Reviews: SAT340
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The Dutch black metal band Unbenign is a relatively new formation but it includes seasoned musicians who have performed with such bands as Prostitute Disfigurement, Centurian, and Nox, and their line-up was rounded out by Michiel van der Plicht (Carach Angren, Pestilence, ex-God Dethroned), who played session drums on their debut album and also handled the recording, mixing, and mastering. That album is self-titled and is now set for co-release by Satanath Records and Asgard Hass Productions on April 16th.
Unbenign have proclaimed that both lyrically and musically they drew their inspiration from second-wave black metal from the early ’90s, with a mission to create ferocious, in-your-face assaults as a means of channeling their frustrations with modern-day society. Their music is indeed ferocious, but it’s a lot more than that as well, as you’ll discover by listening to the song from the album that we’re premiering today. Its name is “The Untenanted Epoch“.
What comes through in this new song is not merely teeth-bared aggression but ranging melodies of emotionally evocative power. Relying more on rocking rhythms than blasting tirades, the song is also propulsive in viscerally captivating ways. The music of decades past may have inspired Unbenign, but their music doesn’t sound like a re-tread.
A swath of electronics opens the song, creating an atmosphere of grim tension, a fittingly dark and dire prelude to the dismal and pernicious tones of the corrosive slashing riff that follows. The momentum of the song drives through increasingly vivid rocking beats, and its intensity swells through furious screams and bright, flaring guitars that cascade high above.
Undeniably bleak, the music is nevertheless fiery. The rising and falling leads sound defiant. The drums blast and the chords become feverish, seemingly blending moods of defiance and defeat in sweeping fashion. Feral and ferocious, those raking guitars and turbulent rocking drums reappear and will keep your head moving, even as the whirring leads continue to radiate beleaguered and downcast refrains.
Satanath Records recommends the album for fans of Marduk, Gorgoroth, Dissection, Mayhem, Bathory, Burzum, and Darkthrone. The cover artwork is by Bram Bruyneel, and the logo was created by Christophe Szpajdel.
We’ve also included a stream of the gripping first-released song from the album, “Inhabit My Flesh“, which is free to download at Satanath‘s Bandcamp.
https://www.nocleansinging.com/2022/03/15/an-ncs-premiere-unbenign-the-untenanted-epoch/
Unbenign are a band from the Netherlands that plays an old school form of black metal and this is a review of their self titled 2022 album which was released as a joint effort between Satanath Records and Asgaard Hass Producitons.
A very dark yet heavy sound starts off the album before going into a very fast and raw musical direction which also utilizes a great amount of tremolo picking and blast beats. Vocals are mostly high pitched black metal screams while all of the musical instruments on the recording also have a very powerful sound to them.
Melodies are also added into some of the guitar riffing while the songs also add in a great amount of 90's influences. Throughout the recording you can also hear a decent mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts along with the solos and leads also being done in a very melodic style as well as one track also introducing classical guitars onto the album, growls can also be heard at times and one song is also a keyboard orientated instrumental.
Unbenign plays a style of black metal that is very aggressive, old school and traditional sounding. The production sounds very raw and heavy while the lyrics cover blasphemy, devilry, Satanism, darkness and grimness themes.
In my opinion Unbenign are a very great sounding old school black metal band and if you are a fan of this musical genre, you should check out this album.
http://occultblackmetalzine.blogspot.com/2022/05/unbenignself-titledsatanath.html
Dutch band Unbenign are out with the album "Unbenign", and extreme metal is the style explored on this production. This is more of an old school creation in terms of the music as well as the sound aesthetics, with a bit of a closed in, lo-fi sounding production and music that is a bit more primal in spirit and execution. Hard, pacefilled and intense sequences is the order of the day here, with the guitar solo runs a sharp and cutting presence and the vocals stick to a harsh but also relatively calm manner of delivery. The band will drop the pace and intensity a bit at times though, most prominently on concluding cut 'The Untenanted Epoch' which perhaps is a bit closer to thrash or traditional heavy metal and which feature a nice majestic surge that appears a couple of times throughout the song. A production that to my ears should have it's strongest appeal among those who treasure old school extreme metal in form and execution and with the sound aesthetics that fits those premises.