Year : 2020 (Japan Edition)
Style : Death Metal
Country : United Kingdom
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans
Size : 111 mb
Bio:
Benediction are a British death metal band formed in 1989.Their first album, Subconscious Terror, was released in 1990.Their latest album, Scriptures, was released in 2020.The Birmingham-based death metal band Benediction were formed in February 1989 by Paul Adams (bass), Peter Rew (guitar), Darren Brookes (guitar), and Mark "Barney" Greenway (vocals). With the demo The Dreams You Dread, released in the same year, they drew the interest of Nuclear Blast Records, resulting in a record deal. Their first album, Subconscious Terror, was released in 1990, followed by the departure of Barney, who joined Napalm Death. The debut was received well and a new singer, Dave Ingram, was found soon. In an extensive touring schedule 1991 saw the band toured with Bolt Thrower and Nocturnus.Their second album, The Grand Leveller, attracted international acclaim. Having already completed one European tour with Massacra during the year between the recording and the mixing of the album, the band now took to the road again with Dismember. After that tour Paul Adams departed. The band was back in studio in December 1991 with Darren playing bass and guitar on a new EP, Dark Is The Season, which included a cover of the old Anvil stalwart "Forged In Fire", and January 1992 saw the band back in Europe again with Asphyx and Bolt Thrower.Later that year they found their new bassist, Frank Healy, at that time the guitarist of Cerebral Fix and formerly of Napalm Death. Healy joined as a full-time member just as left to play in Israel. According to an interview in the metallian.com encyclopedia the band had been involved in an altercation and fist fight with label-mates Dismember in Denmark. The band were arguing over tour arrangements.In 1993, Benediction released their third album, Transcend The Rubicon. The album's release was followed by the extensive "World Violation" tour with Cemetery and Atheist throughout Europe, USA, Canada, and again Israel. After that tour, Ian Treacy left the band because of personal differences. After The Grotesque / Ashen Epitaph EP, which featured two brand new songs and three live tracks Neil Hutton, Treacy was replaced by Neil Hutton, who was initiated on the eleven dates of the Nuclear Blast New Year Festivals, which took place in January 1995, for performances on German, Dutch, Austrian, Swiss, and Czech stages. Meanwhile the band had already put the finishing touches to their fourth full-length album, The Dreams You Dread.Benediction formed a close relationship with Death, touring extensively with them at Chuck Schuldiner's request.Their next album, Grind Bastard, was launched with a tour, now including the former Eastern Block. A deal with TCI, a touring agency in New York, led to yet more touring, including another European tour with Death. This tour coincided with the departure of singer Dave Ingram and the introduction of new singer Dave Hunt (also the singer in Mistress and Anaal Nathrakh).Their 8th studio album was released through Nuclear Blast in October 2001. Titled Organised Chaos, it was again produced by Andy Sneap, and was followed by more live appearances throughout Europe, highlighted by 2002's tour with Bolt Thrower and an appearance at the Gods Of Metal festival in Milan, Italy - sharing a bill with the likes of Motörhead, W.A.S.P., Megadeth, and Judas Priest. Their most recent album, Killing Music, was released in August 2008.
Album:
There are some bands that transition beyond good and evil, beyond the barriers of criticism, and manage to be accepted and celebrated by all because of their extreme quality and impeccable discography. Benediction is one of the few that fit this mold in the death metal genre, having released immortal classics like ‘The Grand Leveller’ (1991) and ‘Transcend the Rubicon’ (1993) – the latter one being one of my favorite death albums of all time. The Brits have been dormant for 12 years but are back with ‘Scriptures’, rescuing that marvelous old school vibe that only the greats can achieve.With the return of Dave Ingram (Down Among the Deadmen, ex-Bolt Thrower) to the helm and the addition of Dan Bate (bass) and Giovanni Durst (drums), dynamic duo Peter Rew and Darren Brookes gathered a semi-perfect lineup to crush everything in their path and deliver once again a brutal slab of pure and classic Benediction death metal.As countrymates Cancer, Bolt Thrower, and others, Benediction offers a little less speed and a little more heaviness in their sound since their inception, and this album follows the same approach. Tracks like “Progenitors of a New Paradigm” and “In Our Hands, the Scars” bring out the best of this UK-style death, with plenty of mid-tempo passages and killer riffs.The occasional speed does come up, though, especially in more hybrid songs like “Embrace the Kill”. Ingram steals the show in this particular song, ranging from a lower growl to an extremely angered vocal line, which adds even more chaos and destruction to an already brutal experience.As I said above, ‘Scriptures’ drinks from the same fountain as Benediction’s great albums of the ’90s, which means no-frills, raw death metal with glimpses of that extreme doom-ish flavor characteristic of Bolt Thrower, Asphyx, and such bands. Perhaps the best example of this would be “We Are Legion”, a track full of nuances and different tempos. From headbanging riffs to full-on ferocious moments, it’s a perfect way to close a return to the form of a once genre leader.The production and mixing are great, something you would expect from a good professional like Scott Atkins (Cradle of Filth, Gama Bomb, etc.). Every instrument is easily heard, Ingram’s voice is crystal clear and the atmosphere makes the album sound at the same time layered, full and modern, and analogic and organic.Perhaps the most satisfying thing when listening to the record is the amount of respect for the heydays of the death metal genre as a whole, but especially the European counterpart. ‘Scriptures’ will easily take you back to the early ’90s when things were less bureaucratic and more organic, and the passion to play outmatched the need to sell or be accepted in a niche.All in all, ‘Scriptures’ is not only a near-flawless display of what Benediction means to the death metal culture, but a statement that even when signed to a huge label and trying to stay relevant after 30+ years, you can stick to your roots and destroy every artificially created music out there; and the result may as well be this, one of the (if not the) best death albums of 2020 so far. A legend never dies, and Benediction is proof of that.
Line Up:
Dave Ingram - Vocals (1990-1998, 2019-present) - See also: Down Among the Dead Men, Echelon, Ursinne, ex-Downlord, ex-Hail of Bullets, ex-Strangler, Hellfrost and Fire, Troikadon, ex-Eyegouger, ex-Just Before Dawn, ex-Bolt Thrower
Darren Brookes - Guitars (1989-present)
Peter Rew - Guitars (1989-present)
Dan Bate - Bass (2018-present) - See also: Omicida, ex-Absolva, ex-Monument, ex-Blaze Bayley (live)
Giovanni Durst - Drums (2019-present) - See also: Monument, Omicida, ex-Hiss of Atrocities, ex-White Wizzard, ex-Will Wallner / Vivien Vain, ex-Black Trip (live)
Tracklist:
01. Iterations Of I
02. Scriptures In Scarlet
03. The Crooked Man
04. Stormcrow
05. Progenitors Of A New Paradigm (Kam Lee)
06. Rabid Carnality
07. In Our Hands, The Scars
08. Tear Off These Wings
09. Embrace The Kill
10. Neverwhen
11. The Blight At The End
12. We Are Legion
Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/
