Grind Bastard

1998 was quite the fruitful year for me. Of all the new cds that I added to my collection, easily more than a dozen of them would eventually become all-time favourites. One such album is Grind Bastard, the fifth full-length by UK death metal stalwarts, Benediction.

First a word about the cover art: that’s not a very death metal one. No blood, ghouls, horror or nightmarish picture (as was common back then for the genre), but an intriguing red-purple colour scheme and a mysterious figure you’d rather expect on a Marvel poster. Okay, so trying something new in the scene should always be encouraged, but it’s a very lightweight cover in comparison to the heavyweight metal that Grind Bastard offers.

What’s really great about the package, is vocalist Dave Ingram’s liner notes briefly explaining the topics or context for each of the songs. This allows you to get a better understanding of the lyrics and establish a closer connection to the music. It also shows that death metal can cover a wide variety of topics: serious events like on ‘Agonised’ (about Ingram’s brother’s carcrash) but also fictitious plots about a man who lies trapped under the weight of his wife’s dead body – a story told on album opener ‘Deadfall’.

Grind Bastard is, along with 2020’s Scriptures, the best produced Benediction album. True, the production is as polished, spotless and clean as your grandma’s floor before Christmas dinner, but the immense wall of sound sure punches you in the face. At the same time, Grind Bastard is, for the larger part, a collection of very accessible death metal. And by accessible I mean, memorable songs with catchy riffs and structures. This is by no means a technical album at breakneck speed with dizzying leads.

Benediction have crafted and assembled some of the best songs in their career here, with an abundance of variation. Each track is distinctively different from all the others. The intro to ‘Deadfall’ will be instantly recognizable from here to eternity, as well as the opening bassline to ‘Magnificat’, along with its excellent main theme at a trotting pace. Headbangers such as ‘Nervebomb’ and ‘We the Freed’ take no prisoners and catapult you right back to Benediction’s early days. The band even seems to have a temporary atmospheric side hustle on ‘The Bodiless’ and ‘I’, both thriving on threatening riffs and a gloomy ending. Particularly the latter one is a near-perfect combination of aggressive riffs, excellent lyrics, and a great, atmospheric finale. In fact, the album should have ended on this one.

14 songs on a death metal album is quite above the average. Then again, so is the musical quality of Grind Bastard, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing. But the album could have definitely done without the three redundant covers. Benediction recorded unnecessary death metal versions of Judas Priest (‘Electric Eye), Twisted Sister (‘Destroyer’), and Anti-Nowhere League (‘We Are The League’). The renditions presented to the listener here are okay, but also not more than that. With already 11 superb songs of their own, there was absolutely zero need for extra cover songs to improve the aural pleasures of the listener. On the contrary, I find myself skipping those more often than not. Style-wise they do not blend in with the rest of the album, and 50 minutes of their own quality metal is already more than enough...so why bother adding yet another 3 cover songs. They’d better kept those for some separate EP. It’s exactly because of these superfluous covers that I can’t be persuaded to honour Grind Bastard with a 90+ rating.

So skip the cover songs, but other than that: absolutely top quality death metal!

89/100

Recommended tracks: Deadfall, Magnificat, I

Simplified logo, bizarre cover...after something like this, someone could assume that on "Grind Bastard" the quintet from Benediction would change the style drastically. Not this time, because as it turns out, the group decided to...stay where it was then in 1995, offering nothing that could be surprising. Okay, the music is kind of a little better than on "The Dreams You Dread" and generally has a different feeling (more groovy). But that's nothing if it's still very average compared to the classics and it's completely impossible to pull in for longer. But you can feel that this disc - like its predecessor - was made solely from publishing duty.

Admittedly, there are some remnants of death metal riffs ("Magnificat", "The Bodiless"), some accelerations ("We The Freed", "Nervebomb", "Deadfall") or good vocals of Ingram (except for those where he tries to sing more "clean"), the problem is that everything that I mentioned "in plus" is definitely not enough here. Unfortunately, these are just moments, not the full songs. The music on "Grind Bastard" holds a fairly solid level and is suitable for listening (as opposed to the next album), but has absolutely no such kick as the pre-"The Dreams You Dread" albums.

I also think that a much better solution would be to shorten the number of songs a bit (to 8-9), because with 11 (including unnecessary two covers) it is much more difficult to listen to the whole cd. Overall, it is a bit better than on "The Dreams You Dread", although paradoxically to what I was talking about, "Grind Bastard" is exactly the same story as "The Dreams...", it's very average longplay for a well-deserved band like Benediction.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2019/11/benediction-grind-bastard-1998.html

Many societies have three sections: the upper class, the middle class and, of course, the lower class. The metal cosmos translates this structure in three types of bands. The famous ones (Metallica, Iron Maiden = upper class), the ones that will never have even the smallest type of success (roughly 80.000 underground bands plus, in a fairer world, Sabaton = lower class) and the (often semi-professional) bands between those poles (= middle class). And just like in a greater society, it's the middle class of metal that keeps the machine running. Its representatives keep a certain distance to overly commercial thoughts, but they also see no sense in recording the most rumbling underground demo in the history of metal while screaming "we are the trve cvlt".

Benediction is among these socially desirable bands. "Grind Bastard" is definitely no commercial work, although it does not have much in common with absurdly low-tuned guitars. The veterans mix death metal with thrash and a punk-compatible attitude shines through their pieces as well. I admit that the playtime of more than an hour would be enough for three punk "full-lengths", nevertheless, Benediction's composition depict a raw and mangy approach. Anyway, it goes without saying that the technical skills of experienced combattants such as Frank Healy add this degree of virtuosity which separates metal from punk. As a consequence, the individual tracks are not as straight as usual punk or crustcore pieces; exceptions like the strong and direct "We the Freed" prove the rule. But many tracks score with their astonishingly good flow. "Agonised" is the first track that has to be mentioned in this respect, but it is beaten by "Magnificat", an outstanding highlight.

The song starts with a sightly rebellious bass line, the drums set in with a simple beat and the guitars complete the picture with very smooth but simultaneously really aggressive leads. The centre of the song slows down the tempo and, of course, Frank Healy also introduces this less rapid part. But I also have to mention Dave Ingram. He roars vigorously and despite a relatively monotonous performance, his deep voice does not lack charisma. His contribution adds value to the fast parts (the songs reaccelerates at the end) and to the slow sequence as well. Especially the line "yet they lead us to the slaughter like they lead a horse to water" expresses an overdose of contempt and hatred.

Nevertheless, it is the brilliant drive of many songs that makes the album to something special. "I" - no Kiss cover version, although Gene would have been happy to get some easily earned royalties - presents the five-piece like a machine whose cogs mesh in the most precise manner. The dudes celebrate more than seven minutes a cocktail of straight velocity, extremely heavy mid-tempo and solo guitars that add an almost dreamful-melancholic mood. But generally speaking, Benediction create a very sinister atmosphere, the vocals as well as the guitar sound. By the way, the production does not suffer from any major flaws. Seems as if the veterans had a clear vision how the finished album should sound.

Although Benediction do not offer a Kiss song, they continue their tradition of cover version. "Grind Bastard" holds three foreign tracks. Usually I accept only one, but the self-composed material surpasses the 50 minutes mark, so what. The best track of the trio is Twisted Sister's "Destroyer", a real monster in view of its brutal heaviness. It sounds like the descendant of "Forged in Fire", the ultra-violent Anvil cover that enriched "Dark Is the Season". "Destroyer" is so uncompromising that I am not at risk to see Dee Snider in my mind's eye. Honestly speaking, I miss neither him nor his lipstick. Less exciting are the further cover versions - without these pretty slack interpretations, "Grind Bastard" would have been a candidate for a 90 plus X percent evaluation. Anyway, the original bands behind "Electric Eye" and "We Are the League" illustrate the wide range of influences of the band - a band that has written a very strong album, because even its "second row highlights", for example the title track, "Carcinoma Angel" or "The Bodiless" are coherently conceptualized, robust and powerful. The "Grind Bastard" rules with an iron hand. No doubt, it is this kind of album that keeps the machine running - and we did not have many of them back in 1998.

Benediction is one of my all time favorite death metal bands. Constantly raw and heavy, but they never get too much. Dave Ingram has one of those voices that never really get brutal, instead it stays at a perfect level throughout the album, packing a raw and intense power.

I would describe the overall sound of the album as a perfect blend of old school death metal, thrash and punk. Now, punk is a very dominating source of inspiration on this album, as many of the riffs are very Hatebreed sounding. This would be the only thing that brings the album down in my view. Now don't get me wrong, I like punk and all, but when i compare Grind Bastard to the undisputed masterpiece Transcend the Rubicon, I realise that Benediction sound best when they play death metal through and through.

But don't worry, although punk-ish, the riffs on Grind Bastard are catchy, well written and will have your head banging in no time.

Check out Benediction today. Perhaps the most underrated death metal band ever to come out of the UK.