Dark Connection [CD]【Japan Edition w/ OBI】

The beast is back in black! And it‘s ready to crush the known boundaries of melodic metal! 

Beast In Black, the international battalion of ground breaking melodic metallers, is ready to blow your mind with their third album ominously titled ‚Dark Connection‘. 

If you're into melodic and atmospheric heavy metal with an insanely catchy twist, this is the album you're looking for. There's no other creature like this walking the earth. None other bears these sharp edged riffs or piercing choruses. Not with these epic sci-fi, fantasy and cyberpunk stories to tell. Beast In Black is a wholly unique form of heavy metal evolution.

Dark Connection is an album which gathers all the elements from past, present and future of Beast In Black leader, Anton Kabanen. The raw melodic energy of early Battle Beast remains, but now Beast In Black are crafting their own sound within the genre thanks to the utilisation of wildly melodic guitars and multilayered synthezisers.

Beast In Black leader, composer and guitarist Anton Kabanen states that Dark Connection is the next natural step for the band, and the very foundations of the album are rooted in his past experiences.

”Dark Connection has more synths than ever before in Beast In Black, but the album is still all about simple heavy metal meeting some italo-disco, euro-beat and hints of symphonic elements here and there”, Anton says as he reminds us that the essence of a good metal song is simply catchiness. 

”I started to get really excited about these tracks when I realized that I had been listening to them again and again and again as really simple midi-demos. I mean, if a midi-demo sounds really good and you can't get enough of those melodies in that early form of a song, there just has to be something memorable there, right?”

”If you ask me, some of the most impressive music has been made when the composer has almost been forced to work with limited resources. You remember the old-school video game music such as Nintendo and Super Nintendo tunes? Very simple sound chips pushed the composers to write fantastic ageless melodies.”

”If you ask me, all the best songs are the ones which can be stripped down into acoustic versions and the melodies are still so strong that the track won't lose it's very essence. The songs should work with just acoustic guitar or piano alongside the vocals. That was pretty much the whole philosophy of writing the songs for Dark Connection.”

Remember the glory days of 80's metal? When you could spend hours and hours staring at the cover art of a heavy metal album as you start to discover what all the lyrics are about? Beast In Black is right there with you.

Dark Connection is a deeply intricate heavy metal record. As you start to invest time into the songs, you’ll realise that there's something interesting happening at every layer, from the music to the cover art and also the lyrics. It's all tied up into one, to ensure the ultimate audio-visual metal experience.

”It's not a concept album in the traditional sense, but there are a few ongoing themes on the album. One of them might be familiar for fans of Beast-albums from even earlier than Beast In Black”, Anton teases. 

”What if I told you that we're back in the world of cyberpunk? Indeed, there are tracks like Highway to Mars and Moonlight Rendezvous, which will let you into the cyberpunk worlds of the Armitage III anime-series and even some Blade Runner themes. In that sense we're back into the themes of the early Battle Beast albums.”

”Cyberpunk is all over the place on Dark Connection. You will feel it in the mood of the album, it's right there in the cover art and we have even carefully prepared a huge music video for you which is visually pure cyberpunk.” 

”Also, of course the good old Berserk is back. There can't be a Beast In Black album without Berserk, and there never will be! This time you will witness the new turns of Berserk saga in three songs called Dark New World, To The Last Drop of Blood and Broken Survivors.”

Anton also gives his praises to insanely talented Beast in Black singer Yannis Papadopoulos, who delivers the best vocal performance of his career on Dark Connection.

”It's always a privilege to work with Yannis. He‘s one of those rare singers who can do anything! If he hasn't tried out something before, he figures out the perfect technique to do it in no time.”

”He is a very physical and dedicated singer. He is ready to try 30 different takes on a song if he feels like that's what a perfect result requires. He doesn't just do one or two takes. He does as many as it takes!”

”There are so many impressive Yannis moments all over Dark Connection. I'm quite sure people will find themselves thinking: ”Is this Yannis too?!” And most of the times it is. Sure, there are my raspy screams, some epic duets and a lot of backup vocals there too, but Yannis‘ performance is definitely more diverse than ever before.”

Thirteen songs, a mountain of irresistible melodies and influences from the retro roots of music to a plethora of futuristic themes and atmospheres. Every single song from Dark Connection could be a single. Beast in Black could create a music video for every last track. That's just how much dedication and passion has been immortalised in these songs.

All these moments on Dark Connection won't be lost in time, like tears in rain. Beast is Black has created a lifetime heavy metal exprience. Are you ready to face this eternal beast?