BATTLE BEAST Bassist Initially Thought 'No More Hollywood Endings' Was A Weird Choice For Album Title

The "Everblack" podcast recently conducted an interview with bassist Eero Sipilä of Finnish metallers BATTLE BEAST about the band's new studio album, "No More Hollywood Endings". You can listen to the entire chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the meaning behind the "No More Hollywood Endings" album title:

Eero: "First, we had pretty much everything else done. We had the songs and the album cover art, even, then it was Joona's [Björkroth, guitar] idea for such a title. I think it took a bit of getting used to for every one of us. For now, I think it's a great title. Initially, I thought, 'Is that a bit weird for a metal album?' I suppose it's supposed to be a bit weird to get the people talking. Everybody can make a different assumption as to what this album title means. Personally, to me, it feels like it's about not accepting other people's choices and not taking the easy road and being the master of your own future. Yeah, I think it's a good title."

On whether some of the songs on "No More Hollywood Endings" have a "personal" meaning to them:

Eero: "No, it's not actually like that. I mean, we don't actually plan on stuff. We do it the other way around. First, we do songs and whatever we do, then we see what we have. But it's kind of a weird group chemistry thing. There are these running themes like hope and self-empowerment which are present in a lot of the songs, but on the other hand, it also makes sense there are a couple of songs which are not. We didn't decide on a specific theme; we don't really think like that. We do the songs first and put them all into a blender and see what comes out and this is what you get."

On whether BATTLE BEAST felt any pressure going into the writing of "No More Hollywood Endings":

Eero: "Yes and no. For us, it doesn't really make sense to start thinking about how high our we are going to chart or anything like that or how much is this going to sell? There's definitely always this pressure of overdoing yourself. Last album was good, but this one has got to be even better. It has to be like that or otherwise you'll get lazy and you start making bad albums. You always have to try to pump yourself [up]. Yeah, that's the sort of pressure you always have."

On BATTLE BEAST having topped its previous studio album, 2017's "Bringer Of Pain":

Eero: "I agree because I also like the last album, and to me, it feels like the musical ideas we had on 'Bringer Of Pain', they are in some way, more evolved this time around. We went further down with all those musical approaches and all those ideas. Yeah, more everything. [Laughs]"

On vocalist Noora Louhimo's performance on their new album:

Eero: "It's also something we've been concentrating more and more on, like putting the focus on Noora's vocals. To be honest, that is the thing in every song any band in the world does. Like, 'How is the vocal line? How is the singer?' For a musician, if you're a guitar player, if you're a bass player, it's easy to get down to 'Check out this cool riff. We've got to put this super high in the mix.' But that's not good for the audience and that's not good for the song. Yeah, we basically nowadays put a lot of focus on deciding on which key fits the best for Noora's voice and we have to put the songs in the correct key in order for her to be more loose."

"No More Hollywood Endings" was released March 22 via Nuclear Blast. The album was recorded by Janne Björkroth, Viktor Gullichsen and Joona Björkroth at JKB Studio. The production and mixing duties were handled by Janne. The cover artwork was created by Jan Yrlund (KORPIKLAANI, MANOWAR),who previously worked with BATTLE BEAST on "Bringer Of Pain".