Helsinki-based metal band BEAST IN BLACK, led by former BATTLE BEAST guitarist Anton Kabanen, has unveiled “Lost Children”, another stunning track from its highly anticipated fourth studio album, “Fear The Beast”.
Released just ahead of BEAST IN BLACK’s highly anticipated headline tour, which kicks off in London on October 26, “Lost Children” is an epic power ballad that showcases the band’s grandiose sound. Continuing the group’s long-standing creative connection with the iconic manga series “Berserk”, the track features a phenomenal vocal performance by frontman Yannis Papadopoulos, who takes his soaring and dramatic vocals to new heights.
To match the song’s epic scale, the band has once again teamed up with award-winning director Katri Ilona Koppanen to create a breathtaking, cinematic music video that captures the track’s grandeur and emotional intensity.
Kabanen explains: “‘Lost Children Chapter’ is one of my absolute favorite parts of ‘Berserk’ manga, if not my favorite. It had an enormous impact on me when I first read it, some 20 years ago, and ever since I wanted to write songs (or at least one!) about it. I wanted to find my own way to tell this important, tragic and heart-wrenching story, while staying true to its delicate child-like purity and meaningful core.
“What makes the story so powerful is its emotional complexity. Children are generally seen as innocent and pure, and in many ways they are also victims of their circumstances. Rosine (girl from the story) is a particularly fascinating example of this contradiction. She becomes the antagonist and commits genuinely terrible acts, yet deep down, she isn’t inherently evil. She’s a vulnerable child who has been pushed into a tragic situation.
“When the God Hand (from ‘Berserk’) offers someone a way out of unimaginable suffering, it’s difficult to say how most people would respond. You can understand why Rosine makes the choices she does without necessarily being able to forgive what she does. That’s what makes the story emotionally turbulent. You experience anger, horror, sadness and compassion, sometimes almost simultaneously. By the end, there’s a sense of emotional absolution, because you realise that the character you’ve been fighting against is also a victim herself. It’s not a straightforward story of good versus evil. The emotions are contradictory, and that’s precisely why it’s so deeply moving.
“I wish to add that with Katri’s visual and emotional storytelling abilities she created a beautiful, unique, layered and the most soulful BEAST IN BLACK music video to date, which connects to a human heart and reminds us how fragile it is, and yet so sincerely hopeful in its innocent core. We all have been children, we all are someone’s children, some of us have children. And we all are drawn to that warm light glowing softly in the window called home”.
photo credit: Jarmo Katila / Toni Kilpinen
