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Review: Battle Beast/Serenity/Brymir, Marble Factory
Metal is Finland’s national music, lucky them, so we shouldn’t be surprised when a relatively minor band comes to these shores fully formed and ready to rock. Brymir only get a half-hour opening slot, but make every minute count and soon get the large crowd onside with their rousing brand of melodic death metal.
Although they stick to songs from their more recent brace of albums, Brymir’s early Ensiferum folk metal influences are still clearly audible in the chanted backing vocals in a set bookended by the title tracks from Voices in the Sky and Wings of Fire.
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They seem to be a guitarist down, but the quartet certainly succeed in laying the groundwork for a return club tour of their own.
Dr. Georg Neuhauser is probably the only academic historian to front a symphonic power metal band. “We are Serenity from the Austrian empire,” he informs us with a smirk, after they open with the splendidly catchy The Fall of Man from new album Nemesis AD.
The guitars get a bit lost in the mix at some points, but the band’s harmony vocals are particularly strong and prove a major asset when they go off-piste with melodic rock songs like Set the World On Fire – which sounds like a great lost US AOR anthem from the 1980s.
At one point, droll Dr. Georg even produces a giant fish (note: not an actual fish, but some kind of large stuffed toy) and proceeds to batter his bandmates and the drumkit with it, as though he’s John Cleese in Monty Python’s fish-slapping sketch. He’s also delighted when a punter hurls a second, smaller fish onstage. (Imagine: you’ve gone to a big metal show with a fish secreted about your person, solely to chuck it at the support act.)
Everyone is soon punching the air with joy and we’re rewarded with Reflections (of AD) – the epic backbone of Nemesis AD – though Georg seems so eager to play this that he announces it a song early.
Having spent his very first day in Bristol enjoying such rock’n’roll pursuits as checking out the Cathedral, he’s also keen to remind us of our own history during the last two songs, so it’s back to classic symphonic metal for the hugely enjoyable Legacy of Tudors (you half expect Lucy Worsley to appear, cavorting in one of her funny costumes), followed, inevitably, by Lionheart.
While not perhaps in the same league as a stadium-filling likes of Powerwolf and Sabaton, Finland’s Battle Beast have become major players in the European power metal scene. But they’ve mostly ignored the much smaller UK market, with its enticing prospect of zero radio play and critical indifference or derision. This is their very first visit to Bristol, for a show that was originally booked into the Fleece but has attracted an audience so large that the Beacon might be a more appropriate venue next time. What’s more, they’re livestreaming the whole thing on YouTube for the benefit of those unable to rock in person.
The main focus of attention here is lead vocalist Noora Louhimo, who goes full Brunhilde in the outfit department, augmented by her trademark Malificent-esque horns. Most women vocalists in this genre opt for the operatic soprano approach, but Noora is an old-school belter whose enormous voice is up there with the best of them. It helps that so many of Battle Beast’s songs are crafted in a way that allows her to really let rip. “Are you ready for the best fucking heavy metal party of your lives?” she bellows. We certainly are, madam.
This being the last date on the UK tour, the slickly choreographed show is firing on all cylinders. Lead guitarist Joona Björkroth is actually back home in Finland on ‘new dad’ duties, but young hotshot Atte Aho proves a very able stand-in.
Skilled Pyry Vikki’s gargantuan drum kit occupies the entire centre of the stage and he certainly keeps up the relentless power metal beat throughout.
Janne Björkroth makes a strong case for the rehabilitation of the much-derided keytar, which keeps him as mobile as his bandmates as he cycles through multiple styles and sounds.
But perhaps the real surprise is just how varied this show is. Sure, there’s the expected super-catchy pop-adjacent power metal of Familiar Hell and No More Hollywood Endings, but Battle Beast’s music owes just as much to good old-fashioned pre-subdivisions heavy metal and they wouldn’t have seemed out of place on one of the original Monsters of Rock bills.
Bassist Eero Sipilä takes over the lead vocals for the unlikeliest of covers: Sir Elton’s Can You Feel the Love Tonight? from The Lion King. Fortunately, it seems as though everyone here knows all the words.
Then there’s a diversion into Viking metal for Bastard Son of Odin and even a (slightly alarming) nod to disco with Russian Roulette. Eden gets things back on track, concluding the set with a big singalong, during which we’re invited to attempt to sustain that note as long as Noora does.
The encore begins with a swift run-through of The Imperial March from Star Wars on keytar, which gives way to Master of Illusion, King for a Day and, finally, Beyond the Burning Skies from 2017’s Bringer of Pain album, which has pretty much become Battle Beast’s signature song. They leave us vowing to go home and record a new album before returning this time next year. Let’s hope they keep that promise.
All pix by Mike Evans
Read more: Metal & Prog Picks: October 2024
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