BENIGHTED – It’s extremely violent, it’s bloody and it’s gruiiiiiiiiiiiiik

Here is BENIGHTED, a brutal death metal/grindcore band from France.

For those who don’t know Benighted please introduce your band

Benighted is a death/grind band, we exist since 1998 and we just released our 7th album, which will be out on February 14 on Season of Mist and it’s called "Carnivore Sublime". To describe a bit our music, once a fan told me something I thought really funny, telling Benighted was like a car crash between two trucks full of pigs, it’s extremely violent, it’s bloody and it’s gruiiiiiiiiiiiiik!Hé hé! The concept of the band is about psychiatric diseases as I work in a mental institute and it fits perfectly with our schizophrenic way to play extreme metal!

How has Benighted’s sound developed with this new album? What can we expect from it?

This album is in my opinion simply the best we ever did! "Asylum Cave", our previous one received an amazing welcome from everywhere around the world and lots of fans told us they couldn’t imagine how we could do more violent and effective than this on, but actually we did. This new album contains our most aggressive and insane songs, mixing very fast parts with other groovy ones, the catchiest chorus we ever made. We’re very proud of our new sick baby! So far everyone who listened to this told us this is our own "masterpiece". Compared to "Asylum Cave", I’d say it’s its little brother totally unchained and savage, with dark and insane atmospheres that we never used before, and it contains of course lots of surprising stuff like we love to incorporate in each of our albums!

You made two different covers, one very explicit that even got banned on facebook, so what is your opinion about this.

Ah ah! The only reason this cover was censored is because you can see a tit! So don’t be surprised if you see that with a "mickey mouse" or a star or o other stuff on it, it’s not the actual cover! Both of the covers represent the hidden side of the way to treat children and make them get mentally sick. This is about the hypocrisy of the "how you look like in society" and "how you really are" and the damages on the kids because some modern parents are more concerned about their precious freedom, comfort and rights than taking care of the kids they give life to. I can see the this sad result at my work and I’m very angry about the way some people lead their kids into sickness without paying attention or try to reconsider themselves.

How are you guys going to use the different covers?

Both of the covers are present in the crystal version, the "soft" one is the real cover and you can find the "gore" version as the cover of the limited box edition.

How was the process of putting together the new songs?

We still have the same way to write our stuff, one of the members brings some riffs and we build the structure of each track with all our combined ideas. Nothing is really planned before a track and we just look where our rage is leading us each time towards our music. I don’t really know how is happened but this time it seems that we were angry like never before! Hé hé! Some of them are pure death/grind core stuff while some others contain more dark and sick stuff.

Name some musical influences on Carnivore Sublime. Do you ever get inspired by some non-metal genres?

I don’t really know what to say, except we’re very big fans of stuff like Napalm Death, Nasum, Aborted or Anaal Nathrakh… Big pieces of poetry as you can imagine! Hé hé! 

Any touring plans after the release?

We’ve got a French tour with our brothers from Loudblast coming right after the issue of the new album, and then we have a Russian tour in April, spring and summer festivals around Europe like the Hellfest, Metaldays or Motocultor Festival, and finally a whole month European tour in November with awesome bands I’m unfortunately not allowed to tell the names yet. We can’t wait to go back on tour to play the new tracks on stage!!!

What inspired the lyrics on Carnivore Sublime?

The fact that I work in a mental institute provides to the band this concept with a cruel dimension of reality, as I only speak about real pathologies with actual symptoms. "Asylum Cave" was about a schizophrenic whose delirium was about the Fritzl case and "Carnivore Sublime" is also a concept album about a man with a border line personality. Each track explains his childhood traumas, how he built this sick personality and how is conditioned by the fear to get abandoned. This fear will lead him into the dark uncontrolled spheres of cannibalism to keep people he needs with him forever. My point in our concept is not to relate horror stories but propose a theme that fits perfectly with all the violence you can find in Benighted and maybe make people understand that persons suffering of mental diseases are often more vulnerable than dangerous.

Which song is your favorite on the new album and why? Can you try and describe it musically and lyrically wise

My favorite is for sure "Spit" which is the track Niklas Kvarforth from Shining appears as guest vocals on! It’s a damned fast track with so sick parts increased by Niklas performance! He made an incredible job, he also strangled himself with his belt to make some rattles of a dying man, and it was amazing to work with him. The result of this track is just pure madness, it’s speaks about the fact the man in the story just ate some parts of his girlfriend and the healthy part of his personality tells him to spit it out but he doesn’t want to and wants to keep her inside.

Tell us about the extreme metal scene in France. Any Brutal Death/Grind bands from there that you would like to recommend us?

We have this awesome luck in France to have very good bands in every extreme style, Gojira being the top of the French metal quality! As extreme death/grind bands, I would recommend Blockheads, Kronos, Gorod, Inhumate or Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition! You won’t be disappointed if you listen to their stuff!

Anything else you would like to add?

Thanks to all the people supporting us and we can’t wait to come on tour and make a giant party with you on stage and spent unforgettable times with you guys! Thank you for this interview and stay sick !

 

Links to Benighted videos :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1W9Rk4gjjY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqgYPY6HqCI