| Beast in Black | |
| Origin: | Helsinki, Finland |
| Image Upright: | 1.25 |
| Years Active: | 2015–present |
| Label: | Nuclear Blast[1] |
| Spinoff Of: | Battle Beast[2] |
| Current Members: |
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Beast in Black is a Finnish, Greek and Hungarian power metal band founded in Helsinki in 2015 by lead guitarist and songwriter Anton Kabanen. The musical influences of the band include Judas Priest, Manowar, W.A.S.P., Accept and Black Sabbath.[3]
Anton Kabanen founded the band in 2015 after he left his former band Battle Beast earlier in the same year.[4] Like Battle Beast, the band's name is a tribute to the Japanese manga and anime series Berserk.
Beast in Black signed with the Nuclear Blast label and released their first album, Berserker on 3 November 2017, which received a very positive response worldwide.[5] The debut album ranked seventh on Finnish charts albums. In addition, Berserker also charted in Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland and France.[6]
On 7 February 2018, it was announced that Atte Palokangas would replace Sami Hänninen as the permanent drummer.[7] The band includes the Greek vocalist Yannis Papadopoulos (ex-Wardrum), the Hungarian bassist Mate Molnar (Wisdom) and Kasperi Heikkinen (former guitarist of bands like U.D.O., Amberian Dawn, etc.).
On 21 March 2018, it was announced that Beast in Black would be opening for Nightwish on the European leg of their .[8]
The band's second album, From Hell with Love, was released on 8 February 2019.[9] After the release of the album, the band did their first headline tour in Europe with the Finnish industrial metal band Turmion Kätilöt as support.[10]
On 26 October 2021, Beast in Black released their third album, Dark Connection. In addition to Berserk, several songs in the album reference science fiction series such as Blade Runner, Armitage III, Bubblegum Crisis and Cyber City Oedo. The album charted in Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, ranking first in Finland.[11]
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions< | -- Per Wikipedia discography standards, maintain a MAXIMUM of 10 charts. --> | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FIN [12] | AUT [13] | FRA [14] | GER [15] | NLD [16] | SCO [17] | SPA [18] | SWE [19] | SWI [20] | UK Rock [21] | |||
| Berserker |
| 7 | — | — | 51 | — | — | — | — | 33 | 21 | |
| From Hell with Love |
| 1 | 17 | 143 | 6 | 199 | 49 | 73 | 55 | 8 | 2 | |
| Dark Connection |
| 1 | 16 | 165 | 13 | — | 31 | — | 53 | 11 | 7 | |
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | ||||||||||||