We’re barely close to the end of the first quarter and we’ve already been spoiled by so much good extreme metal and its myriad of subgenres. Deathgrind has always been a genre that snuck up on me but has left a lasting impact. A genre that fuses the mania of grindcore and the menace of death metal provides the perfect tempo and intensity for a great time! When I think of Deathgrind, three bands immediately leap to mind, the Americans with their political take on Deathgrind, Misery Index, the horror and gore-themed Aborted, and the French shock value sadism-fueled dudes in Benighted. Aborted recently released an absolute banger of a record, Vault of Horrors, which I reviewed here. When the new Benighted record came across my desk, I knew it would be the perfect one-two punch of rock-solid Deathgrind!

It’s difficult to not draw parallels to Aborted, and apologize for making this comparison often during this review, but it’s only been in the last decade or so that I have been following Aborted’s work, and unfortunately, Benighted has been a still newer find. With an impressive 25-year-only career, this year’s Ekbom is their tenth studio record. These Deathgrind bands are absolute workhorses and release records on a 2-3 year interval like clockwork. I first became aware of Benighted with their single/video “Experience Your Flesh” off 2014’s Carnivore Sublime, and their take on brutal death spiced with punk and grind sensibilities really tickled a part of my brain I did not know existed. I was fortunate enough to review their previous record Obscene Repressed, quite favorably and that can be read here.

You cannot have a Benighted record without an eerie opening theme, and “Prodome” creates just enough dread with its slightly detuned keys and dungeon echo with a very apt conclusion highlighting the theme of the record title Ekbom, before dropping us straight into the first released single “Scars”. The first single, “Scars” shows us 2024’s Benighted: unrelenting, technical, brutal, and a bloody good time. There is something special about the way Benighted hops between haunting melody and crushing chugs, all the while holding your throat with the sheer emotions the riffs evoke. I absolutely love it when brutal bands pay more attention to writing melodic parts and the verse riff on “Morgue” has a Cattle Decapitation-esque melody to it. The bass drop breakdown on the track is also eerily similar to Aborted’s “The Origin of Disease” (from Global Flatline), but since that’s among my favorite Aborted tracks, I will not complain. However what follows is probably my favorite section on the entire runtime of Ekbom: the staccato breakstop riff caught me from a complete left field. As a jaded metalhead who’s spent years writing about metal, there’s some part of me that always wishes to be wowed, and even a couple of seconds of an expertly written guitar riff like the stop-start one on “Morgue” warms my cold jaded heart.

While Aborted has been slowly immersing themselves more into the straight death metal direction and even dabbling in deathcore elements in Vault of Horrors, Benighted stays true to their grind roots with punk flavorings on “Le Vice des Entrailles”, but there’s still plenty of tasty death grind to be had, for those who aren’t huge fans of the punk skank-beat writing style.

Benighted also shows us its tech-death side on its second released single “Nothing Left to Fear”, with guest vocals courtesy of Oliver Rae Acheron (of Archspire). His trademark machinegun-fire vocal delivery is apropos for the tempo that this track offers and is a solid counterweight with Benighted’s own slimmer growls. The record isn’t devoid of surprising elements either, on the title track “Ekbom” there is an almost thrashy vibe to the intro riff with backing synths to create space. “Fame of the Grotesque” can easily be added to the most unhinged tracks in the Benighted repertoire, while tracks like “Scapegoat” and “Flesh against Flesh” spend time dialing into arrangements with straight melodies to create space between the beatings

As a personal note I love when I learn about new words or new concepts via metal records, and I was curious to see what Ekbom meant. For those of you who are as curious as me, or are simply gluttons for punishment, The Ekbom Syndrome is the name given to the psychological delusion where the affected is convinced that they are covered in bugs and insects and can feel them crawling all over their skin and inside them, and will resort to tearing at their own skin to rid themselves of the imaginary horrors. A perfectly gruesome name for a perfectly gruesome record!

Deathgrind has always been a genre to include thematic or even comedic levity to punctuate the absurd levels of brutality in its other elements. Aborted was famous for including audio snippets from various horror movies and Misery Index with bits of political speeches. “Fame of the Grotesque” pokes fun against streamer/e-girl culture, and while comedic and placed for shock value, it seems oddly intelligently on-brand for the theme of that track.

Benighted seems to be back to being a four-piece, but you wouldn’t say that after listening to the instrumentally dense arrangements throughout the runtime of Ekbom. Guitarist Emanuelle Dalle continues to be a riff master, quickly alternating between punk power chords, grindcore tremolo riffs, and death metal chugs, along with the aforementioned sections of melody. He is backed by bassman and backing vocalist Pierre Arnouxwho adds to that punk sound with his mid-rasp shouts contrasting the main vocal textures. Drummer Kevin Paradis is the deathgrind industry unto himself and entire paragraphs can be written about his contribution to extreme metal records across his various bands. Vocalist Julien Truchan has always been part of why Benighted is so special as an extreme metal band. His vocals have a level of sheer mania that is rarely seen even in the most sordid corners of the death metal world. His diversity of growls, shouts, screeches, yells, and squeals seem all over the place yet add exactly what is needed to the riff he sings over. One of the few vocalists that continues to employ the much-maligned vocal technique of pig squeals, I am glad he continues to champion being an absolute horror behind the mic.

Ekbom is a dense meaty slab of death grind, that will assuredly release more of its genius miasma with each successive listen. A worthy successor to Obscene Repressed, Ekbom continues to showcase why Benighted deserves to be at the helm of Deathgrind!