International powerhouse BEAST IN BLACK have proudly revealed ‘Lost Children’, the breathtaking next track from their highly anticipated upcoming fourth studio album, Fear The Beast (Nuclear Blast).
Arriving just in time to fuel the anticipation for their upcoming gigantic headline tour—which officially kicks off with a sold out show at London’s Kentish Town Forum on 26th October —’Lost Children’ delivers a sweeping, truly epic power ballad experience. Deepening the band’s long-standing creative love affair with the iconic manga Berserk, the track features a towering vocal performance from frontman Yannis Papadopoulos, who pushes his soaring, dramatic voice to phenomenal new heights.
To visually match the grand scale of the song, the band has once again collaborated with award-winning director Katri Ilona Koppanen to deliver a stunning and cinematic music video that perfectly captures the majestic, emotional weight of the track.
Anton Kabanen explains:
“Lost Children Chapter” is one of my absolute favourite parts of Berserk manga, if not my favourite. 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 (the 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