Battle Beast (support acts Dominum and Majestica)
Wednesday, 3 Dec 2025
Cvetličarna, Ljubljana, Slovenia
“Midnight Fever”
Not wanting to miss Scandinavian power metal eminence Tommy Johansson and his band Majestica, I showed up at Cvetličarna right on the dot — among the first through the door, precise as a Swiss watch. I still can’t figure out why there were white bar tables set up in the pit area — like, seriously, what? The sparse crowd scattered around the venue hinted at what would turn out to be the worst turnout of this tour leg, something Tommy himself later confirmed.
A man of many talents, member of many bands, and solo YouTuber, Tommy joined Dominum and Battle Beast on this massive tour. Despite his “sprightly” 38 years, the guy has been on the scene since 2000 — earning his hard power metal bread since his early teens.
Their set was made up of six power metal bangers with traces of early Europe and a hint of folk metal in the track Metal United. An otherwise solid performance was let down by an incredibly sterile sound — only a few minor rough patches in Tommy‘s upper register reminded you this was a live show at all. The impression matched that of both the band’s studio albums: top-tier old-school power metal, but without the balls.
Next up were Dominum from Germany, a band I personally knew nothing about. This fresh-faced (founded 2022) quartet of undead in zombie masks deals in some kind of hybrid that draws from the Sabaton playbook at its worst and Pain at its best. The energetic performance from vocalist Dr.Dead and crew got the crowd moving for real — most tracks are built on dance rhythms that’ll have you shaking whether you like it or not. The songs go straight to the ear, naturally; personal highlights were We Are Forlorn and The Dead Don’t Die. A slightly unnecessary cover of the evergreen Scorpions hit Rock Me Like a Hurricane got even the last stubborn holdouts in the crowd to join in. You can find the setlist here.
Speaking of the crowd — a notable chunk of it had made the trip from Vienna, which goes to show that metal isn’t completely dead around here.
The headliners marched onto the stage to a truly massive, thunderous sound that proved absolutely crushing right from the first bars of the opener Straight to the Heart. In my eyes and ears, Noora is currently the best female metal vocalist — and it’s not even close. Her razor-sharp vocal style carries the whole band and adds a much-needed edge that the music keeps losing from album to album. In just over 14 years of activity they’ve racked up seven of them, which is an enviable track record. Live, the band draws only from the last four albums, since the royalty pie is apparently too thin to share with founding member and ousted guitarist Anton Kabanen. Unfortunately, the Finnish six-piece zeroed in on the more accessible, average-“metal”-fan-friendly cuts from their catalog, leaving the heavier stuff to just the trio of Straight to the Heart, Last Goodbye, and Bastard Son of Odin — with the closing Wings of Light partly qualifying. The rest of the setlist was packed with danceable crowd-pleasers that had the gathered audience putting in a commendable effort, which helped paper over the fact that there were only around 400 of us in total. A tight band, great sound, an energetic performance, and a truly unhinged Noora made for a scorching end to the evening and left every melody-hungry punter fully satisfied. I can’t skip past Noora‘s outfit either — it calls to mind a slightly rounded Xenomorph from the alien killer film saga, and she cuts an absolutely imposing figure at center stage.
We definitely got what we came for — a flawlessly executed dance-heavy evening with dedicated performers on stage and charged-up fans in the pit. Where the true metal spirit got lost in all of this, though — that’s another question entirely.
Text: Igorac
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
