Baest is the biggest death metal export Denmark has to offer at this time, and they’re doing very well with that. Hence, it was quite surprising to see them announced as support for D-A-D - arguably Denmark’s most popular band, at least within the borders - as their hard rock leans towards a highly different crowd than Baest. Kudos to D-A-D for going with them anyway, and for giving us of the metal persuasion something to smile about when heavy death blasted the ‘regular’ people present, who clearly did NOT know what they were in for.

“We’re Baest from Aarhus and we’re the hard theme of the evening! Can you take it?!”
- Simon Olsen (vocals)

After an inordinately long intro (was it the instrumental version of Genesis? It could have been, but I’m not sure), given they only had half an hour of stage time, Baest took the stage to a fairly lukewarm reception. Ok, let me set the scene: the hall was possibly only around half filled at this time, and as mentioned, there were several people here who didn’t even know who Baest were, so when I say lukewarm, I mean that there were a lot of people who didn’t react at all, and few vocal fans who reacted enthusiastically.
Baest in turn didn’t waste any more time on small talk, but went straight into the first song, blowing quite a few minds as they did so, as mentioned above.
Straight off the bat, I liked the energy the band was bringing. Mattias Melchiorsen was an explosion, Simon Olsen wasn’t far behind him, as he was gladly moving from stage to catwalk to all over the place, jumping around when fitting to the music. Sebastian Abilsten was quickly working up a sweat behind the drums, and only the two guitarists, Lasse Revsbech and Svend Karlsson, proved quite stationary for a long while. They headbanged wildly, but it wasn’t until a few songs into the set that they began using the stage as well, though still quite limited compared to Olsen and Melchiorsen.

“We’re a small band from Aarhus, playing together with a large Danish band, D-A-D. What are you up to?”
- Olsen (vocals)

It is highly likely that this energy helped win at least a few more in the audience over, because it didn’t take long before Olsen got people to clap their hands in time with the music. He also opened up more, and gave appropriately lengthened comments and witticisms between songs. What sealed the deal for several however, was probably the guest appearance of Jesper Binzer (D-A-D) on vocals for the (I’m guessing since I can’t find it anywhere) new track, King Of The Sun, in which Binzer seemed to enjoy himself immensely. he didn’t go for a death growl, but kept his screams closer to his regular rock vocals as he belted out the title in the chorus. I wonder if he’ll appear in the recorded version as well, or if this was a special live treat?

My only problem with Baest is that I have still not gotten hooked on their music, which I felt was quite sad, because that would really have lifted the experience to a whole new level. Still, the performance in itself was convincing and energetic, and I did enjoy that part very much.

Setlist:

Ecclesia
Misfortunate
Imp Of The Perverse
King Of The Sun (feat. Jesper Binzer)
Necro Sapiens