BAEST

Justitia EP

Written by: AP on 13/06/2022 16:27:06

BAEST is swiftly building a reputation as not just the most popular, but also the most prolific metal band in Denmark, having thus far issued three full-length albums, as well as three extended plays since their birth in 2016. In their heavily saturated scene, it is a formula destined for success, one that ensures the Århusian death metal crew remains on everyone’s lips all of the time — and with the festival season looming, the quintet kept to their tradition of dropping records 12 to 18 months apart with the unveiling of “Justitia”, their fourth and latest EP in the end of last month, hot on the heels of their 2021 offering “Necro Sapiens”.

If you are already familiar with BAEST, there are few surprises to find hidden within its 33 minutes of runtime, which comprises four brand new tracks, an instrumental take on “Genesis” off “Necro Sapiens”, as well as a tributary cover of Entombed A.D.’s “Second to None”. But that is not to say that the five musicians have been treading water for a year, for as ever, their classic death metal palette has been injected with fresh nuances that build upon the more progressive style explored in previous songs like “Goregasm” and the aforementioned “Genesis”. The decision to include an instrumental version of it here was in fact probably driven by a desire to expose its compositional and technical intricacies to a fuller extent than was possible with Simon Olsen’s growls muddying the waters, and it does the trick. It was originally meant to be a forewarning, perhaps, of what was to come with this new offering, which features some of the band’s most ambitious songwriting yet.

Fans of BAEST’s particular brand of groovy, bulls**t-free death metal need not fret either, though, as that ground is covered by the likes of the titular opener, a steamrolling piece played mostly in a medium tempo and rendered extra brutal by a guest appearance from Aborted’s Sven De Caluwé. “Creature” brings another eerie matrimony of the Floridian and Stockholmian schools of the genre, again focusing on what’s essential, and leaving the frills for the two proggier pieces “Ecclesia” and “Gargoyles”. In the former, it is particularly guitarists Lasse Revsbech and Svend Karlsson shining with a diverse palette of riffs, harmonised melodies, and even a pair of blazing solos at either end, while the latter kicks off with a strangely uplifting acoustic melody, before unfurling into a Carcass-style razing in which snarly guest vocals by the late Trevor Strnad steal the show in one of his last ever musical contributions.

At this point no one expects BAEST to release anything particularly groundbreaking, but even so, on “Justitia” the band continues to impress, delivering another well written barrage of death metal designed to address the headbanging primate that lives inside all of us metalheads regardless of our predisposition to the genre. Furthermore, the EP contains a sufficient amount of evolutionary touches to keep BAEST sounding fresh and relevant in their crowded scene, not to mention giving their fanbase some brand new chops to rage along to just as the festival season kicks off.

8

Download: Ecclesia, Gargoyles, Creature
For the fans of: Bloodbath, Dismember, Grave, Morbid Angel
Listen: Facebook

Release date 27.05.2022
Century Media

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