Benighted – Ekbom (Review)

This is the tenth album from French death metallers Benighted.

I’ve enjoyed all of my encounters with Benighted so far, (Necrobreed, Dogs Always Bite Harder than Their Masters, Obscene Repressed, and live in 2016), so I knew I wanted to check out Ekbom. Running at a lean and mean 37 minutes, Ekbom is here to brutalise and destroy.

Ekbom is characterised by short songs, brutal delivery, and killer instinct. Dealing damage with visceral violence and savagely attacking any within range, each song is a raging feral predator, eager to shed blood and sever spines. Benighted know what they’re doing at this point in their career, and they’ve created a collection of 11 murderously lethal brutal death metal tunes, (plus an intro track, which despite being about as essential as any of these sorts of things ever are, at least here it’s not a complete waste of space).

Benighted epitomise the blast-and-groove style of brutality, while still paying attention to such things as songcraft, detailing, and energetic dynamics. The blast beats are furiously fast, while the groove is merciless. Both are tied together by songwriting that emphasises a no filler, all killer approach to death metal. Also, bonus technicality and riffs for everyone! Benighted do pepper the release with a few different ideas and sounds to keep things interesting and to add a layer of dark atmosphere, but the core of Ekbom is pure muscular death metal carnage. There are also two choice guest vocalists in the form of the singers of Archspire and Blockheads. They both complement Benighted’s monstrous vocals well.

This is a well-oiled killing machine, and Ekbom is decked with spiked hooks and catchy claws that cut deep. If fast and brutal death metal is your thing, yet also professional, dynamic, and boasts a decent amount of malevolent atmosphere, then Benighted have got you covered. This is such an easily enjoyable album if you’re partial to this sort of thing, so this gets a massive two broken thumbs up from me.