Benediction-Killing Music

Locomotive
2008

British Death metal act Benediction have been around since 1989 and now they return with their seventh album which is also their first release in seven years. Veteran drummer Nick Barker replaces Neil Hutton, but the rest of the line-up is the same as it's been for over a decade. On "Killing Music" they don't try to get fancy or incorporate a whole lot of new elements into the mix. Instead it's aggressive and unrelenting old style death metal not far off from the Florida death metal style that was so big in the early 1990's. The production values have gotten better over the years and I think that this band is tighter than they were years ago. There is absolutely no wasted time or space on this album. Every moment is dedicated towards keeping the wheels in motion and creating waves of grinding, smashing music. I love the overall tone of the music as they manage to keep everything deep and heavy, but still maintain some clarity so you hear all the nuances of what they are doing. In addition to twelve originals they also perform two cover songs. One of my favorite tracks on their album is their rendition of "Seeing through my eyes" which was originally done by Broken Bones. This was such a heavy song for it's time and Benediction capture that raw crunch of the original and add their deep layered sound to make it even more brutal. Fans of Benediction and old school death metal should easily embrace "Killing music". There are no real surprises or any new elements on this album, but instead they just tear through the material and that certainly works for me.