Ravage Of Empires [CD]

"Sometimes They Come Back" is not only the title of a horror movie of a macabre story by Stephen King, but also a summary of what happened to the British death metal veterans Benediction, but you have to add "better than ever".

Though they never officially disbanded, 2020's Scriptures, the group's eighth studio album, accomplished what is usually no easy feat. It followed on well from classics such as 1993's Transcend the Rubicon and its immediate and memorable songwriting, 1998's Grind Bastard, and also saw the return of legendary vocalist Dave Ingram with his Dave Ingram with his merciless roar and flair for morbid, twisted lyrics. After two albums with Dave Hunt on vocals, Scriptures was Benediction's first album in over a decade and impressed with aggressive up-tempo attacks like "Iterations of I" and "Rabid Carnality" or the breakneck mid-tempo barrage of 'Stormcrow', songs that became live hits in no time alongside "evergreens" like "I Bow to None", "Magnificat", "Subconscious Terror subconscious Terror' or "Vision in the Shroud".

With Scriptures, Benediction even almost cracked the top ten in Germany, peaking at a phenomenal #11 on the Official German Charts, showing that the death metal veterans, formed in Birmingham, England in 1989, offered an extremely well-received sonic catharsis when people were locked down and pissed off due to the pandemic. As the Covid-19 shroud lifted, the quintet were finally able to begin promoting the album on stage with numerous festival appearances at Breeze (DE), Copenhell (DK), Mystic Festival (PL), UK Deathfest, Alcatraz (BE), Party.San (DE), Obscene Extreme (CZ), Eindhoven Metal Meeting (NL) and Rock Hard (DE) to name but a few, playing triumphant shows in South and Central America as well as in their home country and across Europe.