What a wonderful addition to this year's chaos! A surprise but a welcome one for sure. A real treat for the 90' mid-paced death metal freaks.
I'm not going to pretend, that I've always been a major Benediction fan. Yeah, I know most of their work and I've always found it to be quite lukewarm. Somewhere in the second league, lagging behind Bolt Thrower (not that I'm a major Bolt Thrower fan either). But now, some 12 years after their previous release, "Scriptures" hit me like a steam train.
And an old-school steam train that is! Not too fast, neither overly technically sophisticated by today's standards, nor comfortable for a modern-day commuter. But the sheer mass, simplicity and the pumping rhythm section make it seem unstoppable. Don't expect any revelations, ground-breaking novelties or revolutions. It's not what they set out to do. This is an old-school, heavy as ***, groovy late 90' death metal. Benediction takes this stuff seriously, they're not coaxing the modern audience into their music.
I love the thick sound. It fits in perfectly with the music and the overall style. Fans of "Grind Bastard" will feel at home. "Killing Music" was not a bad album but it sounds hollow and shallow in comparison. Dave Ingram makes a glorious return. His foreboding grunt is pleasant in a death metal way. He feels the music and shovels more coal into that steam engine. Brooks and Rew do their own thing as competent as ever, rarely do you hear such a consistent guitarwork throughout the whole album. The new additions (Bate and Durst) have worked together already and you can hear that. The underlying groove fits in well with Benediction's previous releases.
I’ve got to admit - had this album been released in the 90' or early to mid 00' - I'd still think of Benediction as the guys who aspire to the death metal pantheon, but are just too limited to join up. Now, some 15 years later, they ascended and, in my books, surpassed the achievements of their peers... without changing anything and sticking to what they've always done best. With Bolt Thrower, Gorefest and Entombed gone or in a creative limbo Benediction took the empty throne.
Hopefully they will deliver a follow-up or two. The runtime of about 46 minutes, which I would normally consider about 8-10 minutes too long for death metal, doesn't drag on and there's no filler. Don't let us wait another 12 years, old ***s!
Originally written for the OG source of metal info: Encyclopedia Metallum The Metal Archives
