That logo? Dave Ingram on vocals? Nuclear Blast Records? It just feels right, doesn’t it?

5 years after their return from a 12-year hiatus with 2020’s solid Scriptures, UK death metal veterans Benediction is back with album number 9. And while the band’s middle and later catalog isn’t quite the stuff of legend, there is no denying the band’s early works (Subconscious Terror, The Grand leveller, Transcend The Rubicon) are as much a part of the UK’s formative death metal royalty as Bolt Thrower, Cancer and such were.

While Scriptures was an excellent comeback that was better than many of the band’s latter albums, Ravage Of Empires improves on it, and delivers a no frills classic, old school British death metal album that wont win any awards, but god damn it is fun.

Having the same quality and approach as The Grand Leveller, Ravage of Empires is simply meat-and-potatoes UK death metal. The nostalgia is so thick on this one, I got my British accent back just listening to it (FYI, I have lived in the US for 30+ years).

The 11-song, 47-minute affair locks into the band’s classic sound as original members Ingram (Barney Greenway notwithstanding) and guitarists Peer Rew and Darren Brookes (joined by another new bassist in Nik Sampson) have cryogenically unlocked riffs that harken back to their past. If you enjoyed tracks like “I Bow to None”, “Deadfall”, “Opulence of the Absolute,” or “Artefacted Irreligion” from the band’s back catalog, you know the style of riff I’m talking about, and you will love many tracks on this album.

Excellent tracks like “Beyond the Veil (Of the Gray Mare)”, “Empires of War”, “Crawling Over Corpses”, “The Finality of Perpetuation” and the closing title track all have that familiar, simple yet distinct Benediction gallop and chug, that gives me the warm and fuzzies as I’m thrown back to the early 90s. The other tracks all deliver stout, sturdy riffs, whether they are a little faster like opener “A Carrion Harvest” and “Genesis Chamber” or a little slower like “Deviant Spine” and “Psychosister”, which has a weird, choppy, stop-start pace that doesn’t quite work.

Scott Atkins (Sylosis, Cradle of Filth, Man Must Die) again produces/mixes/masters, managing to blend a modern edge with the distinctly UK sound. And the even more grizzled Ingram sounds as good as he did 30 years ago, complete with plenty of Ingrams “Oough’s” and “Heeeeey’s”, making for a fine Benediction album that truly imbues the spirit of the band’s early and best efforts.

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments