Beast In Black play the kind of power metal that hits hard before you’ve found your footing: heavy riffs stacked against 1980s synth drama, Yannis Papadopoulos singing like every room is already sold out. March 21 at Empire Live is where Albany gets its first taste of them as North American headliners.
About the Show
The Helsinki band has been building toward this for a decade. Guitarist and songwriter Anton Kabanen, formerly of Battle Beast, founded the band in 2015 and built its sound around a specific collision: metal riffs and melodic hooks run through the drama and energy of 1980s pop and electronic music. Lyrical themes draw from dark fantasy and science fiction, particularly the manga Berserk, which inspired a 2025 collaboration with Blizzard Entertainment around Diablo IV. Three albums — Berserker (2017), From Hell With Love (2019), and Dark Connection (2021) — went platinum or gold in Finland, with Dark Connection debuting at number one. Festival stages at Wacken Open Air, Hellfest, and Graspop followed. They’ve toured North America before in a support capacity, but Kabanen sat out the most recent Helloween run specifically to finish the band’s fourth record.
That record is Fear The Beast. Two singles are already out ahead of the release: the title track on September 10, 2026, and the power ballad “Lost Children” in October 2026, both with music videos by director Katri Ilona Koppanen. Kabanen on the emotional weight of “Lost Children”: “You can understand why characters make choices without necessarily forgiving what they do.” The 31-date run, February 11 through March 26, is built around that album. British power metal band Gloryhammer opens every date, Albany included. Albany also marks the North American live debut of new lead guitarist Markus Venehsalo, joining Kabanen, Papadopoulos, bassist Máté Molnár, and drummer Atte Palokangas.
Venue & Logistics
Empire Live, on North Pearl Street in the capital region, holds 1,000 standing. It’s a room built for a crowd that knows what it came for. For a band that headlines Wacken and Hellfest, a show this size is a different kind of access: close enough to feel, not watch from a field.
Tickets
No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. Presale opens October 29 at 10 a.m. local time; general on-sale follows October 30 at 10 a.m. Tickets also available at beastinblack.com/tour. Buy tickets