Slow and heavy, Bast are a band that have entered their tenth year of existence this year and through that time, they have crafted themselves a name with an unnerving sound of blackened doom that has landed them slots on festival lineups and one off support slots with plenty of bands that have caused a stir in their genres.
Following up to their debut release, ‘Spectres’ from 2014, they continued their work with Conan bassist producing the album, and the quality shows. The ever present darkness looms like a thick fog throughout, the slow tranquil opener ‘Distant Suns’ sets the tone, it’s mellow, gentle passages layer up and ease you into its vast depths, eventually breaking with ‘Far Horizons’. Steady in pace, it devastates the eardrums before breaking several minutes into a blackened melody that slightly increases the pace before pulling back into a clean sounding swell. The restraint and control slowly builds up before returning with their well known vocals. A Black metal style lead makes a show as the pace increases a touch again, showcasing how much they’ve developed and grown musically since their debut release.
‘The Beckoning Void’ cuts more brutally with a fast aggressive beginning, its simplicity over complicated approach to riff drives hard bringing attention more to the lyrical content, when the track finally gives way from speed we are given yet more touching melody and passages that break down and build up again, moments like this are what have gave the band a deserved fan base. The clean tones have their beauty like a stormy day has its moments, with guitar and bass working harmoniously together and allowing creativity to shine on drums, all together pushing the tracks to lengthy times that could makes lesser fans falter, but making the tracks flow into each other like a story. The title track ‘Nanoangstrom’ tests itself on those with a low threshold for those wanting things more straight forward, developing as it feeds slowly on it sludge-like growth, it finally evolves with a time signature change, creating a new element to the song that is long worked around almost progressively.
Bast – Nanoangstrom
Slow and heavy, Bast are a band that have entered their tenth year of existence this year and through that time, they have crafted themselves a name with an unnerving sound of blackened doom that has landed them slots on festival line ups and one off support slots with plenty of bands that have caused a stir in their genres.
Following up to their debut release, ‘Spectres’ from 2014, they continued their work with Conan bassist producing the album, and the quality shows. The ever present darkness looms like a thick fog throughout, the slow tranquil opener ‘Distant Suns’ sets the tone, it’s mellow, gentle passages layer up and ease you into its vast depths, eventually breaking with ‘Far Horizons’. Steady in pace, it devastates the eardrums before breaking several minutes in to a blackened melody that slightly increases the pace before pulling back into a clean sounding swell. The restraint and control slowly builds up before returning with their well known vocals. A Black metal style lead makes a show as the pace increases a touch again, showcasing how much they’ve developed and grown musically since their debut release.
‘The Beckoning Void’ cuts more brutally with a fast aggressive beginning, its simplicity over complicated approach to riff drives hard bringing attention more to the lyrical content, when the track finally gives way from speed we are given yet more touching melody and passages that break down and build up again, moments like this are what have gave the band a deserved fan base. The clean tones have their beauty like a stormy day has its moments, with guitar and bass working harmoniously together and allowing creativity to shine on drums, all together pushing the tracks to lengthy times that could makes lesser fans falter, but making the tracks flow into each other like a story. The title track ‘Nanoangstrom’ tests itself on those with a low threshold for those wanting things more straight forward, developing as it feeds slowly on it sludge-like growth, it finally evolves with a time signature change, creating a new element to the song that is long worked around almost progressively.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yHHs7dIAWg
Barely under ten minutes, ‘A Red Line Through the Black’ has the unlucky task of trying to hold up against the previous, a Conan-esque feel is very clear, with not much diversion throughout, nuances of experimental approach make themselves heard much more towards the end, but all in all we get much more of a classic sounding Bast for the most part. ‘The Ghosts Which Haunt the Space Between the Stars’ closes off in a huge fashion, the longest song Bast have recorded to date, it is also the most impressive and worthy. The blackened sound has an almost death and roll feel as it pushes on, by far the most daring in comparison to the rest of the record, its darkened beauty is the gift that keeps giving and makes what was already a good album feel like it was just the warm up. So far ahead of Spectres, Nanoangstrom is a beautiful story from start to end.
With Bast, you aren’t quite sure where it will go next, but you know in their way that it will go somewhere worth your time. Crafting landscapes, soothing melodies, a constant dark touch, you must follow this rabbit down the hole just to see where it goes.
Double vinyl and CD bundles are available to pre-order now via Black Bow Records.
Barely under ten minutes, ‘A Red Line Through the Black’ has the unlucky task of trying to hold up against the previous, a Conan-esque feel is very clear, with not much diversion throughout, nuances of experimental approach make themselves heard much more towards the end, but all in all we get much more of a classic sounding Bast for the most part. ‘The Ghosts Which Haunt the Space Between the Stars’ closes off in a huge fashion, the longest song Bast have recorded to date, it is also the most impressive and worthy. The blackened sound has an almost death and roll feel as it pushes on, by far the most daring in comparison to the rest of the record, its darkened beauty is the gift that keeps giving and makes what was already a good album feel like it was just the warm up. So far ahead of Spectres, Nanoangstrom is a beautiful story from start to end.
With Bast, you aren’t quite sure where it will go next, but you know in their way that it will go somewhere worth your time. Crafting landscapes, soothing melodies, a constant dark touch, you must follow this rabbit down the hole just to see where it goes.
Double vinyl and CD bundles are available to pre-order now via Black Bow Records.
