Shadows Descend
Benighted's recent efforts have been gaining quite a bit of attention in extreme metal circles, and Asylum Cave is almost guaranteed to satisfy the band's faithful once again. This uber-technical blend of brutal death metal, grindcore, and metalcore is just relentless and head-crushing to say the very least. Unfortunately, many of acts in this genre don't bode extremely well with me, and Asylum Cave tends to suffer from many of my standard complaints. Although the technical capabilities of the musicians here are unbelievable, the music itself is seldom very memorable and feels somewhat generic and uninspired to these ears. I wouldn't consider Asylum Cave to be a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, but I do hesitate in claiming that the album rises above the competition. This is a mixed bag of the great, the decent, and the mediocre, and the end result is an album that is recommendable, but best approached with caution.
The music here is a hybrid of brutal technical death metal, metalcore, and grindcore. Asylum Cave is somewhat unique, though, as it has a much darker atmosphere than much of the competition. Just listen to the spoken word intro to "Fritzl" to get what I mean there. The self-titled track is certainly the highlight of the album, seeing that the majority of the remaining material rests in a zone of mediocrity. One of the greatest things about Asylum Cave is the excellent production and musicianship, but that can only go so far when the album is lacking in the composition department. Still, it'd be criminal to not mention the spectacular drumming from Kevin Foley - that man is simply a monster!
Conclusion:
Asylum Cave is a bit of a mixed bag, especially since technical brutal death metal like this rarely makes a huge impact on me. Fans of Benighted and the genre in general will want to definitely check this out even though my personal enjoyment is limited. For this good, but generally non-essential, release, this French group has earned themselves a solid 3 stars. This isn't a required purchase by any means, but I certainly wouldn't advise against it. Fans of music that is brutal as hell and still technically demanding should really dig Asylum Cave.
Track Listing:
1. Asylum Cave
2. Let the Blood Spill between my Broken Teeth
3. Prey
4. Hostile
5. Fritzl
6. Unborn Infected Children
7. The Cold Remains
8. A Quiet Day
9. Shadows Descend
10. Swallow
11. Lethal Merycism
12. Drowning
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