Customer Reviews

Grand Leveller

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This the Benediction that we all know and love. This album is the first with new vocalist Dave Ingram. Barney Greenway left pruly for Napalm Death, but Dave is just as good and can growl with the best of them. This album sounds like a mix between Subconcious Terror and Transend the Rubicon both kick major .... Some of my favorite tracks are Graveworm, Child of Sin, and The Grand Leveller. Buy this album you will not be disappointed.

I bought this album having already bought "Grind Bastard" and "Transcend the Rubicon". I really haven't listened to this album all that much since I got it about 4 months ago. It just doesn't do too much for me. I already knew the song "Senile Dementia," which is a great tune. It's fast and pretty catchy. The rest of this album is a bit slower and doesn't hold my interest. To be fair, it might still grow on me after repeated listens. I just wanted to write this review for people who may be new to Benediction: start with "Transcend the Rubicon," a great death metal release. If you like that check out "Grind Bastard," it's more straightforward death/thrash with catchy songwriting and great drumming. If you love Benediction then check this out but I would get the other two first.

In my opinion, this is the first great Benediction release. While the efforts (one and a half to be exact) prior to this had heart the band had yet to still carve out their sound. "Subconscious Terror" was a good sampling of a band that still had a lot of song writing work to do in between drinks.

Benediction doesn't really sound like anyone else. (Although sometimes the guitars remind me of the older Death.) They go from slow to mid tempo but nothing really fast and nothing super sludgy doom-like. One great thing about Benediction is that they always are melodic. The guitar riffs on this album are the highlight instrument but the other instruments are decent too. The bass is finally audible and there are some cool bass lines that occasionally shine through the still lame way-too-treble-heavy-production. The drumming is much more impressive on this release especially on parts in "Graveworm", "Born in a Fever", "Return to the Eve" and "Child of Sin". Dave Ingram was a fine replacement for original vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway. Similar style, you can understand what Ingram says through his whisky laden cough, but you can tell Ingram apart from Greenway. The songs are often simple enough that every little twist and turn thrown in at the last moment makes the wonderful simplicity all the more apparent.

This was the album that was the breakout album for Benediction. It would only get better with their next full length release "Transcend the Rubicon". Recommended for those into old school death metal.