Icon

Where to begin with this stinking piece of sewage...

I love death metal for the aggression and the otherwordly atmosphere, or just the sheer brutality of it, and grindcore is essentially the musical essence of anger – how can you not like that at least a little? Benighted is labelled as brutal death metal/grindcore on the site and has been reviewed thus far only very, very positively. A well executed mixture of grind and death that is not analogous to deathgrind (and especially not deathcore) is a great point of interest for me, so obviously with such exceedingly positive reviews and the interesting label itself the band was almost crying out to be given a listen. So I did.

Since Enmity, this has probably been the worst experience I've had with death metal altogether. At first listen, I didn't expect this to suck so much. The less-than thirty seconds long intro song of the album, ”Complete Exsanguination”, sounds quite promising, production aside, which is painstakingly lifeless and completely without depth. It's a heavily punk-tinged little song with bursts of sheer grinding. That's where all quality ends though – into a tiny hint of what could be talent. The following song, ”Slut”, starts off with the most mediocre, deathcore-esque ”death metal” tripe you can imagine. Paper-thin sounding vocals that are not growls nor screams, intonated in that fast, rhythmical way that screams deathcore. Atonal, fast, downtuned riffs without the slightest ability to captivate; with absolutely no way for the listener to relate. It only sounds nasty for the sake of it, and I assume young scene kids go crazy over music that they think is so brutal that they can't tolerate it. However, this isn't brutal at all. It's vague and lifeless, and it's played as if by a machine. With the pseudo brutal riffs, annoying abrupt breakdowns and the vocalists versatile abilities at making the most deathcorey brees and squeels, not to mention the low pig-like noises, it's as if the music was designed to create as much irritation in the listener as possible.

”Grind Wit” is a metalcore masqueraded as brutal death metal. In the very beginning the vocalist showcases three different ways to say bree, and the band celebrates this by playing more deathcore riffs to go with the vocals. The drummer either blasts very fast or plays what could be drum fills in the end of a blasted section in every bar. At one point, the guitar becomes a rhythm instrument, and the vocalists lapses into a rapped passage in French. Can it get any worse? It's amazing that this is labelled as brutal death metal/grindcore, when this is infact extreme metalcore, or melodic deathcore. Needless to say, I suppose, this album has a production befitting of its true content. The guitar sound brings to mind Slaughter Of The Soul and several modern melodeath albums. It isn't a bad sound as such, but it lacks the power that a death metal record certainly would need, and the riffs played here manage bring out the most annoying characteristics of the guitar tone - a thick artificial transistor amp sound. The drum sounds are the weakest link of the production. A clicky-sounding bassdrum, a too tight sounding snare and quiet, weak cymbals. The drumset completely lacks all power, and while the drumming is extremely skillfully done, it could aswell be a machine, since you can't tell if any feeling at all was put into playing those parts.

The band seems to have attempted to create a hybrid between melodic death metal à la Slaughter of the Soul and Heartwork, death metal like Cryptopsy and especially modern brutal death metal, and then somehow bring into the game Trivium influences and get away with it withotu sounding disjointed. ”Forsaken” is such a bad mess of different styles that it's amazing how they ever thought of putting those riffs together. It's not a chaotic mess like many death metal albums are where a riff abruptly changes to another. Here, the whole genre of music changes to another, and there are at worst three completely different styles included into one song, all of which Benighted attempted to play within the frames of brutal death metal. However, the only thing that really reminds of the brutal death metal deception in songs like "Forsaken" is the vocalist, whose wide array of stupid noises is like a parody of brutal death metal vocals, and, of course, the occasional passage of limp, driveling blasting nonsense. It's hilarious to listen to all those burps, brees and high-pitched screams when the music in the background is at times like a second-rate Heartwork ripoff, or at other times atonal pseudo-brutal tripe without atmosphere.

Benighted cannot create any kind of atmosphere if they are unable to narrow their riffing style down to things that genuinely hybridise well. There are some de facto good riffs on the album, and the song ”Pledge Of Retaliation” is not really bad as a song. In this incarnation, it's a ruined one of course, but it at least demonstrates that the band is not entirely without talent. In that song, the grindcore aesthetic works delightfully well interwoven with the melodic, heavy riffing. The title track is not a bad song as such either, although an uninspired Slaughter of the Soul ripoff it undeniably is, and it's certainly not amazing enough to be worth listening to despite the idiotic breakdowns. If one more good thing must be said, there are certainly highly original drum beats at times, which halfway balances out all the shitty and boring ones that this album is full of.

Yes, there is always some reason behind the renown. Nothing that warrants any of the excessive hype, however. Songs like ”The Underneath” once again prove that the slightly stronger mid-late part of the album meant nothing, and that the album is really quite shitty. If metalcore influences, mid 90s melodic death metal inspired by Swedish death metal and deathcore vocals stereotypical to the point of being an effective parody appeal to you, you should probably check this out. However, if your aesthetics suggest that Immolation is of greater quality than Waking The Cadaver, or that None So Vile is a better Cryptopsy album than The Unspoken King, leave this piece of shit alone, because it's unlikely you'll find anything worth listening to here, for this is some of the most rancid, putrid core wiggery ever to be masqueraded as death metal.

Benighted's first release that I heard was 'Identisick' which I actually got by mistake while ordering for Behemoth's 'Demigod', but the grief of mixing up and not getting the required CD vanished as soon as I popped in that CD. Since that day I have been a huge fan of Benighted's music.

'Icon' was the band's fifth release and it had a lot to live up to coming in after 'Identisick' and to a great extent it did also while evolving the band's sound to a slightly more melodic approach which I guess at least I am not complaining about.

The band had a line-up change for this album in the form of drummer Kikou who replaced the immensely talented Fred Fayolle who almost formed the backbone of most compositions in 'Identisick'. This replacement automatically made this release with the new drummer to live up to certain standards of Fred but well i would like to give Kikou full credit for bringing a new dimension to the overall sound of the band.

The opening track of the album is one of the rare moments in my history of listening to metal where a metal album gives me goose bumps. 'Complete Exasanguination' is an intro where the track starts with fading in vocals with a haunting female voice which is soothing and frightening at the same point who says 'Why are you so brutal to me' and after that the band rips through into your ears with a brutal attack on your senses which gives you an imagination of a raged killer chopping up a beautiful girl in the back of a barn yard. This track flows into the first song 'Slut' which is a mash up of breakdowns, blast beats and sections where you just bang you freaking head off. The song structure keeps varying on tracks like 'Forsaken', 'Smile then Bleed' & 'Human Circles' which never makes the album boring and continues the relentless assault while maintaining the individuality of each song.

Julian Truchen continues to push the envelope of evolving into a better vocalist with a much fuller range hence always holding you by the throat and demanding your attention. He introduces a hardcore scream fused with pig growls accompanied with intense guttural vocals which just makes it a pleasure to hear with an intensity not really explored by a lot of singers.

Oliver and Liem on the fret boards who hold the full distinct sound of the band provide with such a unique blend of riffs that you cannot help but appreciate their talent on this record. Both of the guitarists play some really complex riffs but also have this knack of putting together hooks that really want to make you jump and break stuff. Also sometimes they just place normal riffs because maybe they want to prove that you can make brutal music by not being overly technical and playing normal death metal. At no point could you say that the guitars or vocals or drums sounded out of place.

The highlights of the album for me would be the intro and the end part of the tracks 'Pledge of retaliation’, ‘Human Circles’, the title track 'Icon' which starts with typical old school death metal and build up to this insane roller coaster ride throughout, ’Slut’ intro and bass solo & the vocals on Forsaken. These add stellar quality to an already intense album.A must have for all fans of grind core and brutal death metal.

Benighted is one of the most brutal, most intense death metal bands today and that is reflected on every song here. Like an unfailing machine, Benighted retains the orgasmic intensity till the last second, not once slowing down or pausing for a moment of reflection. The danger of such an approach is that the experience may become too monotone and just plain wearisome for the listener, but that is never the case here. Although all songs sound somewhat similar, it’s just impossible to get bored with this, as the musicianship is top notch all the way. The guitar playing especially is worth of mention: the riffs are heavy, varied, absolutely obliterating, and about as technical as Pestilence’s, sort of striking middle ground between brutal and technical death metal in technicality.

The music remind me of a less sophisticated Akercocke that relies more on crushing and intricately layered guitars, or a more modern, catchier version of Pestilence. Nothing wrong with being less sophisticated though, especially considering how skilled these musicians are, both as songwriters and as masters of their respective instruments. Perhaps most distinctive are the vocals from Julien Truchan which are very varied - sometimes i get the impression that there are two vocalists, which says something about his flexibility. His vocals are rather extreme and give a twisted, violent air to the album which (in the absence of) would have been sorely missed.

Most songs are relatively short and succinct, the average probably being around 3:10-3:30, which seems the perfect length for the band’s straightforward style. Songwriting-wise, Icon is just impeccable, to the point that it’s impossible for me to pick out highlights or favorites, and it has the production required to fully underline all the subtle qualities brought about by the fantastic guitar arrangements, striking a nice balance between thick and punishing distortion and clear detail.

With Icon, Benighted have established themselves as one of the most outstanding brutal death metal band’s in the world. France, not really known for its metal scene, has become a launch pad of sorts for some of the most interesting death metal being made, as evidenced by stellar releases from bands such as Benighted and Gojira.

My first exposure to Benighted was about 6 months ago when I came across a copy of Identisick and I immediately disliked it with a passion. However during the course of about a month I found myself craving another listen, and another and more and more until I could easily say that I was a massive fan of their slightly off-kilter approach. From there I did everything I could to get as many of their releases as possible, and so when I heard that they would be releasing a new album I literally had to get a 3.7 kW submersible dewatering pump to drain the drool that had accumulated. Little did I know, I would be needing that pump again…

I got my hands on a copy of Icon but was very reluctant to actually give it a listen. I didn’t know how they could top their previous releases and I had the feeling that Benighted had reached the inevitable stage of “experimentation” and “progression”, synonymous with “sucky”. This is true to an extent, but it’s the good kind of progression, not that watery filth that so many bands excuse as artistic development. Icon retains that quintessential Benighted style, with strangely hypnotic rhythms, fantastically unconventional leads and still manages to obliterate your ears with uncompromising musical brutality. In fact, for all my worries about progression, I would now say that the albums only weakness is that it is quite similar to Identisick, but this hardly detracts.

First off, the intro. It makes me laugh every time and seems to describe this band perfectly. Into the first few songs, there are several sections of immense auditory violence, but its as if they don’t even realise how brutal they’re being. When they hit these moments they pass through them and continue on as though they haven’t figured out that they’ve just played some of the best, most aggressive sequences around. As always with Julien Truchan, the vocals are wonderfully varied. Every syllable (if you can call them that, I’ve never been able to understand a word he’s saying) is forced out of his throat with such conviction, from the gurgling grunts to the shrieks and everything in between.

The guitars are constantly morphing from crushing blast passages, to semi-breakdowns, chaotically twisting riffs and leads, and the occasional solo. The sheer diversity of the roles that they play is astounding. For example, compare the fucking hectic riff at 0:29 on Forsaken to the slithering tempo shift at 1:21 on the title track (followed by interesting use of unconventional percussion, very interesting).You’re sure to find yourself thrashing your head about uncontrollably as Gabriel and N’Guyen chug and squeal (and everything in between) their way around the fret board. The bass even has a chance to shine through at times, whether because of contrasting riffs highlighting the versatility of the bass, or straight out introductions and short solos.

And behind the kit is Kikou. He CANNOT be overlooked. His talents are stunning, not ONCE becoming even remotely boring. Every mind-blowing riff on the album is complemented with an equally superb (if not better) performance on the drums. In order to fit in with the unique style of the rest of the music the drums needed to be quite original themselves, and he couldn’t have done a better job. I hate incessant blasting and mindless speed, but Kikou easily avoids this.

Throughout the album you can hear a lot of different influences, from hardcore inspired breakdowns, to grind passages, brutal death metal a little bit of metalcore and even French rap…which I’ll pretend I didn’t hear. But don’t let this deter you, most of it fits very well indeed. The variety makes it a very captivating listen as you have to be on your toes so as to avoid being knocked off your feet by something completely unexpected.

Overall a fantastic release from the masters of semi-obscure/unique brutal death. I detracted points for the shameless hardcore breakdown (not just INSPIRED, but actual hardcore breakdown) in Slut, the French rapping which seemed a little out of place, and just for the fact that I couldn’t award full points for an album that bears many similarities to previous releases. On the whole though, if you were even remotely interested in Benighted before, or have never even heard of them (shame on you) this is a phenomenal record. Get it now.