Benighted - I.C.P.
Adipocere
Death Metal
10 songs ()
Release year: 2003
Benighted, Adipocere
Reviewed by Crims

I.C.P. or Insane Cephalic Production is the latest offering from France’s Benighted. Found on I.C.P. is one of the most enjoyable mixes of all variations of Death Metal that I’ve heard in quite some time and it should appeal to a very wide array of Death Metal fans.

What makes I.C.P. so enjoyable is that Benighted have not locked themselves into one style of Death Metal. They don’t play entirely in the Floridian style, the Polish style, or the more modern Grind tinged style. Instead, Benighted seem to have taken influence from some of Death Metal’s best and combined it into a highly technical and chaotic package that never lets up and crushes you with every riff. The technical aspects of the release, with its sudden change ups and intricate break downs is what separates Benighted from a band like Blood Red Throne who do something similar but in a much more stripped down and to the point style. Similarly Blood Red Throne used one repetitive, though effective growl where as Benighted employ about 5 or 6 different variations of growls, screams, shrieks, gurgles and everything in between. In this sense Benighted is more similar to a band like Origin in that not only is the song writing chaotic with the riffs and tempo changes, but the vocal style changes almost as often. I definitely preferred the deeper vocal growls but the overall the effect is pleasing because it fits well with the music. Meanwhile the phrasing of each style is above average with some occasional moments that are very strong.

The CD loses some if its muster near the end with some tracks I was somewhat indifferent too, but the beginning and mid-portion of this CD was extremely impressing. There were some moments, especially on Deviant and Stay Brutal that were just insane and I would be hard pressed to find Death Metal fans not head banging like crazy to this stuff. Benighted really seem to have found a good mix of simple and effective Polish style chug runs with some of the technical aspects of Symbolic era Death and Death Metal like Angelcorpse. Likewise, the song writing is impressively mature and the band sounds like they’ve been releasing Death Metal for many years, when in actuality this is only their third release in the span of four years. Of course there isn’t really anything new here but what I.C.P. is, is more of a tribute to all the great things most of us love about all aspects of Death Metal involving everything from riffs, vocals, drumming, and lyrics. I highly recommend this release to any Death Metal fan. Personally, this is simply a fun release to listen to. It’s easy to get into and there is enough variation to keep the listener (or at least me) coming back for more and that’s very important to me.

Killing Songs :
Bestial Breeding, Stay Brutal, Deviant, Self-Proclaimed God, Insane Cephalic Carnage
Crims quoted 87 / 100
Other albums by Benighted that we have reviewed:
Benighted - Obscene Repressed reviewed by Goat and quoted 85 / 100
Benighted - Dogs Always Bite Harder Than Their Master (EP) reviewed by Goat and quoted no quote
Benighted - Asylum Cave reviewed by Goat and quoted 85 / 100
Benighted - Icon reviewed by Goat and quoted 90 / 100
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