BAEST - Venenum (2019)

It is easy to underestimate Denmark’s contribution to death metal, especially in the face of America and Sweden. But from early days of infancy, through trembling years of youth, long murky middle-age and final hours long in the tooth. Denmark is the hundred names of terror, creature you love the least. Now picture its name before you and exorcise the BAEST. Less than twelve months since their vicious debut Danse Macabre, BAEST have returned with yet another helping of slick Scandinavian savagery. Whenever a band follows an album quite so quickly it’s always cause for slight concern. Perhaps tellingly, Venenum doesn’t really stray from the debut’s template. Stylistically, it is a perfectly analogous sequel in almost every way. But when fellow Dane Hans Christian Andersen said “Death walks faster than the wind and never returns what he has taken,” he was not fucking about.

BAEST were amongst my favorites in the great death metal flood of 2018. Their take on the traditional HM-2 inferno breaks no new boundaries but is effortlessly rich. Instead of following in the feral footsteps of certain skinfathers of old, the Danes eschew an abrupt flaying in favor of depth, placing a premium on superior songwriting. As all good openings should, the first three tracks act as a microcosm of the album. “Vitriol Lament” and “Gula” provide careening riffs and mid-paced crunch respectively. The latter entertains with a taught and effortlessly addictive gallop. These moments are BAEST‘s stock in trade; an ability to galvanize typical form with a bulletproof lustre. “Nihil” is my favorite of Venenum‘s crippling collection. MENA melodies solicit enough combinations of menace and memorability to unravel a sadistic riff-serpent. The song immediately coils around the attention span and engages with the insistent threat of fangs. Instead, it mesmerizes with an indulgent solo and deliberately constricts, never once breaking eye-contact.

Such is BAEST‘s Fathomless Mastery of the genre that a familiar Bloodbath begins to pool. That album – already a stylistic tribute to death lords of old – has clearly influenced the band greatly. Vocalist Simon Olsen’s timbre and delivery are enviable. He manages to thunder each exaltation with a clarity that never sacrifices violence in the face of coherence. His phrasing and vocal lines are just as effective, but they are often identical to Akerfeldt’s. Both the riffs and vocal patterns on “Heresy” are directly ripped from the likes of “Iesous” and “Mock the Cross.” 1 It’s hard to levy this as a criticism but, when the similarities are so strict, it serves as an unfortunate reminder of the genre’s homogeneous habits. “Sodomized” is a potent Swedeath flesh grinder, but it falls too late in the record to deviate from the mid-pace the album eventually leans on. Similarly, readers of mine will know how I feel about brief instrumental interludes. Either bolt them on to a full song or burn them. Sadly,”Styx” arrives guilty as charged.

TRACKLIST

01. Baest - Vitriol Lament
02. Baest - Gula
03. Baest - Nihil
04. Baest - Venenum
05. Baest - Styx
06. Baest - Heresy
07. Baest - As Above So Below
08. Baest - Sodomize
09. Baest - Empty Throne
10. Baest - No Guts, No Glory (cover version)