Benighted, the brutal Death Metal/Deathgrind band from France, recorded their new album ‘Necrobreed’ and will release it on 17th February 2017. I got the tracks a while ago, for this review and will present you my thoughts about it.
The record starts with Asphodel (from the French experimental band Chenille) singing an eerie version of “Hush Little Baby” supported by evil guitars and creepy synths similar to a horror movie. It was good enough to evoke goose bumps in me. Without any forewarning a storm of blasting instruments and vocals follows with “Reptilian”, the first song of the album. I really liked the mixture of the heavy, frenetic parts, the groove laden, headbanging riffs and the progressive rhythm sections. After all, this is what Benighted is known for.
Next song “Psychosilencer” starts with a short over driven guitar and a bulldozer of crazy fast riffage but seldom losing the groove. I identified some influences of classical Grindcore riffs here. It’s not a surprise but it definitely brought a grin to my face. The outro of the song contains a spartan lead melody with impressive gang shouts which fade out until the end of the song. Very nice so far! After that, the previously released song “Forgive Me Father” follows. This song is really awesome like the tracks so far. The mixture of brutal riffs and groovy parts is well done. But there are some details in songwriting that I was really surprised about. If someone would say that grindcore-influenced music sounds like a broken laundry, just listen to this song. It’s a creative combination of powerful riffs without any reason of boredom. Especially, the evil, groovy mid section of the song is awesome and sounds like bad-tempered black metal with balls while a dog or something similar is whimpering. Trevor Strnad from The Black Dahlia Murder joins frontman Julien Truchan together to shape this juggernaut. Impressive piece of music!
The excursion with the bulldozer continues with the next song “Leatherface”. After a short intro about a murder, the song blasted my mind. The mid part of the song is crazy, clean guitars, creepy singing and all of it spiked by brutal drums, heavy bass and distortions. “Der Doppelgaenger” is one of the most playful songs of the album and this is a nice variety to the wrecking ball filled with Deathgrind so far. Although the character of the song is similar but it doesn’t get boring. The lead guitars make the song very interesting and worthy of repeated spins. It follows the title track “Necrobreed” which is also the shortest song of the album. It is just 90 seconds of pure brutality in classic Benighted-style with crazy vocals. This track is sure to spring up circle pits when played live.
“Monsters Make Monsters”, although is a strange song title, but it is awesome. It grooves right from the beginning. The interaction between the different kinds of vocals in the chorus caught my attention instantly. The mid section is interesting with a creepy piano and heavy breathing and lead into the headbanging part of the track including an awesome guitar solo. This is the kind of songwriting which shows that grindcore-influenced music doesn’t have to be monotonous. The guys in Benighted surely know their craftsmanship. The next song “Cum With Disgust” garnered support from one of their past members, Arno (Black Bomb A).
“Versipellis” is similar to the song before, but without any guest on the microphone. It’s quite fine as an interlude to the final track of the album. “Reeks Of Darkened Zoopsia” starts with some radio snippets including the intro riff of the song. The riff at the beginning caught me first time listening. It’s groovy and the guitar sound is awesome and really heavy. Beware of headbanging! The rest of the song have a sequence of interesting riffs and playful arrangements with lead melodies, vocals and gang shouts combining groove and some fierce blast beats. Last but not least the last song “Mass Grave” of the album came to my ears. For me, this song deserve the final place of the album. If you mix all the good things I mentioned before and merge them, you’ll get exactly this song. Awesome vocals, gang shouts, riffs, arrangements and song structure. I was really impressed.
The album is clear, powerful and detailed and there’s nothing to complain in the production with every detail of the composition rising out and being heard clearly. Although it maybe difficult to make Deathgrind varied and interesting to listen to, but Benighted creates a wide spectrum of arrangements in every song without a single exception. If you don’t know Benighted or didn’t like Deathgrind or brutal Death Metal so far, try this album and get lost in the creativity and awesome riffage.
