UMUR "Venenum" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Danish, Aarhus based death metal act Baest. The album was released through Century Media Records in September 2019. It´s the successor to "Danse Macabre" from 2018, which was an album that was generally well received by fans and critics alike and created a hype in their native country (and also gave them attention on the international scene), which meant Baest a little unexpectedly was mentioned in Danish mainstream media (they were even the subject of a public service television documentary) and successful performances on the 2019 Copenhell festival and the 2019 Roskilde Festival further strengthened their profile. Baest had thereby successfully established themselves as the new darlings of the Danish death metal scene, but they also had success outside the borders of Denmark and were planning to tour Europe when the Corona virus hit and postponed their plans.

Stylistically the material on "Venenum" continues the old school death metal style of "Danse Macabre (2018)". If you enjoyed the predecessor, there is no way in hell you aren´t going to appreciate "Venenum". The two albums are very similar in style and also feature sound productions which are close to sounding alike. It´s still Morbid Angel with an old school Swedish death metal guitar tone that I´m reminded of when listening to Baest. They often spice things up with the use of some middle eastern scales and leads motifs, but mostly this is just good solid old school death metal packed in a raw and powerful sounding production.

Not much has happened in terms of musical development since the debut album, and the same issues with the songwriting persist. While "Venenum" is a high quality death metal album when it comes to the musicianship and the sound production, Baest don´t yet master writing consistently catchy material, and only few tracks stand out and are memorable after the album has finished playing. That´s not a disaster given the musical style, which isn´t exactly designed to be easily accessible, but I´d still have appreciated the album more, if Baest had been able to make the tracks stick. Sometimes a moment of brilliance appear, like using a lyric line and a diction very close to the Simon & Garfunkel lyric line: "And in the naked light I saw. Ten thousand people, maybe more" from their famous song "The Sound of Silence", on their "Nihil" track, og the catchy lyrics on "Sodomize", but just as often the tracks are just solid and lack the last memorability to really shine.

So upon conclusion "Venenum" is a good quality sophomore release by Baest, but it´s not the quantum Leap which sometimes happen between a debut album and the follow-up release. There are loads of promise here though and I´m sure there are more to come from Baest in the future. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Danse Macabre" is the debut full-length studio album by Danish, Aarhus based death metal act Baest. The album was released through Century Media Records in August 2018. Baest formed in 2015 under the Bæst monicker (which is Danish for Beast) but changed to the current band name in 2016. They released the "Marie Magdalene" EP in 2016.

Stylistically the material on "Danse Macabre" is old school death metal to the core. Morbid Angel influenced death metal with the guitar tone of Entombed is a pretty valid description of the band´s sound and it´s not a release where you´ll find many surprises. Baest know every old school death metal trick in the book, and use most of them with great success. These guys can play too and everything is performed with great skill and conviction. The growling vocals are deep and effectful, but a little one-dimensional and a few more intelligible phrases could have made the vocal part of the music more interesting.

One of the greatest assets of the album is the incredibly well sounding production, which is instrumental in presenting the material in the best possible way. The material are generally well written and relatively memorable and the quality is decent from the opening "Crosswhore" to the closing "Ego Te Absolvo". There are some parts which I feel drag a little ("Ego Te Absolvo" is for example a pretty long track which tend to drag) and which are less interesting than the best parts of the album ("Crosswhore" is an example of one of the highlights of the album), but "Danse Macabre" is overall a strong debut album by Baest and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Necro Sapiens" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Danish, Aarhus based death metal act Baest. The album was released through Century Media Records in March 2021. It´s the successor to "Venenum" from 2019 and as the case also was on the predecessor, the quintet lineup who recorded the band´s debut full-length studio album "Danse Macabre (2018)" is still intact on "Necro Sapiens".

Stylistically the material on "Necro Sapiens" continue the early 90s death metal style of the two predecessors and it´s still Morbid Angel I think about first when listening to Baest. The influence from the early 90s Swedish death metal scene is not as apparent on "Necro Sapiens", as it was on the preceding releases. The music is relatively straight forward death metal, but Baest have honed their songwriting skills and the tracks are generally both catchy and memorable. Baest simply understand how to write an effectful death metal tune. The title track is probably the best example of that (it´s an infectiously catchy track), but every track on the album features hooks of some sort. A killer riff, harmonies, a growling part, a driving beat. Baest have always been a well playing band and continue to be so on this album, so it´s definitely in the songwriting department they´ve made most advances.

"Necro Sapiens" features a powerful, brutal, and detailed sound production, which suits the material perfectly, and while the two predecessors definitely also feature well sounding production jobs, this is just another feature on "Necro Sapiens" which is of an even higher quality than what is featured on the preceding releases.

Baest understand the importance of recognisable moments and catchy hooks in this type of death metal, and they deliver that while still retaining old school death metal brutality and rawness. It´s not an easy balance to strike without resorting to melodic leads or other features which are easy on the ears, but also a slightly cheap trick to create something catchy in music this brutal. Baest pretty much avoid those pitfalls, and upon conclusion just deliver a great old school death metal attack, with references to both the US Florida scene and the old school Swedish death metal style. A 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.