I am comfortable with this confession. I don’t need to have a support group formed, or space rented in a church basement for an intervention. It’s all good, honest.
My name is Andy, and I love 80’s rock.
There, I feel better now.
I was at a gig the other night and Cinderella’s “Shake Me” came on the PA and you know, I am playing guitar screaming “I met this girl at quarter to ten….” With the best of them.
Brilliantly Battle Beast have decided – on this evidence at least – that there should be a revival. And it begins, it seems, right here.
There’s a song here called “Unfairy Tales” and, I’m here to tell you that its like a 21st century 80s take on Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” and even better they follow this up –literally it’s the very next song – with a ballad called “Endless Summer” that zounds almost exactly like it was on one of those “Now That’s What I Call Music” things your nan bought you for Christmas in about 1985. Good god, it took me back to school discos where me and my mate were arguing over who Dawn Hughes fancied more (it was me, naturally…). You can’t even say this doesn’t sound like Belinda Carlisle, because it really, really does.
See, for “No More Hollywood Endings” – their 5th album in just over ten years – Battle Beast have dialled everything up a notch. So it parps a bit more on opener “Unbroken” (genuine power metal songs should always be about no one turning up to your birthday party – just like this one) there are some neo-classical moments like on the thumping title track and you’d best believe this type of metal should soar like “Eden”.
And, no joke here, the best thing about this is it is totally unselfconscious. No one in Battle Beast is pretending they are anything they are not, but they’re out, they’re loud and they’re very proud.
“Hero” pulls off the rather neat trick of sounding a bit like an outtake from the Maiden “Seventh Son….” sessions, while “Piece Of Me” (which I’d hoped was a Skid Row cover, but isn’t….) is ludicrously brilliant. From out of nowhere, it seems, frontwoman Noora starts yelling “good luck you crazy fool, who the fuck do you think you are” and the inference is clear. You might want a piece, but you ain’t getting one. That’s it.
“I Wish” might start like it’s the score from a romantic film, but it is a rare moment of refection. Dealing with grief and loss, it is a fine song – and one, like them all, has half an eye on soaring to the arena roof.
After this there’s a song here called “Raise Your Fists”. Now on one hand you could say “of course there is” and yeah, it does have an air of Game Of Thrones about it. By the time the chorus hits, though, they’re summoning the undead, apparently. So you go, Battle Beast.
Let ups towards the end? Don’t be silly. “The Golden Horde” is faster than Dragonforce and twice as dangerous, and “World On Fire” the last track? Well, I’ll be honest, if Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out For A Hero” had been a metal song…..
Battle Beast know what they are doing and they do it real well – if we may paraphrase Motorhead – and they don’t seem to particularly care what is cool, or trendy. That’s why “No More Hollywood Endings” doesn’t need the best picture Oscar -being the critics’ choice is no fun. Being the spring blockbuster will do it just fine.
Rating 8.5/10
