Benediction
The Dreams You Dread

"This album sucks."

I reached this unquestionable conclusion from the moment of its release, which occurred in May 1995. A genuine betrayal in music by one of the bands I most appreciated in Death Metal; they were capable of writing very important and fundamental pages, thanks to works like the raw debut "Subconscious Terror" and especially the auditory massacre of "Transcend The Rubicon." Authentic milestones of a genre.

All these years, I haven't managed to provide a plausible explanation for this real collapse: in fact, "The Dreams You Dread," with rare exceptions, is a dull, lifeless album that goes nowhere. An attempt by the British combo to give a "commercial" turn to the uncompromising Death of the previous long-distance works; an attempt that miserably failed.

Even the cover is somewhat ridiculous and quite flashy: a sort of bas-relief with the faces of the five English members prominently displayed. I struggle to recognize and name the various group members since the image itself is not the clearest and most vivid. And it's always the German label "Nuclear Blast" that handles the distribution of the work: the beginning of the end even for this label.

They introduce Hard-Sludge elements in almost all the songs, with a series of slowed-down mid-tempos where they should unleash their technical virtuosity; but not being phenomena from this point of view (apart from the very young drummer), the result is poor.

The opening "Down On Whores" seems to never end, relying on a skeletal and inconclusive riff obsessively repeated; the equally confused and embarrassing "Soulstream," with Dave's voice completely extinguished. Until reaching the least successful track of the bunch: "Denial" with its ever-slow and Hard pace that induces only sleepiness (and I'm not kidding, believe me!).

Fortunately, in two tracks they remember being Benediction and still want to hit hard on the instruments, with those typical old-school accelerations: "Certified...?" and the title track are brief telluric outbursts that for a few minutes bring me back to their glorious past. But these outbursts are not enough to achieve even a scant pass for the album. Thumbs down, unfortunately.

Already with the subsequent work "Grind Bastard" they will return to paths much closer to classic Death Metal, without ever again reaching the sublime and wicked heights of their first albums.

To Valentina, from Borgomanero, who always reads me...a friend.

Ad Maiora.