Judging by the improvement Battle Beast have made from their debut, they’re an album or two away from a blinding record. Unholy Saviour ain’t quite it, though.
It’s fun, the hooks are seriously catchy and the edge to the guitar tone is beefy, supplying plenty of crunch. Noora Louhimo also has an undoubtedly killer voice with great range in both tone and pitch, and gets to show it here.
There are, however, serious problems. First, their influences are so obvious that songs can feel like tribute pieces. Sea Of Dreams could have been lifted directly from Nightwish’s Oceanborn, Far Far Away is so 2 Minutes To Midnight it sounds odd when Bruce doesn’t appear, the title track is more Turisas than Turisas, and if you took a shot for every Priest, Accept and Stratovarius reference you hear, you’ll be legless halfway through.
Add in a cheesy 80s Europop song (Touch In The Night), and the fact Unholy Saviour is not quite overblown enough to get away with how twee it is, and you have a potentially great but also slightly unsatisfying romp./o:p
