Benümb

Soul Of The Martyr

(c)(p)1998 Relapse Records

Review by Neil St.Laurent

Thanks to Relapse for the CD

Formed in 1994 Benumb has been touring the underground with a multitude of their musical peers and friends (such as Exhumed). "Soul Of The Martyr" is the bands first CD release and is done in company of Relapse Records.

The promo material best describes Benümb (a rarity indeed), "BENUMB's songs often exhibit Jeckyl and Hyde qualities, alternating from attacking, destructive blurs to sandpaper-slow molasses dirges". That is a good description except that it fails to point out that the band really doesn't have a solid audience because of this. It is easy to be listening to the fast insane material and be enjoying it, then all of a sudden comes this slow mundane sludgey sound that just crawls along forever (or vice versa depending on where in the CD you start). It is different enough that the two components are best reviewed independently.

The slower material falls into a realm of dark music that most people are strangers to. Slow and monotonous the music creates somewhat of a depressed atmosphere that, although more lively than such dark peers as Lull or Zaraza, is quite inactive. It holds somewhat of an industrial quality to it and, even though very slightly, manages to form somewhat of a bridge between the metal genres and the experimental ones. Benümb however doesn't focus on this music, so anybody expected lots of this will be disappointed.

The faster material appears to be Benümb's specialty, a cross between hardcore and grindcore that makes a musical cacophony. Ranging from moderate to fast the guitars are always delivering blow after blow of short and simple riffs. Accompanied by the accentuating drums and the deep bass track the music is varied throughout and never really disinteresting. The only unfortunate part is that unless this is your favorite genre you'll always be left thinking that their talents could be better used to produce something like death metal or power metal. That of course refers to the elements that sound like the band has talent, for as with most music in this genre, about 50% of the time you're convinced the members don't even know what a guitar is, let alone know how to play one.

Overall it seems that the slow components over-compensate for the fast components, or the other way around. It just seems like the band simply doesn't have the capacity to be unrelenting, so they throw in some slower stuff to make it easier on themselves. Although the album is interesting, and in general is good within the genre, it was most likely just good luck that led to it; the band is comprised of lacklustre performers that just appear to want to bang on their instruments and have no real intention of forming music.

Benümb is:
John Gotelli - Drums
Dave Hogarth - Guitar
Rob Koperski - Guitar
Tim Regan - Bass
Pete Pontikoff - Vocals

Contact:
Benümb
c/o Pete Pontikoff
1129 Oakwood Drive
Millbrae CA 94030
USA

Back to Index