Beast (South African band)

Lore & Background

The band originated in late 2011 when Rian Zietsman and Louis Nel, members of Taxi Violence, bought two bass guitars and began practicing in a basement. They described these early sessions as an experiment because 'no one had tried [the two-bass set-up] before'. Drummer Sasha Righini joined soon after, and the group performed their first show under the name 'Kombass'. Vocalist Inge Beckmann joined after Lark announced a semi-permanent hiatus, and the band settled on the name BEAST.

Their debut album, Smoke Swig Swear, was recorded over four days in September 2012 at Sound and Motion Studios in Cape Town and self-released as a free download to widespread local critical acclaim. The album launched at The Assembly in Cape Town on 23 February 2013. The band toured extensively, performing at Oppikoppi, Up The Creek, Rocking The Daises, and Splashy Fen.

In mid-2013, Sasha Righini left and was replaced by Werner von Waltsleben. The band attempted crowdfunding on Indiegogo for their second album but raised only US$1,739 of their US$8,000 goal. A private investor then helped fund the recording. The second album, Bardo, was recorded in October 2014 at Heritage Sound with producer Brendyn Rossouw and launched on 27 February 2015. Its theme focuses on the Tibetan Buddhist state between life and death.

Reader's Guide

Beast occupies a distinctive niche in the South African rock scene due to their unusual twin-bass instrumentation, with Zietsman playing rhythm in a lower key and Nel employing a higher chord-based lead approach. Their self-released debut album garnered local critical acclaim without major label support, and their second album Bardo was similarly praised for its professionalism. The band's crowdfunding failure and subsequent private investment highlight the challenges independent artists face in funding ambitious projects. Their energetic live performances and self-described 'psychological rock and roll' identity set them apart from more conventional garage rock acts. Though not widely known internationally, Beast's commitment to artistic freedom and their unique sound have earned them a place in South African rock history.

Did You Know?

• The band originally performed under the name 'Kombass', a word play on the Afrikaans word 'kombuis' (kitchen).
• Their twin-bass setup was described by Rian Zietsman as an experiment because 'no one had tried [the two-bass set-up] before'.
• Their second album Bardo was inspired by the Tibetan Buddhist concept of the state between life and death, after Inge Beckmann read Charlie Morley's book Dreams of Awakening.
• The band's crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo raised only US$1,739 of its US$8,000 goal.

Origins: The Basement Experiment and Finding a Voice

In late 2011, two members of the Cape Town band Taxi Violence—Rian Zietsman and Louis Nel—shared a mutual curiosity about the bass guitar. Rather than simply picking up an instrument, they each purchased one and began experimenting in the basement of the house they cohabited. Zietsman later recalled the sessions as a genuine experiment, noting that no one had attempted a two-bass configuration before. The duo soon recruited drummer Sasha Righini, who played with The Plastics, and booked their first gig under the playful moniker "Kombass," a pun on the Afrikaans word for kitchen. After a recording session at Kill City Blues Studios, the pair set out to find a vocalist. Inge Beckmann, frontwoman of Lark, had been in informal contact with them during the early days, but they deliberately waited until the instrumental sound felt complete before extending a proper invitation. Beckmann joined just as Lark entered what she described as a semi-permanent break. She initially proposed renaming the project "Bow Beast," a visual image she found compelling, but the group ultimately settled on the bolder, simpler name BEAST.

The Sound: Two Basses and a Garage Ethos

What sets BEAST apart in the South African rock landscape is their deliberate rejection of the standard guitar-and-bass pairing. Instead, both Zietsman and Nel play bass guitars, but in distinctly different registers. Zietsman anchors the low end with a rhythmic, groove-oriented approach similar to a conventional bassist, while Nel carves out a higher, chord-driven melodic role that effectively substitutes for a lead guitar. To push the texture further, they route their instruments through a bass amplifier and a standard guitar amplifier simultaneously, producing what they describe as a rawer, harder, and more low-fi sonic character. The band has characterized their overall aesthetic as "psychological rock and roll" and, with characteristic self-deprecating humour, as a "four-nippled aberration." Rooted in the garage rock tradition, BEAST built its reputation almost entirely on the energy of its live shows, delivering high-octane performances that audiences at festivals across the country remembered long after the set ended.

Two Albums, Two Philosophies: Smoke Swig Swear and Bardo

The debut record, Smoke Swig Swear, was tracked in just four days at Sound and Motion Studios in Cape Town during September 2012. Distributed as a free download rather than through a commercial label, it earned widespread praise from local critics. The official launch took place at The Assembly in Cape Town on 23 February 2013, and two weeks later the band published a short experimental documentary on Vimeo that offered an unfiltered look at their rehearsals, studio sessions, and stage presence. In the months surrounding the release, they toured extensively, appearing at major South African festivals including Oppikoppi, Up The Creek, Rocking The Daises, and Splashy Fen. For the second album, Bardo, the process was more turbulent. A 2014 Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign fell well short of its target, raising only US$1,739 against a US$8,000 goal. A private investor stepped in, and the band recorded at Heritage Sound with producer Brendyn Rossouw. Launched in February 2015, Bardo drew on the Tibetan Buddhist concept of the in-between state, a theme Beckmann explored after reading Charlie Morley's Dreams of Awakening. Critics praised its professionalism, with one calling it a work that transcended being "a mere piece of music."

Supergroup by Design: Independence and Identity

BEAST was never a conventional band assembled from scratch. Every member arrived carrying the identity of an established Cape Town act: Beckmann from Lark, Zietsman and Nel from Taxi Violence, and drummer Werner von Waltsleben from Kobus!. The latter joined in mid-2013 after original drummer Sasha Righini departed to pursue solo work. Von Waltsleben, a longtime admirer of both Taxi Violence and Lark, described the opportunity to play in BEAST as a dream realised, saying it let him perform the kind of music he had always wanted to make. Crucially, the group chose to operate outside the major-label system that had supported their parent bands. When they launched a crowdfunding campaign in August 2014 for their second album, they explicitly cited artistic and creative freedom as their guiding principle, while acknowledging that achieving the production quality they envisioned would be far harder without institutional backing. That independence shaped everything from their self-released debut to their direct-to-fan distribution model, reinforcing BEAST's identity as a project defined by creative autonomy rather than commercial infrastructure.

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