This is a promo for a full-length that I believe this Estonian outfit is currently shopping to labels. I'm very interested in the Estonian scene, and I thought Bestia's 2001 demo was promising, but having not heard them since that time I have to be honest and say that I'm not very interested in this set of songs. It's similar in style, but there are a lot of flaws adding up against this work. Basically they're playing raw black metal that focuses on the genre's classic aspects, it's not too fast, not too slow... there's a good range of tempos, and some of the riffing is a bit more geared towards straight metal. The sneering vocals and general attack are definitely in line with black metal, however. What I don't like are the fact they're using so many keyboards now. The synths add little to the tracks and actually distract from the aggression in most cases. Also, the performances aren't tight enough, and the slight sloppiness doesn't make sense in this context, because the delivery's really not that loose on its own. As far as noteworthy songs, "Libahunt" is a short rager that's far more focused and intense than most of the other material, hinting at a death/thrash edge; "Toonela Varjud" opens with a nice ambient throb that I quite enjoy ("Ruunide Leidmine" is a two-minute ambient interlude that's actually fucking great); and "Suremise Teine Tee" is a bit slower and more dissonant in a way, which I also like. The production also holds them back because the sound is unbalanced. The drums are too flimsy and up front, the guitars can lack atmosphere, the synths clutter things up, the bass is usually too plunky without much true density, etc. The recordings are inconsistent as well, as in certain tracks there are different density levels and the drums can start sounding more plasticy. I still like the cold distance of the vocals, but they're not quite as ferocious as they were on the last material I heard from the band. The black CD-R comes in a plastic sleeve with a simple card insert printed on a color printer with minimal artwork. Honestly the cover art looks pretty terrible to me, it's just too plain and I see no connection between the abstract textures and the music, but it's just a promotional item, so... In the end this isn't doing much for me, and that's the bottomline. The writing doesn't catch me aside from one or two tracks, so I'm not that interested in it. Sorry!
[self-released]
Running time - 35:48, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Libahunt, Ruunide Leidmine, Suremise Teine Tee]
Bestia - http://www.metal.ee/bestia/
