ALBUM REVIEW: Dark Connection – Beast In Black

Making MANOWAR look like a subtle and understated band is something we’d never thought would happen, but Lord almighty BEAST IN BLACK have managed it. Tacked on to the end of their latest album is a cover of Battle Hymn that’s so gloriously over-the-top, it makes Eric Adams et al sound like shrinking violets. It’s a big, booming take on a classic of macho-man-metal where the biceps are bigger and the chests are hairier, and yet somehow it’s not the most ridiculous thing on here.

In fact, Dark Connection gets so ludicrous it’s going to be difficult for the power metal bands of the future to out-cheese it. The third full-length from the Helsinki five-piece is a towering edifice of pomp where everything is turned up as high as possible. It’s a combination of synth-heavy Euro pop and speaker-troubling power metal, fronted by a man who must have had an air-raid siren as a singing instructor. This is a record that thinks the best way to convey subliminal messages is to shout them out as loud as possible and just like their previous two albums, it’s a blast.

First song Blade Runner is a thundering introduction. Picking up where last album From Hell With Love left off, it’s a hook-laden instant-anthem and so hammy you could baste it in honey mustard and serve it with egg and chips. Bella Donna, Highway To Mars and the excellent Hardcore then rattle past in quick succession, all shamelessly hyperactive grin-inducers that are more fun than they have any right to be.

One Night In Tokyo then somehow manages to up things even further. The bouncing keyboard riffs, catchy chorus and sheer, delirious enthusiasm are stupidly entertaining and seem destined to make this a future live favourite. Moonlight Rendezvous follows like a lost song from the Night Of The Comet soundtrack, while Revengeance Machine keeps the good times rolling with a story of rampaging robot killers where subtext is for cowards. If ever there was the musical equivalent of a fist being clenched, this is it.

It’s so unrelenting though that by the time you reach Dark Connection’s second half, it’s starting to get a bit exhausting. BEAST IN BLACK don’t believe in taking a breather and it’s not until My Dystopia that anything even approaching nuance gets a look in. Strangely though, this ballad is the weakest track on offer. It has all the ingredients in place to be an epic and magisterial highlight, but never manages to be more than a slightly above-average track. Given that it’s followed by that MANOWAR cover and an equally preposterous take on MICHAEL JACKSON’s They Don’t Care About Us, its shortcomings are glaring.

This does raise the question of whether BEAST IN BLACK are capable of anything other than gigantic slices of cheese, but it doesn’t detract from how much of a joy Dark Connection is. This isn’t a complicated or introspective record, it’s mindless escapism. BEAST IN BLACK have some magnificent earworms and if you’re in the mood for punching the sky while bellowing out a chorus, this has the potential to turn the coming winter months into a vibrant, sunlit party.

Rating: 8/10

Dark Connection is set for release on October 29th via Nuclear Blast Records.

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