BATTLE BEAST Singer Says Former Guitarist 'Wanted To Make Decisions On Everything'

Aniruddh “Andrew” Bansal of Metal Assault recently conducted an interview with vocalist Noora Louhimo of Finnish metallers BATTLE BEAST. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metal Assault: I guess the main change you have this time is that your main songwriter and guitar player Anton Kabanen is no longer in the band, and you got a new guitar player. Was “Bringer Of Pain” written before that change happened, or after?

Noora: “No. We actually wrote this new album with the whole band this time. That was actually part of the reason why we had to go different ways from Anton, because Anton wanted to do all the songs and make decisions on everything, and we weren’t willing to do that. We wanted this band to be involved, and have everyone write songs if they want to. We did that with this album. This was really an interesting and exciting and nice experience because we could learn so many things about each other as bandmembers and friends. Of course, it wasn’t like dancing with the roses but it was definitely something I want to experience again. [Laughs]”

Metal Assault: So, it must have been a very different process to write this album, with everybody involved.

Noora: “Right. On the previous albums, Anton did all the songs. I wouldn’t say that we have always appreciated him as a songwriter, and he is a very talented one. But some of the other stuff didn’t work with him. But yeah, this time we actually had our new guitar player, Joona [Björkroth], also write songs. I think he did four songs on the new album, and our keyboard player, Janne [Björkroth], did seven. There is one song that I wrote with Joona together, and it’s actually the title song ‘Bringer Of Pain’. And then our bass player Eero [Sipilä] did two songs for the album, and one song was written by Juuso [Soinio], our other guitar player.”

Metal Assault: I think your music is very catchy and that’s what I like about it most. Is that something you do purposely, or does it happen on its own?

Noora: “[Laughs] I think it might be part of the BATTLE BEAST magic. As you can see, the music doesn’t get done just by one person now, it’s done by several persons. But we still actually understand what is the BATTLE BEAST sound, and I think the sound comes from the band, and the way that we are thinking together. I guess our attention has always been to do good music, and that is the basic thing. So, let’s just do good music that we like, and if someone else likes it too, it’s just bonus, you know. [Laughs]”

Metal Assault: Obviously, there was already an album which the band released before you joined the band. I was always curious, and just for readers who may be don’t know the band as well, how did you come in contact with the band and how did you become the singer?

Noora: “Long story short, and I’m really bad at short stories [laughs], but I’ll try my best. But yeah, the BATTLE BEAST guys actually found me on YouTube, singing Janis Joplin. I started my singing career singing Janis Joplin‘s music, and someone had put this clip on YouTube. By accident, Anton saw this clip and suggested the guys to take me into the band. Then Anton called me and asked if I wanted to join the band, and told me the situation that we had about a month’s time to rehearse because we were going on a tour with SONATA ARCTICA, and they had already started recording a new BATTLE BEAST. So, you could say it was pretty hectic times back then. [Laughs] And on top of that, I had never sung heavy metal before BATTLE BEAST, so it was a totally new area for me, even though I had been listening to heavy metal music since I was 15 or 16 years old. But it was new for me as a singer to do heavy metal.”