Battle Beast (band)

• 1. Introduction

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  Battle Beast, the Finnish heavy metal band, began not in a recording studio or a smoky rehearsal room, but in a high school hallway in Helsinki. Three friends, Anton Kabanen, Juuso Soinio, and Pyry Vikki, formed the band in 2008. What followed was a series of competitions won, labels signed, lineup shakeups, and albums that climbed the Finnish charts. How does a band built by teenagers in Helsinki end up headlining North American tours and landing top-ten spots in Germany? The answers stretch across seven studio albums and nearly two decades of heavy metal.

• 2. Winning Before the World Knew

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  In 2010, before Battle Beast had released a single album, they entered the Wacken Metal Battle, an international competition drawing thousands of bands from across the globe. The final was held at Wacken Open Air, one of the most storied heavy metal festivals in Germany. Battle Beast won. Shortly after, back in Finland, the band entered Radio Rock Starba, a competition run by the major Finnish radio station Radio Rock, and won that too. Two major band competitions in a single year gave the band a level of visibility that no debut album could have bought. The media attention that followed was intense enough that, before the end of 2010, the band had signed a record deal with the Finnish label Hype Records.

• 3. Steel and a Nightwish Stage

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  The debut album Steel arrived in Finland in the spring of 2011. Propelled by two singles, "Show Me How to Die" and "Enter the Metal World", and heavy airplay on Radio Rock, it reached No. 7 on the Finnish charts. Steel was a Finland-only release at first, but the international metal label Nuclear Blast noticed. The band signed a licensing deal with Nuclear Blast in late 2011, and a reissue of Steel, with one bonus track added, reached the European market in January 2012. That same February, the band placed third in the Newcomer Of The Year category at the Finnish Metal Awards. To push the European release, Battle Beast were invited to open for Nightwish on several European dates of the Imaginaerum World Tour. On the final night of that tour, Nightwish performed "Show Me How to Die" as a cover during their acoustic set, a tribute that signaled just how quickly Battle Beast had earned the respect of their Finnish peers.

• 4. A Voice Found on YouTube

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  In the autumn of 2012, lead singer Nitte Valo announced she was leaving the band because of family issues. Auditions opened up in Finland and abroad, and the search eventually led Anton Kabanen to a clip online. He later described finding Noora Louhimo, from Tampere, Finland, "by accident while browsing YouTube". Louhimo was chosen as the new lead vocalist. With her on board, Battle Beast launched a European tour in November 2012, this time supporting the Finnish power metal band Sonata Arctica. The second album, titled Battle Beast, followed in May 2013. Its first single, "Into the Heart of Danger", dropped on the 26th of April 2013, and the album itself arrived on the 17th of May. A second single, "Black Ninja", was released to coincide with the album. The record peaked at No. 5 in Finland, higher than Steel, and stayed on the Finnish charts for 17 weeks. It also charted in Germany and several other European countries. That autumn, Battle Beast toured again in Europe, this time opening for German bands Powerwolf and U.D.O.

• 5. Kabanen Exits, Charts Climb

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  January 2015 brought the third album, Unholy Savior, which went straight to No. 1 on the Finnish album chart in its release week. Then, in February 2015, the band parted ways with founding guitarist and co-founder Anton Kabanen. Both sides cited musical disagreements and what they called other unsolvable issues. Kabanen later went on to form Beast in Black. Ossi Maristo and Joona Björkroth, the younger brother of keyboardist Janne Björkroth, filled in on lead guitar on a session basis. Joona Björkroth became a permanent member in 2016. The first single under the new lineup, "King For a Day", arrived in January 2016 and immediately picked up heavy airplay on Radio Rock. A follow-up single, "Familiar Hell", came in early 2017. The fourth album, Bringer of Pain, was released on the 17th of February 2017, hit No. 1 in Finland, eventually went platinum there, and debuted at No. 14 in Germany, the band's first top-20 finish in that market. After the album, Battle Beast embarked on a European tour lasting more than five weeks, with support from Majesty and GYZE. That spring also marked the band's first North American tour dates, as support for Sabaton's "The Last Tour" alongside Leaves' Eyes.

• 6. From Grammys to Headliner

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  On the 22nd of March 2019, Battle Beast released their fifth studio album, No More Hollywood Endings. It reached No. 1 in Finland and earned the Metal Album of the Year award at the Finnish Grammys, known as the Emma-gaala, and was later certified gold in Finland. The band's sixth album, Circus of Doom, was announced on the 4th of October 2021 and released on the 21st of January 2022. It again topped the Finnish chart and reached the top 10 in Germany. For the North American tour that followed, Battle Beast went out as headliners for the first time, with Blackbriar providing support. The seventh studio album, Steelbound, was announced on the 5th of June 2025 and released on the 17th of October 2025. On the same day as the release, the band's European tour opened at Inselpark Arena in Germany, described as their biggest German headline show to date, with Dominum and Majestica as supporting acts. Steelbound reached No. 2 in Finland and No. 18 in Germany. Shortly after the tour wrapped, on the 15th of December 2025, Noora Louhimo departed the band to concentrate on her solo career. The very next day, Marina La Torraca was announced as Battle Beast's new lead vocalist.