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Benediction: Transcend the Rubicon

28/01/10 || Habakuk

This CD has the worst Dan Seagrave picture I’ve ever seen. Man, is that ugly! My copy also has two very old, bleached out promo stickers that cover the prettier side of the picture which makes it even worse, and the only thing I can see is the stupid face of some stone dude. Nope, sorry, I can also see the hideous, catastrophic band logo that uses two kinds of red together with a white background, and has a stupid nun in two versions on the sides. Fucken hell, guys. I turn the jewelcase around only to look into the eyes of five dudes that look like old renaissance gallery portraits… of inbred morons! Jesus Christ! Trying to decipher the song titles I am distracted by bullshit endorsement logos and the total lack of contrast of red letters on green-greyish background doesn’t help either. Take that, theory of colors, red on green SUCKS. The use of italics without reason delivers the killing stroke to my eyes. Desperately I open the case only to find the cover stone dude once more with red-on-green letters and a blue, silver and black CD. They don’t want me to listen to their stuff, right? Look at this! Yes, I just took these pictures myself. It’s that bad. Now I shouldn’t be so superficial. I am deeply sorry. I’ll stop bitching now.

This hideously packaged proto-classic needs to be listened to and is easily the best thing that has come out of Benediction’s old school death metal phase, and mind you, I say that as a fan of theirs throughout their whole career. We’re dealing with Transcend the Rubicon here, ninety-fucken-three. Let me rephrase: Kick-ass, mid-to-fast-paced thrash-infused hyphen death metal. “Transcend the Rubicon” stands out from many of its genre contestants thanks to a kind of inner tension that makes it impossible to keep my head steady when I’m listening to this album, regardless of the production that admittedly shows some signs of age. It’s nowhere near abysmal though, and lightyears better than on Benediction’s earlier works, yet still retaining some gritty charm.

So, why exactly is this so good? Three reasons:

First of all, I’m a fan of Dave Ingram’s vocals. His delivery of guttural yet comprehensible shouts billows around the music without detracting too much attention but when taken into focus, it still sounds awesome. The dark, gothic lyrics (not of the gay Twilight kind, but the gloomy, uneasiness and underlying horror one) have nothing to do with Caesar or any historic nerdery that the title suggests, but add a layer of great atmospheric awesomeness (that is, if you’re into booklets or reading in general, you fucked up MySpace kiddies). They actually are a good read unlike most zombie gore slash kill fuck die dead. Sentence over.

Secondly, the drumming. Punkish and fast or slowly pounding, Ian Treacy gets it all done and adds a good slab of snare and tom rolls as well as a good load of double bass to the already meaty metal stew. Today where everyone watches Derek Roddy videos for breakfast, Treacy’s blast beat-less drumming might come across as simple to some and won’t make many a jaw drop to the floor, but it’s flawlessly executed, intensely and unrelentingly old school. Plus, it’s captured in such a spirited way that I’ll take it over every triple feet hammer-hummingbird blast school any day. The production might not be exactly flattering, but you can make out every single hit and every single one hits home. Haw haw.

Thirdly and most importantly, the riffing. Early nineties’ Benediction was a band that relied heavily on “open” aka non palm-muted riffing, contrary to most American old school bands, and “Transcend the Rubicon” is chock full of dense, sawing riffage that makes the songs retain a steady, pushing drive. The single riffs may be less rhythmically intricate than some contemporaries’, but the songwriting is intelligent enough to seamlessly move from one part to another – and when they finally let the palm-muted thrash riffs loose, fuck me sideways with a jackhammer, do they rip! Listen to “I bow to none” – it doesn’t only sport an awesome title, but also showcases the aforementioned qualities perfectly around the 2:40 mark. This, ladies, is how you write a perfect thrash break. Fuck yes.

Now if you single out the ingredients, they probably aren’t too special, even great thrash breaks have been done before (no, really.) – but you know ye olde summe-of-its-parts game. Perfect example, right here. It all clicks. It grabs you by the throat and bangs your head, choking you to dess. It transcends your Rubicon. At least that’s what happens to me. If you too are into old school death metal that doesn’t hide its thrash and punk roots (my version actually features a The Accused cover with Karl Willets and Jan Chris de Koeijer on guest vocals), here’s an album not to be missed.

8,5

Information
Released: 1993
Label: Nuclear Blast
Website: Benediction MySpace
Band
Dave Ingram: vocals
Darren Brooks: guitars
Peter Rew: guitars
Frank Healy: bass
Ian Treacy: drums

Tracklist
01. Unfound mortality
02. Nightfear
03. Paradox alley
04. I bow to none
05. Painted skulls
06. Violation domain
07. Face without soul
08. Bleakhouse
09. Blood from stone
10. Wrong side of the grave
11. Artefacted Irreligion / Spit forth the dead (live studio medley)

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