Stephen Add those heavy doses of British's Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, the muscular power show of American's Manowar, and the gritty-distorted piece of German's Accept, and you'll get 'Steel', the debut from Finnish Metal Battle's 2010 crowned champion, Battle Beast. Fronted by Nitte Valo, a shrieking female vocalist that somehow reminds me to the early days of Geoff Tate or Rob Halford, especially on her upper register.

The vocal character is very traditional heavy metal, unlike the gothic persona of Tarja Turunen or Sharon den Adel, Valo is more like Doro and her pitch is even higher at some point, it can annoy some people that can't stand a consistent vibrated scream throughout the album. The opening track, 'Enter The Metal World' is very much highly influenced by Judas Priest, a strong start, and what followed next, 'Armageddon Clan', is even better. The riffs salvo packed with sensational chorus and solos is great enough for me to love this track.

"Justice And Metal", "Die-Hard Warrior", and "Iron Hand" are gasoline-burning uptempo madness, the earth-shattering vocals and the slaughtering riffs are insane and definitely one of their strongest tunes. "Steel" maybe slower, but they just can't stop making a high quality heavy metal track. "Cyberspace" and "Show Me How To Die" are paying tributes to Iron Maiden, the classic pattern from the 80s are obvious on the arrangement.

I must admit, I like most of the tracks here, but if you ask me are there any weak tracks? Definitely couple songs aren't as great as the rest, such as the decent Axel Rudi Pell ballad style of 'Savage And Saint' or the acceptable 'The Band of The Hawk', but despite the unoriginal issue, I'm pretty sure Battle Beast successfully revived the glorious days of the 80s, you can hardly hear any modern metal touch, this is purely time-travel to that decade. A stunning debut and just can't stop to hit Play again when it's over.

RuneWalsh2112 The debut album from the Finnish band Battle Beast is a classic heavy metal album in style of Warlock, Manowar and Accept. The original vocalist Nitte Valo had, unlike her successor Noora Louhimo, a much rawer vocal approach and thus made the music sound much heavier than what it actually was.

The opening track "Enter The Metal World" is a solid number that the band has, together with "Iron Hand", been playing live even to this day. "Armageddon Clan" kicks off with a riff reminding me of Saxon but quickly gets into its own groove and features a strong chorus. "The Band Of The Hawk" is an anthem that reminds me of something out of the Accept canon while "Justice And Metal" is a metal by numbers track that could have been released by pretty much any classic metal band. The title track starts off like an interesting track but the chorus sounds like something that Manowar have already done to death.

Things return to interesting with slightly more melodic tracks "Die-Hard Warrior" and "Cyberspace", the latter reminding me for some reason of "Deja Vu" by Iron Maiden. "Show Me How To Die" returns us back to the metal by numbers approach while "Savage And Saint" is the album's only ballad which shows that this band actually has a lot of potential in this department. "Victory" gives us another portion of speed metal that we've enjoyed of previous tracks while the bonus track, "Stay Black", features strong verses but a completely unmemorable chorus.

Battle Beast managed to release a pretty solid metal album that shows some clear signs of greatness even though they clearly have yet not found their own unique sound. The songs that work best are either the ones featuring speed metal and strong melodic hooks or the quieter moment that was featured on "Savage And Saint".

***** star songs: Cyberspace (3:59)

**** star songs: Enter The Metal World (4:38) Armageddon Clan (5:08) Die-Hard Warrior (2:56) Savage And Saint (5:40) Iron Hand (4:04) Victory (3:50)

*** star songs: The Band Of The Hawk (4:40) Justice And Metal (2:38) Steel (4:20) Show Me How To Die (4:19) Stay Black (4:05)