In a strange turn of events, the only one man black metal band I ever sent an e-mail to (who shall currently remain not named) replied to me, giving thanks for taking interest in his band. At the same time, Rob from Metal Injection ignores all my-mails, probably thinking I’m some weird guy or something. It’s all cool though, since I pretty much get to run amok in the Metal Injection blog, although some of those e-mails were addressing certain pressing issues about technical difficulties…
This band name has to be one of the best I’ve heard in a long time. Think about it, someone being benighted, and in Sodom! It’s like some dude, worked his way up to becoming a knight, but only in Sodom! You know that guy has some cool looking black armor and would scare the hell out of all the good guys in Lord Of The Rings. The one man who was BENIGHTED IN SODOM himself is mainman Thorn, who has created some incredibly dim and depressing black metal from Ft. Lauderdale Florida! Ah yes, how angry an individual must be to live in a location where every teen movie about spring break is focused on. Don’t worry Thorn, I understand your pain, as all the women in the area my age run away at the first listening of KILLSWITCH ENGAGE. It’s a good thing I haven’t tried CANNIBAL CORPSE on anyone new, or else I’d probably be in jail.
This is some seriously depressing black metal though. The full-on treble, and completely bass lacking guitars sound like they're coming at you from the end of a 50 foot hallway. “Plague Overlord” is a plague, with lots of noisy arpeggios during the slow dirge moments, while the riffs picked with a little more speed contain some very catchy morose melodies. Any hint of bass is of course completely lacking, making me wonder if bass was recorded at all. Of course, when dealing with incredibly depressing black metal, it’s usually not an issue.
The ticking high-hats are a dead giveaway of a drum machine, which mastermind Thorn has figured out how to force out missed beats. There’s certain elements about raw production which are perfectly fine in the world of black metal, and while playing a little more loose than usual is perfectly fine, actually missing beats isn’t quite as cool as the effect might seem. Neither is forgetting to tune up your guitar whenever it’s time to record, although the tuning problem might be barely noticeable to some.
Apparently, BENIGHTED IN SODOM has found themselves a drummer. If he can figure out how to get his guitar in tune a little better, and have the drums stay in time, then that would be music to kill yourself too. Until then, “Plague Overlord” is a great way to scare plagues of people off the Ft. Lauderdale beaches.
