With sales of their albums in the hundreds of thousands and having played just about everywhere in the world BENEDICTION are still as popular today as they have ever been.
They are proud to have been around since the start of what became the "Death Metal" scene and can still give one of the best energetic live shows around today.
Originally formed back in February 1989 around the line-up of PAUL ADAMS (bass),IAN TREACY (drums), DARREN BROOKES & PETER REW (guitars) and MARK (BARNEY) GREENWAY (vox), Birmingham based BENEDICTION drew the attention of Nuclear Blast records with their first demo"THE DREAMS YOU DREAD".
Their first album "SUBCONSCIOUS TERROR" (info | shop) was released in 1990, this was followed by the departure of BARNEY who went on to be the vocalist for NAPALM DEATH. He was replaced by DAVE INGRAM and the band went out on tour to promote the well received debut album throughout Europe.
1991 saw the release of "THE GRAND LEVELLER" (info | shop) which gained international acclaim throughout the death metal market,they toured on this release with BOLT THROWER, NOCTURNUS, MASSACRA and DISMEMBER. Most of this year was spent touring and the reaction to BENEDICTION live was outstanding. After the last tour PAUL ADAMS departed, fed up with the band's non stop touring schedules.
This was a bit of a kick in the teeth as they were about to go into the studio to record their next release, the "DARK IS THE SEASON" (info) E.P.. DARREN stepped in on the recording of the bass for this session, which included a punishing cover of the ANVIL classic "FORGED IN FIRE". The band went back out on tour with BOLT THROWER again and ASPHYX. The reputation of BENEDICTION live was bringing in ever larger crowds and most of their shows were sold out. Upon their return the needed to find a permanent replacement for PAUL on bass (they used a temporary bassist for the last tour). The man for the job was FRANK HEALY who was at the time in CEREBRAL FIX but fitted in so well with the rest of the band that he joined full time in 1992 just as they flew out to Israel to play 2 sold out shows.
In 1993 they released "TRANSCEND THE RUBICON" (info | shop) which was given top marks worldwide upon its release. This album kick started the "WORLD VIOLATION" tour with ATHEIST and CEMETARY as guests.
This tour was their biggest yet and took in Europe, the USA,and Canada. At the end of this tour IAN TREACY left the band due to the famous "musical and personal differences".
They had collected and recorded some good quality live shows over the last few tours plus the had a few new tunes ready for recording. A new drummer was found, PAUL BROOKES who recorded the two new tracks, this became "THE GROTESQUE/ASHEN EPITAPH" (info) E.P.
The band went back into Europe and then onto the USA with BOLT THROWER. After this tour PAUL departed and another new drummer had to be found, they were getting through as many drummers as SPINAL TAP !!! They found one by the name of NEIL HUTTON, an 18 year old drumming genius, and they went back into the studio and came out with "THE DREAMS YOU DREAD" (info | shop).
The band then went out on the road again headlining the NUCLEAR BLAST FESTIVALS, which saw them selling out every date on these shows. They spent nearly 2 years solidly touring.
At this time they formed a close relationship with the band DEATH. They'd toured with them once and when CHUCK SHULDINER was asked who he'd like out with DEATH he said he could think of no better band to tour with than BENEDICTION and that was the only band he'd have out with him!
Another tour over, another album to do! This was "GRIND BASTARD" (info | shop), a brutal slab of death metal which yet again was well received worldwide, another tour followed which saw them playing most the territories of the former eastern block countries.
After this tour DAVE INGRAM called it a day, he eventually became BOLT THROWER's vocalist for a while until KARL WILLETTS returned and the "proper" BOLT THROWER returned!
The new vocalist was DAVE HUNT who more than delivered the goods, he was asked to learn the lyrics and sort his passport out one week before going on a major European tour!!! Piece of piss!
Studio time again! DAVE'S first release with the band, "ORGANISED CHAOS" (info | shop). On this release the band went out on the road with IMMORTAL, followed by yet another tour with BOLT THROWER! These 2 bands have a bond and an honesty that has stayed strong throughout their respective careers, "if it ain't broke don't try and fix it!" These 2 will tour again together. They took on a shit load of festivals, including the legendary GODS OF METAL festival in Milan which saw them sharing the bill with MOTORHEAD, W.A.S.P, MEGADETH and JUDAS PRIEST. NEIL left to join STAMPIN' GROUND so another drummer was needed !!!
NICK BARKER the drumming genius got behind the kit but got the chance to go out drumming for TESTAMENT so with the bands blessing went out with them.a few gigs turned into a lot of gigs and benediction needed to get started on the new album.
NEIL HUTTON came in to help out and eventually rejoined the band !
The new album "KILLING MUSIC" (info | shop) was out August (2008). Still raw Death Metal, but this time the Punk´n´Crust influences are definitely more dominant than ever – also resulting in two cover songs of the legends BROKEN BONES and AMEBIX. For these songs, BENEDICTION invited several guests: Jock (GBH), Karl Willets (BOLT THROWER), Kelly Shaefer (ATHEIST), Billy Gould (ex-FAITH NO MORE), The Fog (FROST), Markus Staiger (NUCLEAR BLAST owner) and Thorsten Zahn (METAL HAMMER Germany).
"Killing Music" was produced by ANAAL NATHRAKH mastermind Mike Kenney and sounds raw, dark and pure. The band was fed up by all the "polished" productions from the last years.
Expect nothing less than a dirty bastard of punching Death Metal, crusting punk and in your face songwriting! If an album is worth seven years of wait, then it´s definitely "Killing Music"!