Kev Rowland Formed in 2008, Battle Beast won the Wacken Metal Battle back in 2010 from when they signed with NB and released ‘Steel’ in 2012, after which they toured with Nightwish. New frontwoman Noora Louhimo joined the same year, and they released their second album the year afterwards, touring with the likes of Sonata Arctica. With their third studio album, ‘Unholy Savior’, the band hit the charts in several European countries (#1 Finland, #23 UK Rock, #39 Germany…), after which they toured with the likes of Sabaton. During that period, they parted company with guitarist and main songwriter Anton Kabanen, but soon revealed Joona Björkroth as a new fulltime member, and feel they have continued in the same vein as previously so there is nothing for fans to worry about.

It is not surprising that they have toured with Nightwish and Sabaton as in many ways their sound is a good mix of both these bands, although with some Lana Lane thrown in for good measure. Noora has a great voice, more Floor Jansen than Tarja Turunen or Anette Olzon, and if they are to be compared to Nightwish then Battle Beast have far more balls. Many of the songs could be lifted as singles, with metallic/hard rock riffs, hooks aplenty and Noora at the forefront of everything. Some of the songs are quite commercial, as if they were written for radio, and it is the others that work best. But, given they lost their main songwriter this is a good effort, and one that I can see myself returning to. This is very much a band I would like to see in concert, as these songs should be that much heavier and raw in a live environment and I do wish that they hadn’t been sanitised quite so much.

RuneWalsh2112 So how did Battle Beast manage as songwriters after firing their main songwriter Anton Kabanen after the release if their previous album? To tell you the truth, my expectations were low since I doubted that the band would be able to top their material on "Unholy Savior" and was expecting the new songwriter contributions to make this record into a weird mash-up of all the individual members styles. Luckily this is not entirely the case since "Bringer of Pain" does offer the familiar sound of Battle Beast and the compositions aren't as bad as one might expect them to be.

The opening track "Straight To The Heart" kicks things off on a right foot with strong Power Metal vibe and almost makes me forget that Kabanen is out of the band. Things continue in the right direction with the title track and the album's first single "King For A Day". "Beyond The Burning Skies" and "Familiar Hell" don't have the same punch to them, as the previous three tracks, but are still pretty solid numbers.

Unfortunately the quality of the material begins to drop halfway through the album with "Lost In Wars" which features a guest appearance of Tomi Joutsen from Amorphis. This track sound really weird and doesn't fit in at all with the rest of the material... almost as if the band wanted to collaborate with Joutsen and thus made a song that would fit his style more than that of Battle Beast.

"Bastard Son Of Odin" is another lesser track as the band is clearly trying to be tongue and cheek but this only undermines their sound. "We Will Fight" is a fine Heavy Metal number which clearly shows that Battle Beast aren't ready to completely leave their Traditional Heavy Metal roots and be labeled as a Power Metal act. "Dancing With The Beast" is a continuation of "Touch In The Night", from the previous album, but I don't find is as enjoyable this time while "Far From Heaven" is a fine ballad that closes the album.

I was surprised that two of the three bonus tracks that were released were actually really strong tracks. Both "God Of War" and especially "The Eclipse" features all the momentum I was missing on some of the album tracks. I would have easily enjoyed this album more if "Lost In Wars" and "Bastard Son Of Odin" were replaced by "God Of War" and "The Eclipse". "Rock Trash" on the other hand is another joke song and it's enough to hear it once and completely forget that it ever existed.

Overall I'm actually surprised that Battle Beast managed to make a pretty good album with "Bringer Of Pain". Granted I do enjoy their two previous albums a bit more but this release is definitely better than their debut album "Steel". Hopefully they can continue in the same direction on future releases!

***** star songs: Straight To The Heart (3:31) King For A Day (4:33)

**** star songs: Bringer Of Pain (3:04) Beyond The Burning Skies (4:39) Familiar Hell (4:04) We Will Fight (3:26) Far From Heaven (4:20) God Of War (3:56) The Eclipse (4:30)

*** star songs: Lost In Wars (4:34) Bastard Son Of Odin (3:34) Dancing With The Beast (3:42) Rock Trash (3:13)