Live Review : Baest + Pist + Beyond Salvation @ Rebellion, Manchester on February 7th 2024

Most musical sub-genres have the lifespan of a Mayfly. They bloom and wither before the ink is even dry on the requisite hyperbole. Death metal has had a counterintuitive evolution. Born 40 years ago it completely bucks the trend by managing to go around in infinite circles of regeneration. Currently, it feels more vital and fuller of life (pun very much intended) than it ever has. Baest are one of those new generation of death metal acts who are deftly managing to remain steadfastly authentic but also bring a dimension of light and shade to the music. Basically death metal long ago stopped being an underground phenomenon and has now become one of the primary movers that are shaping modern metal.

Live Review : Baest + PIST + Atanamir @ Satan's Hollow, Manchester on April 12th 2022

Well, the shows are coming thick and fast. Tonight, is the utter antithesis of my previous engagement with Ghost at the arena. This is metal in its most gnarly cellar-dwelling form. Harsh, anti-social, un-commercial and utterly unrepentant. Liverpudlians Atanamir are first up, and whilst Satan’s Hollow is not in any way full, they pull a good crowd for this time of the day. They trade in doom laced thrash, which results in a really interesting intertwinement of the formers lethargy and the latter’s pulsating canter like nature.

Live Review : Decapitated + Dyscarnate + Baest @ Academy 3, Manchester on February 12th 2019

Baest are first out of the traps tonight and their name translates from their native Danish as brute which pretty much sums up their very old skool approach to Death Metal. Their heads down lightning fast version of the genre may lack the subtlety and technicality of their touring partners, but for an ageing metal head like me it has a real charm to it.