Released: April 23, 2025
By album nine, nobody needs Benediction to explain what kind of band they are. The better question is this: if they have no interest in chasing new sounds, what gives Ravage of Empires an identity of its own?
Most of that identity comes from rhythm. Darren Brookes and Peter Rew write riffs that move naturally between a sprint and a stomp, and the changes land like parts of the same thought. “A Carrion Harvest” opens with a quick drum fill and Dave Ingram’s barked command before the guitars tear ahead. The song soon drops into a slower, Slayer-shaped break, making the change in pace its main hook. Each riff gets enough time to register, then the band moves on.
“Beyond the Veil (of the Grey Mare),” the album’s longest song, takes a darker route. Its slower sections let the guitars hang on sour, ominous chord shapes before tightening into the familiar Benediction gallop. “Genesis Chamber” sets up like a horror scene, with a spoken voice and a thin melodic guitar line hovering over the churn. Giovanni Durst answers with rolling fills, then drives the faster section with double kick. Three songs in, the album has already found several ways to move while staying firmly inside Benediction’s world.
Brookes and Rew get much of their character from riffs that bend slightly against the beat. The main figure in “Crawling over Corpses” has a crooked, almost playful bounce. Pauses and slower passages make it sound uglier every time it returns. “Psychosister” is more abrupt, chopping its central idea into stop-start bursts. “Engines of War” heads the other way: three compact minutes of thrash speed, clipped transitions, and brief gaps between guitar attacks. Those rhythmic differences keep the songs from blending together.
Nik Sampson and Durst make those turns easy to follow. Scott Atkins mixes Sampson’s bass into the body of the guitars, adding thickness around the low strings. On “Deviant Spine,” the bass and kick drum give the central riff a heavy swing and keep its slower pace from dragging. Durst’s short rolls signal changes throughout the record. He pushes one riff with double bass, switches to a punkier beat for the next, and leaves space for the guitars to re-enter cleanly.
Ingram works inside one deep, recognizable growl, changing its shape through timing. He barks across quicker riffs, drags syllables over slower chords, and throws in the grunts and rough laughs that have always made his delivery sound human. The lyrics move through war, death, collapsing power, and grotesque humour. “Crawling over Corpses” turns gore into a black joke, while “Engines of War” and the title track pull back toward organized destruction and failing systems. Ingram keeps those larger ideas tied to bodies, violence, and decay.
Atkins gives the record a clean outline without polishing away the guitars’ coarse edge. The kick remains defined, and the cymbals stay readable when the songs speed up. That separation helps “Drought of Mercy” move between quick attacks and broad, slower chords. It also lets the title track finish on a wide marching groove without turning into a blur.
So what gives Ravage of Empires its own identity? The answer is timing. The horror setup in “Genesis Chamber,” the crooked return of the “Crawling over Corpses” riff, the chopped movement of “Psychosister” and the final march of the title track all depend on when Benediction changes direction. The band knows exactly where each familiar tool belongs. Ravage of Empires finds its character in those decisions: when to sprint, when to lurch, and when to let a riff hit the floor and stay there.
Written by Rob Joncas for DeadNoteMedia.
Artist information and music courtesy of the band.
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