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Rating:
Only a single negative episode was the album "The Dreams You Dread": a mediocre work I never would have expected from a band like Benediction, real hounds and absolute protagonists of the first wave of Death Metal that emerged from the darkness in England at the end of the eighties.
It took them very little time to get back on track and after a contemplative break of three years, they emerged from exile with a lethal album: overflowing with executive violence, excellent production, a perfect symbiosis between all the instruments. An album completely immersed in Death-Thrash sounds that brings them closer to the early part of their career, though not actually reaching the stormy and dark peaks.
This is "Grind Bastard" released in 1998 by the German label Nuclear Blast; a work that surpasses the hour mark in duration, without ever showing signs of exhaustion or boredom in its listening. My opinion this time is not even up for much debate.
A leaden and reverberated guitar sound that then comes to life accompanied by Dave's cavernous growl: it's the opener "Deadfall". Suddenly the tone changes, rises, and the track explodes in a very fast gallop that immediately highlights the imperious drumming of a still very young Neil Hutton (it's no coincidence that one of his idols is a certain Dave "triple bass drum" Lombardo).
They don't want to experiment as in the previous album, so here are the solid and heavy blows of "Agonised" and "Neverbomb". A sure example of how they knew how to "push" with a sound so aggressive as to instill true terror in the listener!
"Electric Eye" a cover by the masters Judas Priest seems positioned mid-set to provide a breather; but the respite lasts little because the endless seven minutes of the title track follow, with its crushing slow pace. A mid-tempo that near the end of its monumental course experiences an increase in speed, only to circularly return to more controlled yet no less incisive times.
The very brief napalm burst (death added just to savor) of "We The Freed" with its Punk-Hardcore charge is a punch in the stomach without the possibility of defense...and thus we reach the end.
A solid, well-focused work; their last one worthy of note.
Ad Maiora.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Deadfall (04:40)
I lie screaming
Remembrance of the past
Emotions betray me below
Adversity - My martyrdom
Rancid breakdown bethothed
Memories of passion overwhelming me
Corrupted love is displaced
The insect onset, death does not liberate
Deadfall, her final embrace
Forced to watch her decompose
Putrefy, it fills my nose
Tears in anguish I grieve
Smell the scent upon her shoulder
Festering, begins to moulder
Maggots are conceived
My delusions now torment me
Agonising the misery
At this point of death we do not part
Visualise my partner's corpse
I have but love and no remorse
In the final death-throes of my heart
Look her in the eye
Repulsive way to thrive
Death's spawn I feed
Choking on the fumes
In this heat infested room
My heart it bleeds
Lying trapped, my mind is free
Hallucination, fantasies
Relieve the life from when we met
Now I'm in her death's restrain
Horrific visions through my brain
Her rigor mortis starts to set
With her corruption I'm paralysed
Optic fluids pour from the eyes
Foul stench of decay makes me retch
Sweetly smiling from her jaws
Death opens wide it's sharpened claws
This death's erotic, how I letch
I thank god I'm an atheist
Prolong my anguish - subtract bliss
And as she rots
This nightmare never stops
I long for peace
In the end
Death is my lonely friend
I crave release
I lie screaming
Smothering in love
Now at the Reaper's call
A life that's seen
Adoration
Trapped in her deadfall
02 Agonised (04:14)
Agonising road to ruin
Fright filled roots of soul
Iconoclasmic nightmare watching
Grief now uncontrolled
Uncertain loss, my pain - frustration
Now to reign regret
Wreaking havoc, near undoing
The trauma that dejects
Desolated mindful obstruct
Shattered scream to loudly erupt
Pierce the night, a resoundning crash
Lying dormant, bleeding and gashed
Agonised
Innocence removed fleetingly
Childhood replayed
Remembering the best of times
Still remain dismayed
Near loss of one who's so close
Loving relative
Wishing I could turn the clock back
Lose my will to live
Driven to distraction grossly
Morbid mind, it roars
Taken from this mortal coil?
Is the Reaper at the door?
Linear thinking - positive
Yet defeat never stops
Overriding all the senses
Heart begins to drop
Agonised
Fear the worst, irrational
Wounds are unsevere
Recovery is imminent
Temped fate now cleared
Relief bringing but emotion
Tears begin to flow
A life was spared from grisly ending
A life still yet to grow
07 Grind Bastard (07:23)
Grind Bastard - return of the weapon of war
Discharge my stigma
Now I'm back to even the score
Bastard - was condemned through dignity
Mark my soul eternal
Abasing physically
Reduce your will coz I am the Grind Bastard
Fight the world with the strength within
Arise - I am the bastard, I shall win
Debased - revenge on those two faced
Derise - censure guilty I decry.....Opress
Consume - eat your words and siffer
Degrade - humiliate no other
Erode away your futile will
Harass you with exaction
Memorise my calling
I am the bastard, I am the bastard
Though the mills of god grind on....
....they grind so small
A lesson never learned
The bastards never fall
Grind bastard - Rage away 'til teh battle is won
Vex you in your torment
No remorse, grinding on
Bastard - Understand now your life is mine
Dispensing my anger
Flesh is meat, blood is wine
In pain - A world to bthe in sorrow
Grimace - At the Inquisition's horror.....Confess
Intrude - Break the train of your thought
Enrage - Butchered now lie war torn
My principles are to die for
Your end arriving faster
Demonize
I am the bastard, I am the end
Never find distraction
Grinding on reaction
Pain in vain - to retain
The bittersweet one
Rage away in torment
The old ways lie dormant
Your life's mind - Yet sublime
This terror brought from.....Bastard
My needful lust is to direct your fate
Spiteful anger to reciprocate
Obsolete and yet I'm breathing still
Longevity my burden - Immortal kill
Gratitude in my revenge
Accept the fact
Your suffering is all
My vengeance never lacked
What my vengeance never lacked
Share my pleasure - feel my pain
Rational thoughts of a man insane
Septic ways to get me high
Jacking up to watch you die
I'm jacking up to watch you die
I see your torment and anxiety
Recognition of my dignity
There's no survivors
There's no regrets
Nothing more for you to beg...
...except a painless death
Betrayers fear my name
Bastard prophecy
Immortal, I am bound
My eternity
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