed: female vocalists Nitte Valo and Noora Louhimo have very raspy voices, but Anton Kabanen's backing vocals are even harsher.Nitte Valo:"We are a mercenary band led by Griffith, the white hawk. United we stand, under our flag into battle, we bring, the storm!''
- Star-Crossed Lovers: "Savage and Saint".
- Stock Scream: Wilhelm Scream makes an appearance at the end of "The Golden Horde".
- Take Over the World: "I Want the World...And Everything in It".
- Villain Song: "Kingdom" counts as one for Griffith, sacrificing his most loyal soldiers and willfully crossing the
Moral Event Horizon so that he may achieve his dream. - "The Villain Sucks" Song: "King For a Day" is a four-minute rant about political corruption, with a video showing the band putting the eponymous king on trial.
- Win Your Freedom: "Lionheart", is about a man who doesn't want to love anymore because he's wounded, just fight until the end, and he's happy this way.
- Working with the Ex: At least once have Battle Beast been seen live with both Noora and Nitte rocking out onstage.
- You Are Not Alone: "Unbroken" from No More Hollywood Endings.
