Originally written by Erik Thomas
Synopsis:
I hope you have a coupon to shop at Assholes “R” Us, because after listening to Identisick, you are going to need a new one…
Review:
While most of you get silly over the new Decapitated, Kataklysm andPsycroptic albums, I personally will be getting my face punched repeatedly by Benighted’s fourth album. This French quintet impressed me with theirInsane Cephalic Production effort last year, and Identisick improves on that effort resulting in a pretty much perfect death metal album.
With the technicality quotient raised notably (just listen to the opening salvo of “Nemesis” – a track that could give Decapitated’s lauded “Day 69″ a run for its money), but still retaining a sick sense of groove and down tuned pummeling, Benighted deliver 10 stunning tracks of visceral, riotous death metal. The balance between razor sharp shred and forceful bludgeoning is perfectly implemented and there is even a hint of melody here and there (“Iscariot”, “Identisick”, “Mourning Affliction”) and the odd curve ball (acoustics: “Sex-Addicted”, techno beat “Mourning Affliction”), though never over the top, that shows Benighted as astute students of death metal dynamics.
The album reminds me a little of Fleshless except with balls the size of Texas, in that the band is able to make death metal a subconsciously easy affair, it’s not so technical it makes your head hurt, and not so brutal to be cliched or predictable. Each track is a new slice of flesh to admire and absorb. Also similar to Fleshless is the use of almost grindcore like extremity in the vocal department where high-end screams dual with Pit Bull growls. But Benighted blow Fleshless away with their sheer havoc and pummeling grooves. Tracks like “The Twins”, the punky brutality of “Ransack the Soul” and “Blind to the World” give a break from swirling maelstroms of staccato nastiness delivered by tracks like the aforementioned “Nemesis”, “Spiritual Manslaughter” and “Iscarioth”.
Rounded out by a cover of Napalm Death’s “Suffer the Children” and a production that’s a little less bottom centric than ICP, Identisick will be a dark horse death metal standout in 2006 worthy of the attention of all you out there, maybe more so than some of death metal’s so called legends.
