Benighted

Avgrundshjarta

Demo 2005

The Swedish underground scene seems to be rising once again in my eyes.  The latest four song demo from Benighted is a perfect example of what the future holds.  Benighted's newest demo is one of the very few releases these days that still possess a little bit of the old magic.  Despite being Swedish it has a strong Norwegian feeling about it, especially the atmosphere (a word you will hear repeatedly from me in regards to their music) in the speedy riffing.  At about the 7 minute mark on the song Like Draperies of Night itself there is a nice accoustic part that reminds me a lot of a certain passage on Satyricon's Dark Midevil Times both in style and mood.  But for the most part this album almost never slows down.  It is one windy blazing riff after another.  I mean it has times when it creeps along but for the most part it reaces along at a blistering pace.  The one thing that separates Benighted from a lot of their contemporaries is that the riffs are interesting and catchy.  I mean I can listen to stuff from Leviathan and Deathspell Omega or some other bands like that and for the most the riffs do nothing for me.  Here the riffs actually grab me and invoke some sort of feeling in me rather than just flying by to the point where I can't remember what I was just listening to.  A perfect example of this is the main riff in Vibrations of my thoughts.  It is a very haunting and high sounding riff.  Benighted's riffing style can be very ferocious and the vocals of Christian Aho lend themselves well to this feeling of ferocity.  Thankfully Benighted let us down easily with a calming and Celtic styled accoustic track to close out the demo.  it is very soothing after their Aural onslaught that the listener is confronted with by the three prior tracks.  There is something so moody and atmospheric about the production sound they achieved on this release.  There is a nice bit of fuzz and hollowness to the instruments.  I think these guys are ready for a proper record deal and hopefully a full length album will greet us in the near future.  Lets hope they can retain the atmosphere that make their demos so special.