Archives of the Dead part IX: Benighted
– The Master of Darkness
Line up: Tobbe (bass),
Nubb (drums), Johan (vocals), Krille (guitars)
Recorded in 26-28 February 1993. Mixed by
Henrik and Benighted.
I really enjoy doing these series of reviews of
some old, mostly little known demos and bands… Not only I have an opportunity
to introduce to some of you these bands, but personally I also get to really
know them, when digging through the internet and zines, searching for some info
about these bands and their demos… Here is next band that I’ve been listening
to a lot recently… They’re called Benighted. The band was formed in 1990 in
Forserum, first under the name Toxic Breath, then changing it into Sickness…
they did one demo tape in 1992 and then changed the name again, but for
Benighted, as there were also some other bands called Sickness around (in
Germany and USA for instance). Already as Benighted the band did one demo “The
Master of Darkness” in 1992.
Daniel Ekeroth’s description of Benighted from “Swedish
death metal” makes me slightly confused. I haven’t yet had a chance to hear any
Sickness demos, but the description of Benighted says: “originally very brutal
death / grind of decent quality, they soon mellowed out into harmless and
melodic death / thrash”. Ha, Ekeroth could be wrong here, I suppose! Why? Well,
“The Master of Darkness” is the only Benighted’s demo as far as I know and
musically it not only has nothing in common with grind, but also it isn’t
anything like melodic death / thrash! So maybe Ekeroth got it all wrong? Well, he
mentions in his book one more demo “We Don’t Care” from 1997, but no other
sources except his book confirms this information. He may be wrong just as he was
wrong about Sickness doing also “Eternal Horizon” demo in 1993 – which actually
was a demo of another Swedish band called Sickness, not the one which turned
into Benighted. So, the history is very confusing and I have no idea who’s
telling the truth. For the moment “The Master of Darkness” is the only demo of
Benighted, which I know about.
Anyway, “The Master of Darkness” for sure is a
slab of brutal death metal of very good quality. I definitely enjoy this demo a
lot and I can say that it is for me one of the best Swedish death metal demos,
when speaking of the lesser known bands, from the second / third line. Not only
Benighted turns out to be way more brutal than the usual Swedish death metal
bands, being for instance totally derived of any melodic parts and also sound
wise being more brutal and harsh, but also stylistically they were strongly influenced
by the American scene. For instance “Master of Darkness” has some riffs, which
undeniably are very close to Deicide. Other moments will remind you such brutal
bands like Baphomet, Rottrevore, Morpheus Descends, even Cannibal Corpse (but
not as fast…), so really the best American death metal school possible. There
are some excellent riffs / songs on the demo, I also must say that I really
like the production of it and also the vocals, so in the end each of these five
tracks turns out to be a killer tune. Not many Swedish bands were so damn
brutal; and among those more brutal acts not many were as good. I obviously
will always mention (early) Séance and Toxaemia, for being the best brutal
death metal acts in Sverige… but definitely Benighted can now join them.
Final rate: 85/100
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