Beast in Black - Fine Line - Minneapolis MN - April 29th 2022

The Fine Line Presents: Beast in Black, and Striker

Review and Photo by Jake Hageman

I was sad to see Seven Kingdoms drop the last few shows of the Dark Connection Tour, but it was still a great night for music. Striker, and Beast in Black blew the roof off of The Fine Line in Minneapolis Minnesota last night.

Coming out of Edmonton, Canada, Striker packs a punch with their classic mix of heavy metal, hard rock, and 80’s hair metal. Singer Dan Cleary’s powerful vocals, along with melodic guitar riffs from Tim Brown and John Simon Fallon, created a great overall sound for any metal lover’s ears. The band played 8 songs including some of their newer ones like “Deathwish” and “Strange Love”. These guys totally got the crowd pumped up for Beast in Black.

Striker’s Setlist:

Heart of Lies
Born to Lose
Deathwish
Pass Me By
Strange Love
Phoenix Lights
Too Late
Fight For Your Life

Beast in Black has been on the rise since they were founded in Finland in 2015 by guitarist Anton Kabanen. From last night, I can see why so many people love this group! The main reason why I love seeing bands from overseas is because they play smaller shows here in America, and the crowd interaction in these small venues are overall better in my opinion. Kasperi Heikkinen (guitar) was making silly faces towards the crowd all night, and you could totally tell he was having fun. I also loved the fact that both guitarist and bassist did the whole classic 80’s “Let’s all stand next to each other and move back and forth in synchronization” kind of thing. It’s a super classic rock & roll move, and I love when bands do that on stage! Vocalist Yannis Papadopoulos showed off his crazy vocal range and his power set of pipes on every single song. I’ve tried singing some Beast in Black songs before, and I can’t for the life of me do it at all. It blows my mind how he can sing all those high notes damn near every single night on tour.

The thing I like about Beast in Black is that pretty much every song has a driving beat that you can nod your head to. As I was taking pictures in the small balcony above, I could see everyone banging their head at the same time while lots of people sang to their songs. To have this much energy in a smaller venue was incredible. They played some of my favorites like “From Hell With Love”, “Moonlight Rendezvous”, and “Sweet True Lies”. Beast in Black while be coming back to Minnesota on May 13^th opening for Nightwish at The Fillmore in Minneapolis. You will not want to miss that show!

Beast in Black Setlist: