Bast - Spectres (2014)

It’s been a long time coming for Kingston-based black metal / doom band Bast, but this year finally marks the arrival of their long overdue debut album Spectres.

Originally formed as a two-piece back in 2008, Bast have been a sporadic but always welcome presence in the London music scene for years, racking up some impressive support slots with the likes of Ufomammut, A Storm of Light and Ramesses, before finally arriving at their current formation in 2011 with the arrival of a bass player.

Bast - Spectres

During this time they recorded a demo titled Branches In Earth, Roots In The Sky, but how widely that circulated is not really very clear so for many people Bast may be a relatively new name, particularly outside of the UK. Back in 2011 after witnessing the band for the first time at the Seven Churches all-dayer in their native Kingston, I wrote “Bast are seriously fucking heavy,” and guess what?

That hasn’t changed. Rather, with Chris Fielding of Foel / Skyhammer Studios legend at the desk and all manner of vintage valve amps at their disposal, Bast have gained a considerable amount of clout and on the strength of these recordings, the first produced at Skyhammer Studios, Bast became the first signees to Jon Davis’ fledgling Black Bow Records, with Burning World Records quickly offering to handle things on the continent.

From the first frenetic moments of barnstorming opener ‘In The Beginning‘ to the almost comically stadium-rock ending of breathtaking closer ‘Outside The Circles Of Time‘ Bast are a true revelation on record, just as they are in a live setting. Spectres could be described as a kind of concept album in as much as lyrical themes recur throughout the four songs (the fifth is an instrumental) while feedback physically links the songs to make the album an immersive experience to be best enjoyed as a whole.

Musically Bast lean more towards Doom than Black Metal, favouring to break up lengthy, slovenly riffs with emotionally charged hammering which is a dynamic that works beautifully well throughout. Likewise, the band use a loud / quiet dynamic on tracks like ‘Denizen‘ and ‘Outside The Circles Of Time‘ which helps emphasise their exploratory and progressive song writing style.




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Genre: Doom
Subgenre: Blackened Doom / Sludge Metal
Bitrate: 320 k
Size: 106.61 MB
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