Benighted
Necrobreed
(Season of Mist)
Deathgrind has been in a bit of an arms race of late, a sort of World Cup of Blood and BREEs. For a long time, the final match of deathgrind greatness seemed destined to be the contestants from America and Belgium: Cattle Decapitation and Aborted, respectively. Both groups released truly stellar releases within the last two years, but bucking their country’s noted trend, the French competitor has, in fact, not thrown in the white flag quite yet. Hailing from Saint-Etienne, Benighted have had a long career of truly extreme and punishing deathgrind, though their most recent record, 2014’s Carnivore Sublime, felt like a long-running band running a bit on cruise control, albeit a wild, bloodthirsty automated speed. However, with their latest record, these French bruisers have a lot to say, er, squeal, about their inclusion in the ring of deathgrind greatness.
Despite starting their career with more blackened and melodic flourishes, Benighted’s style has become much closer to Aborted’s in their love of menacing melodic touches and a desire to literally punish their instruments and vocal chords. That said, what has kept Benighted above the bloodied fray is Julien Truchan’s wide and manic vocal range (he’s one of the few that can pull off the pig squeals) and the band’s controlled-chaos songwriting style. Songs don’t stay in neutral too often, which gives their songs (when Benighted is at their best) a real sense of momentum and unpredictability; the band’s been at this long enough that this rarely results in random songwriting, more in augmenting their furious pace).
Necrobreed features some of the band’s best songs to date, most notably “Forgive Me Father”, “Monsters Make Monsters”, and “Mass Grave”, which could go down as some of the songs of the year. They highlight how jaw-droppingly impressive Benighted is when they’re at peak performance: memorable riffs, excellent kit work (former Necrophagist drummer Romain Goulon excels in his debut for the band), impressive songcraft, and Truchan’s ability to be horrific and memorable in equal doses. The former tune features one of the best uses of a metal guest performance in recent memory as The Black Dahlia Murder’s Trevor Strnad providing a really nice back and forth with Truchan.
None of the songs on the record fall below great, but aside from the three mentioned above, few also are stellar. It is likely a result of the truly great overshadowing the merely very damn good, but it’s a minor flaw in an otherwise furiously fun record. As it stands, Benighted may be settling for the bronze metal in the World Cup of Blood and BREEs, but Necrobreed is truly excellent, no matter if it doesn’t quite measure up to the two best in the business.
