3 years since their last album, Benighted are back with a new guitarist in the form of Adrien Guérin and now departed bassist Eric Lombard on their seventh full length release. I should say that their style remains rather unchanged however and is still extremely brutal, fast and fucking vicious. “X2Y” proves that point instantly as Kevin Foley blasts away on the drums and Julien Truchan roars deeply. Sadly his pig squealing still does not appeal to me as I find it “Noise”, which is probably what plenty of people may find in everything they do. They have released a video for “Experience Your Flesh” which is almost as chaotic as the song with its manic tempo changes, making “Slaughter/Suicide” seem like a ballad in comparison as the heavy guitar breaks over the syncopated drumming remaining steadily chunky. The album is a themed one, with the theme being a descent into cannibalism. “Spit” goes from pure blast with Adrien Guérin and Olivier Gabriel playing frantically to keep up to subdued tinkering on cymbals while the guitars are gently strummed. In the longest track on the album, but still shy of the 5 minute mark, they bounce back and forth between the sobbing, whimpering woman and guttural roars of “Defiled Purity” and screamed backing vocals that would flay flesh from bone. The vocals on “Jekyll” are predominantly high pitched interspersed with growls aplenty, while “Collection of Dead Portraits” has some screaming to go with the shouting and growls as the guitars and drums pound down at full tilt. The title track “Carnivore Sublime” has a nice melodic second guitar riff running as an undercurrent through the song but come to the fore during a tribal bridge and groove sections during the song. Kicking off with a bass solo “Les Morsures de Cerbère” could actually be sung in any language and I’d still not be able to tell you whether it was one I understand or not. The final track “June and the Laconic Solstice” ends with such subtlety that you’d never say it was as full of blistering changes and hyper fast riffs.
While grind may not be everyone’s cup of tea and if you listen to the album sufficient times on repeat, it can become a little samey, however as all the tracks are short bursts of homicidal ferocity with enough diversity you can easily complete it without feeling it ever monotonous.
(6/10 Marco Gaminara)
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