BAST Nanoångström

BLACK BOW Psychedelic sludge crew offer more art than heart

Having navigated the hyperbole surrounding their first LP, Spectres, Bast have kept to the same course with Nanoångström; it’s equal parts churning, psych-dappled doom and Cascadian black metal, compensating its lighter, less-rugged touch with a neat line in heraldic riffing and, on The Beckoning Void, some enjoyably monastic overtones. But it still mistakes expertise, production clout and duration for grandness of vision, leaving us with a serviceable slab that seems to have been assembled under the belief that the genius of Neurosis lay solely in writing songs that lasted longer than eight minutes.

FOR FANS OF: Wolves In The Throne Room, Yob, Ufomammut

ALEX DELLER