Benighted

Benighted is definitely one of the main unsung heroes of the French extreme metal scene. They have been around for over two decades now, and most members of this band, also form part of countless other amazing French metal bands. Benighted is mostly known for their epic brutal death metal with a lot of obvious grindcore influences, however, the origins of this band lays firmly within the realm of black metal. However, one can already deduce death metal and grindcore influences in their debut album. To be honest, it felt incredibly wrong that this album has not yet been reviewed on the metal-archives, so I've decided to delve head first into this album.

One of the main musical attributes which become more and more axiomatic as the album progresses, is the Dani Filth inspired vocal performance. During the late 90s and early 2000s, most Norwegian black metal bands of any note, decided to take things to more experimental grounds. Therefore, the main bands that carried the traditional black metal sound that gained massive amounts of press exposure where Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir. Of the two main black metal trends during the beginning of this millenium, Benighted chose the more commercial and melodic one. This self-titled debut contains seven songs in total and lasts a little bit longer than half an hour. The quality of the song-writing is very impressive, especially the way in which death metal inspired passages manage to flow perfectly into darker and more melodic grounds.

This band's vocalist is definitely one of the most gifted extreme metal vocalists on the scene. He can do deep growls, high shrieks and pig-squeals perfectly. He manages to change vocal styles incredibly fast and never sounds out of place. One of the main songs on which, in my opinion, the vocals manage to steal the show is definitely on the fourth track entitled "Nocturne". The aforementioned track contains some incredible black metal inspired lead guitar riffs but also contains some pretty frantic grindcore-esque drumming and really deep growling. The technical prowess of the guitarists also manages to steal the show a few times. Although this album does not contain a never-ending stream of technically proficient solos, the few leads that exist on this album, sound really impressive and well-suited for the musical style which the band plays.

The production of this album is also pretty good. The guitars are mixed very well, and the drums and vocals never manage to overpower the rest of the instruments. Unfortunately, the lack of bass presence is incredibly frustrating because when you listen to tracks such as the aforementioned "Nocturne", which contain some pretty meaty bass-lines, one realizes that the album could have sounded even better. Another thing which I found a little bit frivolous is the short run time of the entire release, which leaves the listener only wanting more. Highly recommended.