Review: Benediction “Ravage Of Empires” [Nuclear Blast]

When Benediction released their Scriptures after 12 years of silence back in 2020, fans admired predictably, especially with David Ingram as a vocalist. The band wasn’t disbanded but more than decade of silence speaks eloquently. However, the new album from British death metal veterans sparked excitement with just the fact of release and when the content met the expectations fully, the band was simply glorified. Yet, it wasn’t clear if Benediction is back or it was it just a one-time thing: no gigs, no festivals and therefore no promotion. Nevertheless, when two years later things, with difficulty, but got back to normal, the band went touring and performed successfully. Now, dispelling all doubts, here comes the new, 12th album named Ravage Of Empires.

To tell the truth, at first I wanted to write something like “with this album Benediction proved again that they are alive and full of energy” but on the second thought these gentlemen proved everything to everyone a long time ago and now founding members and guitarists Darren Brookes and Peter Rew, longtime vocalist Dave Ingram, drummer Giovanni Durst with Nik Sampson (bass) can do whatever they want. Luckily for us they want to do what they know to do best: oldschool British death metal, straightforward and crushing.

Actually, the opener “A Carrion Harvest” shows this fully: without any intro the main riff punches you in the face with the evil laugh and ominous vocals from David Ingram and so it continues until the song is over. Well, the next one, “Beyond The Veil Of Great Mare” continues this bacchanalia with roaring vocals and sick riffs. Somewhere in the middle of the song the drummer switches to the endless double bass and riff turns into a pummeling tremolo; it seems technically simple but it’s really great! I can easily see some huge mosh pits when this song will be performed live. The first single from the album, “Engines Of War,” is made by the similar pattern: brutal riff, simple but effective bridge and some thoughtful drumming with great delivery. It looks like “Deviant Spine” follows this pattern too: tremolo riff punches hard without any intros but the drums add a lot of little details, which make the music interesting. The chorus adds some groove while in a way melodic bridge lowers the tempo just to impressively get back to the main riff. And it seems that in “The Finality Of Perpetuation” Benediction reach the peak of maliciousness in their music: (slightly reminding Slayer) riffs are not just punching, they turn into a huge hammer, while David just spit out the lyrics.

At the same time there is a place for some groove elements as well: for example, “Genesis Chamber” starts as pretty technical death metal but later comes aforementioned groove metal. “In The Dread Of The Night” is also interesting by its variety and the bridge here is just marvelous. And the ending self-titled “Ravage Of Empires” is just a quintessence of everything we’ve heard in the album: the components of this hellish brew mixed in excellent proportions and it works. Oh yeah, it works very well!

The only weak link in Ravage Of Empires would probably be “Drought Of Mercy.” Well, the song itself is brutal and malicious, riffs are mighty but compared to the other songs in this album it’s just doesn’t work (or maybe it works but not as good as the others.) However, “Crawling Over Corpses” is good: the using of pauses and slowdowns are great and it’s another piece of Benediction, powerful and impressive.

So, what we have here in the end? Another great album from craftsmen of death metal? Definitely! Does it bring something new? Depends on how you look at it: for the old fans it will be another good addition to the band’s discography. However, for the younger ones it can be something new, especially if in the pursuit of speed, techniques and extremely low guitars’ tuning they forgot that brutality can be achieved with simpler things, which actually work! And maybe there is less than half original members in the current line-up, the essence still remains. That’s the most important thing, as for me.

Ravage Of Empires will be released on April, 4^th via Nuclear Blast.