About Battle Beast
Battle Beast is a Finnish heavy/power metal band established in Helsinki in 2008 by Anton Kabanen, Juuso Soinio and Pyry Vikki. The initial line-up consisted of guitarists Soinio and Kabanen, and drummer Vikki, who were high school friends. The rest of the original lineup, bassist Eero Sipilä, keyboardist Janne Björkroth and lead singer Nitte Valo, joined the band after auditions.
Before gaining a record contract, Battle Beast was best known for having won two major band competitions in year 2010: the international Wacken Metal Battle 2010, participated by thousands of bands from all around the world, whose final stage was held at the famed German metal festival Wacken Open Air; soon after that, the band was announced the winner of Radio Rock Starba, a band competition held by the major Finnish radio station Radio Rock. With its victory in the Finnish competition, the band received intense media exposure, and before the end of 2010 they had signed a record deal with the Finnish label Hype Records.
Battle Beast's first album, titled Steel, was released in Finland in Spring 2011. With the support of the two singles, "Show Me How to Die" and "Enter the Metal World", and their heavy airplay on Radio Rock, the album peaked at No. 7 upon its release. Although released only in Finland, the album soon caught the attention of the international metal label Nuclear Blast, with whom the band signed a licensing deal in late 2011. A reissue of Steel, which included one bonus track, was released to the European market in January 2012. The band was voted at the third place in the list for Newcomer Of The Year 2011 at the Finnish Metal Awards in February 2012. To support the European release of Steel, Battle Beast toured for the first time as opening act for their countrymen Nightwish in many European dates of the Imaginaerum World Tour. The tour was reported a success by both bands. On the final show of the tour Nightwish paid their respects to the support band by performing a cover of "Show Me How to Die" as a part of their acoustic set.
In autumn of 2012, after touring Finnish rock festivals during the summer, Nitte Valo was announced to be leaving the band because of family issues. New singer candidates appeared both in Finland and abroad. Noora Louhimo from Tampere, Finland, was chosen as the new lead singer, with Kabanen having originally found her “by accident while browsing YouTube”. With Louhimo in the band, Battle Beast started another European tour in November, this time supporting the Finnish power metal band Sonata Arctica.
After the tour, the band immediately went into studio to record their second album. The label Hype Productions had gone out of business and the band moved on to Warner Music Finland, with Nuclear Blast still handling international releases. The first single with Noora Louhimo on vocals, "Into the Heart of Danger" was released on 26 April 2013, followed by the album Battle Beast on 17 May 2013. Another single and a music video for the song "Black Ninja" was released to coincide with the release of the album. The album topped the sales of its predecessor easily, peaking at No. 5 and staying on the charts for 17 weeks. The album also charted on various European countries including Germany. The following autumn Battle Beast headed on another European tour, this time supporting the German bands Powerwolf and U.D.O.
In January 2014, Battle Beast was announced one of the five nominees for the best Finnish metal album in the national Emma-gaala awards.
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