Frankly speaking, I wasn’t among those who impatiently awaited the new Benediction album. There was no reason to anticipate anything special from a band which has been playing not-so-original music throughout the last decade. The news about Dave Ingram, the band’s previous vocalist, departing from Benediction in order to sing in another British band (Bolt Thrower), only affirmed my thoughts that the new Benediction album wouldn’t be anything unusual, on the contrary, it would probably be so bad that the band would cease to exist. Fortunately, I was wrong. And indeed, who would’ve thought that Benediction’s latest longplay album would be their best since the already-classic «The Grand Leveller»? Of course, I didn’t realize it straight away, so we’d better start with the not-so-nice things.

God, what the hell is this artwork?! [God was confused and couldn't give an answer. —AK] First, anyone who has seen Bolt Thrower’s CDs will immediately notice that the arrow-ridden symbol, on which a mummified dude with wings is located, is similar to the Bolt Thrower symbol (which consists of an eye with eight arrows going outward in all directions). Moreover, a reminiscent symbol (a bit smaller than the first) is stationed behind the head of this feathered guy. The only difference from the Bolt Thrower symbol is that we can’t tell if these symbols have eyes, because the guy’s flesh covers every possible site where these «Bolt Thrower eyes» might be located. On the other hand, if we try to imagine where the big symbol’s eye should be located — and it should be located really close to the ass of the guy who’s situated on this symbol — we understand the unlikelihood of the artist being a pervert. In fact, it’s highly unlikely that there are any eyes. Actually, I might’ve omitted all this stuff, had it not been for the possibility of the Organised Chaos owners wracking their brains over it. Moreover, I can say that this an «international» and generally accepted symbol of chaos, so any copyright infringement complaints can be flushed down the crapper. Right on the foreground there stands a female creature who gladly opens wide her robe which is the only thing she’s wearing. Hey, take it easy guys, all fascinating details are covered with her long hair from above, and with a rising flame from below. Wow, she must be a really -hot- chick then. Hey, is that a crown of thorns on her head? What is it doing there? Is she Jesus or what? Wait, and what about… erm, okay, Jesus with tits is quite a sight, I must admit. Gotta write to the perverts in Vatican, maybe they will like the idea and Benediction will be opening gigs for the Pope!

Okay, what else do we have? Yeah, except the aforementioned things we have two pictures of nature on the sides of the cover — one of them is calm and the other is quite the reverse. It’s conceptual… sort of. In my opinion, it would’ve been much nicer if the cover was one of these pictures flowing into the other.Well, it’s only my opinion after all, so we’d better finish looking at the cover and turn our heads to the inlay itself, which has the band pictures, lyrics and other stuff, incluing the ads for previous Benediction albums. The lush inlay is beautiful and smells nice (not to mention all the information you get), so in this aspect, Benediction rules (as usual). Too bad the «pancake» itself is simply horrible — the combination of white, blue and red colors can turn the innards of any color-sensitive man out there, so it’s better to immediately put this horror in the CD-player and start listening. Stylistically, Benediction are playing classic death metal.

Okay, that was a joke.

In reality, the last three Benediction albums have contained only a couple of songs that might be considered death metal, and with quite a stretch. In a fit of surprise, you might ask: «What exactly are they playing then?» Well, they play pure metalcore/crossover with a couple of nods towards classic death metal here and there. Still don’t believe me? Listen carefully to the CD. What kind of weed does one have to smoke to call songs such as «Suffering Feeds Me» death metal? What’s so death-metallish about a song like «Diary Of A Killer»? And «The Temple Of Set» is almost a pure hardcore. Note that I simply took three songs going one after the other, trying to find some trace of death metal. I couldn’t do it. Where can one find death-metal in riffs that were taken from hardcore (mostly classic), crossover and thrash? During all fifty minutes of «Organised Chaos», one can find only a couple of death metal parts (for example, the opening riff of the first song, as if taken from early Pestilence; it turns into a pure hardcore soon, BTW), and that’s certainly not enough to call Benediction a death metal band. And I won’t even bother describing such «almost heavy metal» ballads as «Easy Way To Die». Of course, one can argue that for every «Easy Way To Die» there is a «This Graveyard Earth», but all these death metal songs have some hardcore/thrash nuances (except maybe «Charon»), so how can you call it «classic death metal»?

Let’s move on to the music itself. Benediction have decided not to fuck around with intros and stuff like that. Instead, they’ve opted to quicky establish who’s fucking who (to quote Impetigo) by starting the album with the fast and gloomy «Suicide Rebellion», as if proving to the listener that it’s too early to put the band on the shelf. Despite such a start, the following songs are decidedly less grim, and reside more in moderately aggressive territory. There are twelve songs, which last a bit more than 53 minutes. This is much better than an hour of Grind Bastard, but it’s still bit too fat for a band playing such music. In my opinion, everything would’ve been great if the band had just omitted ten minutes or so. However, this is true only if you’re a complete extrovert, because these 53 minutes were just fine for me. As a rule, both guitars are playing the same parts — it improves the density of the sound, but hurts diversity somewhat. These parts themselves are a mix of death metal (the beginning of «Suicide Rebellion», «Charon», etc.), hardcore (»The Temple Of Set», second riff off «Suicide Rebellion», etc) or thrash (first riffs off «Don’t Look In The Mirror» or «Nothing On The Inside», etc.) riffs. Some riffs are so generic that it’s impossible to concisely trace their stylistic identity. Of course, you’ve heard all these riffs before, but not so much that you can immediately name their sources (unless you are a big fan of American extreme music of the late 80’s / early 90’s). Benediction deconstruct the riffs themselves and make up new ones from these deconstructed remains, sometimes making it possible to identify some of them, for example, the first part of the main riff from «Diary Of A Killer» is from Carcass’ «R**k The Vote» (0:40). A lot of riffs remind me of British heavy a-la Judas Priest. The bass plays in unison with the guitars, and I have nothing to say about this, except that it works well, and supplies density and integrity to the sound. Despite his youth, Benediction’s current drummer does his job splendidly, as he maintains the rhythm and often opts for more complex rhythmic structures (i.e., the beginning of «Stigmata»). The new vocalist (who debuts on this album — not counting various tours) is, I think, the ideal replacement for the former one. On the one hand, his voice is quite similar to Dave Ingram’s; it’s within the same range and operates with the same tones and expression as Ingram’s. On the other hand, Dave Hunt’s vocals display unique traits that are mostly heard during his more «hardcore moments» (which only help Benediction, especially given their current direction).

The band’s lyrics are moderately aggresive and very well written (after all, English is Benediction’s native language), and speak predominantly about the inherently problematic relationships between the individual and society. There are also hints of more «abstract» things, like life, death and other pseudo-philosophical problems. All in all, you can never «get into the wrong hole» with such topics, as they are always a pertinent, and make for a good read. Of course, the constant repetition of the word «fuck» might repel the most delicate aesthetes, but something is telling me not to lament over it, and instead deliver a solid kick in the ass to the aforementioned aesthetes for being such oversensitive individuals. The sound is beyond praise — it’s powerful and clear, without going to the point of overkill. All instruments can be heard clearly, although the vocals are a bit high in the mix. Of course, the elitists will be complaining that this sound is fit only for snotty rock bands, but believe me, this sound is better than poorly-mixed aural slop.

This album’s song structures usually consist of alternating themes that are repeated an even number of times (four, as a rule). They are formed in the usual verse-chorus manner, with some additional themes added in between. Sometimes the songs are complicated enough that it’s really hard (and, frankly speaking, useless) to speak of any relevant verse-chorus structure (i.e., the first track). I must say that the art of joining different themes and creating song structures in general has always been one of Benediction’s strengths, and this partly helped the band to establish and maintain their popularity among the masses. If you take this Benediction CD in your hands, you can be sure that you won’t find any surprises a-la Suffocation — i.e., stunningly awesome themes that suddenly emerge when you aren’t expecting anything, then disappear with just as much immanence, without giving you a chance to fully enjoy what’s happening. Of course, this Suffocationesque approach is appropriate in its own way, because such music will become boring only after a truly inhuman amount of listening, but sometimes you just want to relax and refrain from cursing musicians because one more beautiful theme has perished in the abyss of the past. Benediction are a bit less monotonous than Bolt Thrower, but their songs can seem overextended when compared to Gorefest in their golden years. The problem is that Bolt Thrower compensate for their monotony with incredible intensity and awesome melodies. When combined, this certainly can’t be bad for anyone. Benediction have a lot of good tunes, but these tunes aren’t really original, and band’s intensity is, mildly speaking, not on par with Bolt Thrower. That’s why, despite Benediction’s great song structures, some particularly nagging people (especially the ones who suffer from a math-core and techno-death overdose) might find Benediction songs to be quite monotonous. Nonetheless, I would recommend this disc to all young bands, so they can listen to the Benediction’s excellent transitions between themes. In fact, they should listen -carefully-, so we won’t have to witness another wave of Six Feet Under-like songwriting. You know what I’m talking about — one hand of the song is sticking out of it’s ass, which is located on the back of it’s head; while the other hand of the song is sticking out of it’s mouth, which is located near the armpit, dwelling right between the legs, which are sprouting in parts unknown. All in all, Benediction are simply attaboys of good songwriting.

Summing it up, the following can be said: despite the somewhat banal stuff, and music which can seem to be somewhat monotonous to the most sophisticated persons, «Organised Chaos» is the best Benediction release since «The Grotesque — Ashen Epitaph» MCD. There are actually no filler songs; all are good in one way or another. What else is needed for fans of solid, extreme music without potentially «scary» experiments? This album is strongly recommended to all who have just begun to acquaint themselves with extreme music, fans of modern «straightforward» hardcore (a-la Pro-Pain), and to all who like moderately melodic — but not very perceptive — music that can flurry the nerves a bit with its moderated doses of adrenaline. This is a «must have!» release for Benediction fans. If you’re fascinated mostly with originality and peculiarity, you’d better pass on this one and find something from Melt-Banana — Benediction are conservators rather than avant-garders. But their conservationist mentality is certainly good for what it is.

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