Review: BENEVOLENCE “God”

BENEVOLENCE “God”

OK, that’s time for the band from my second home-city – Malmö. Actually this review should be written at least two months ago, but to be honest I just forgot to do it directly after getting this CD in my hands. And I got this in train back from Copenhagen when I came back from KREATOR’s gig (I still feel like it was yesterday and remember every single minute – I think that it’ll be like that until my death, the same like it is with SLAYER’s show in Katowice in 1998!) Well, but it’s better late than never, don’t you think?

As I noticed, this band is eminently and highly unlucky one. It’s active since 1998 and “God” is their debut full-length released in DIY method in 2011. Their earlier discography are only four demos (“Circle of Fairytale” – 1999, “Tears of the Ancient Dream” – 2001, “Scanderbeg” – 2004 and “The Grand Story” – 2006). I’m not sure, but I suppose that it’s all about changes in line-up and stuff like that.

Anyway, an album contains ten author compositions and three covers. I’ll start from them. These are the songs from very famous bands, but in the same time they are pure covers. To cover is about playing own version of some song, not to play it in the same way like it’s original. And here you’ll really have to listen carefully to recognize what song it is. In general describing which BENEVOLENCE use for their creativity is very accurate, I think – Operatic Symphonic Metal. Here’s quite a lot from opera. First of all it’s all about both girls way of singing, of course, but also some fragments of music connotes with it easily. But the guys use traditional instruments here (times when keyboards in Metal band were something untypical passed long, long time ago) and generated electronically, I guess, the strings and stuff like that are only something added. They give a lot to music when it’s about common atmosphere, but they are still some kind of tidbit – very important and using often, but tidbit. I can hear bass’ work quite often – it’s nothing pushy for sure, but hearable well enough to notice and appreciate it, which is nice by the way. Drumming is variable as well. There’s any galloping parts, backbreaking passages and change’s of tempo. But it doesn’t mean that nothing happens. Riffs are heavy and even in some way aggressive, but always melodic. Joachim and Valbon play differently also. Anyway, it’s very easy, if you listen to it carefully enough of course, hear what kind of Metal they played earlier.

Well, that’s surely not music for fans of Slam or Brutal Death Metal. But if you like melody, operatic vocal, the strings In Metal then BENEVOLENCE is just for you! I hope that their problems are over and they’ll come back with something fresh soon and will do it at least as often as on the beginning of their career – every second year.