Review by Felix on May 14, 2024.

An American and a Swedish band meet under a German title. Welcome to Naturmystik, a split where Häxanu and Greve join forces. They have recorded more than 44 minutes of music, so there is nothing wrong in terms of quantity. Häxanu have got the first four slots and I think they deserve to kick off this split, because their excellent debut from the year 2020 has shown that they can forge ingenious black metal.

Sadly, the opener 'Mercy' reminds us of the bitter fact that an outstanding first album can become a problem. Even in view of the less fascinating Totenpass full-length, my expectations were very high and 'Mercy' cannot fulfil them. Stylistically, it follows the route of the debut’s material, but it sounds like a leftover of the debut. The song suffers a bit from little intensity and anyone who doesn't show full commitment in the social Darwinist world of black metal is quickly eaten up. Even the comparatively mild, 'Untitled' intermezzo, adds a comparable degree of value to the split – and it doesn’t add so much, to be honest. But Häxanu prevent a medium-sized disaster with 'Saintly Surgery', a brilliant, dense and stormy piece. 'The Winged Chalice' also celebrates some haunting melodies and especially during the fast parts at the song’s end, I get this exciting “Snare Of All Salvation” feeling again. Conclusion: Häxanu’s contribution does not show a band at the zenith of its creativity, but at least it proves that the duo can still achieve outstanding results, namely 'Saintly Surgery'. Finally, the well-defined production is better than that of their partners in crime, because Greve’s material sounds slightly blurred and less focused (but not bad as well).

And so I am landed in Sweden, ready for the four tracks of its representatives. Greve are a blank page for me, I have heard some excerpts of their music so far, but I never listened really intensively to their art. Now I hear a band that loves high velocity and typical genre melodies, but the single components do not always go hand in hand. Thus, the songs lack coherence to a certain extent. 'Gudaföraktets Ton', for example, is not bad, but it gives me the feeling that the band did not make the best out of the song. Despite its different parts, it expresses uniformity. There is no real arc of tension, and this degrades the song to a solid, but not great number. At least it is cold and fast, and there we get “true” Nordic blackness, something that almost never totally disappoints. Nevertheless, the material of Greve is neither infectious nor does it boast with a long-lasting effect. It is probably too harsh to say that they want, but they can’t. The usual components, for example very raw vocals with reverb on it, restlessly hammering drums and (halfway) atmospheric keyboard carpets do not lead to thrilling results and so the ambient outro brings a rather imperfect album half to the end. From my point it’s 7.5 for Häxanu, 5.7 for Greve and 6.6 for the entire split.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Review by Yener on May 9, 2019.

This is a release which completely caught me off guard, time wise. I mean the band had just released the fantastic Necrobreed just a year before, so it was surely not enough time for a new full-length album. But an EP? Hell, I don’t imagine a lot of us will say no to that.

I think it was also a smart choice on Benighted’s part, to do a test EP before their new full length. A sort of test of the waters, because something that not perhaps everyone will be aware of is that Benighted have actually lost their primary guitar player and song writer, Olivier Gabriel. Not only was he a founding member of the band, but the riffs he contributed were enormous. So, it will be interesting to see what current guitar player Emmanuel Dalle can bring to the table, along with Olivier’s replacement, Fabien Desgardins. 

One very positive addition to the band is new drummer Kevin Paradis. I’ve been following this guy closely for years on YouTube and he absolutely crushes. While it was a bit sad to see Romain Goulon disband due to health reasons, I don’t think Benighted could have found a better replacement than Kevin. Pierre Arnoux is on bass duties, and Julien is of course on vocals.

“Teeth and Hatred” kicks off this EP, and there’s no mistaking that this is Benighted. A little different than what we are used to perhaps, but still Benighted. While the song has some interesting sections (and a very nice intro), the riffs just aren’t there like they used to be. Kevin does a fantastic job working his way around the kit, especially during the verses. The song moves forward with conviction, but honestly, this EP could have had a better start than this. But thankfully things pick up very quickly with the arrival of “Martyr” - an absolute screamer of a track. Julien lets loose on his vocals and let’s get something straight - there is no other death metal vocalist out there that can touch this guy in my opinion. He’s the Swiss army knife of metal vocalists. Screams, squeals, gutturals, you name it, the guy can do it. And as always, he changes up his style on the fly like it were nothing, usually during the same verse. The drum work is outstanding, Kevin is left free to just let it rip, and he doesn’t hold back; some intense drumming throughout, with the guitars roaring, possessed, behind him. This is what Benighted do best. 

The final original piece of music on this EP is titled “Dogs Always Bite Harder than Their Master”, which despite the ridiculous title, has quite a different vibe than the rest of the EP. The band go into infrequently uncharted territories, relying more on atmosphere than brutality. The song has many sections so it’s not just an atmospheric track, but those sections could have been arranged better in my opinion. In its current form, the track seems to be a bit all over the place, and has a problem maintaining a natural flow to the music. 

The rest of this EP is not just filler like a lot of another EP’s out there. A cover of “Slaughter of the Soul” originally by At the Gates, of course, is present, and it’s done really well. Benighted has always enjoyed doing covers and paying homage to artists that they like, and I really enjoy that about them. So far, every cover they’ve ever done, they’ve made it their own somehow, and elevated the originals. This is no different, it’s extremely well done. We are then greeted with six assorted live tracks, and while I’m not really a fan of live records for the most part, Benighted are quite enjoyable to listen to live, even when it’s just audio. They’re a band I would love to see live and wouldn’t miss the opportunity, however, sitting at home listening to their live recordings isn’t really my cup of tea, even though they’re enjoyable enough.

Overall, I’m happy that they released this EP. It’s strange hearing them without Olivier, but the remaining guys have done a fine job. “Martyr” is a really fantastic song, though not quite sold on the other two originals on here. This definitely has potential - I guess we’ll just have to wait and see where they take the band next. But wherever that may be, I’ll be there with sharp ears and a notepad.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Review by Yener on May 9, 2019.

This is a release which completely caught me off guard, time wise. I mean the band had just released the fantastic Necrobreed just a year before, so it was surely not enough time for a new full-length album. But an EP? Hell, I don’t imagine a lot of us will say no to that.

I think it was also a smart choice on Benighted’s part, to do a test EP before their new full length. A sort of test of the waters, because something that not perhaps everyone will be aware of is that Benighted have actually lost their primary guitar player and song writer, Olivier Gabriel. Not only was he a founding member of the band, but the riffs he contributed were enormous. So, it will be interesting to see what current guitar player Emmanuel Dalle can bring to the table, along with Olivier’s replacement, Fabien Desgardins. 

One very positive addition to the band is new drummer Kevin Paradis. I’ve been following this guy closely for years on YouTube and he absolutely crushes. While it was a bit sad to see Romain Goulon disband due to health reasons, I don’t think Benighted could have found a better replacement than Kevin. Pierre Arnoux is on bass duties, and Julien is of course on vocals.

“Teeth and Hatred” kicks off this EP, and there’s no mistaking that this is Benighted. A little different than what we are used to perhaps, but still Benighted. While the song has some interesting sections (and a very nice intro), the riffs just aren’t there like they used to be. Kevin does a fantastic job working his way around the kit, especially during the verses. The song moves forward with conviction, but honestly, this EP could have had a better start than this. But thankfully things pick up very quickly with the arrival of “Martyr” - an absolute screamer of a track. Julien lets loose on his vocals and let’s get something straight - there is no other death metal vocalist out there that can touch this guy in my opinion. He’s the Swiss army knife of metal vocalists. Screams, squeals, gutturals, you name it, the guy can do it. And as always, he changes up his style on the fly like it were nothing, usually during the same verse. The drum work is outstanding, Kevin is left free to just let it rip, and he doesn’t hold back; some intense drumming throughout, with the guitars roaring, possessed, behind him. This is what Benighted do best. 

The final original piece of music on this EP is titled “Dogs Always Bite Harder than Their Master”, which despite the ridiculous title, has quite a different vibe than the rest of the EP. The band go into infrequently uncharted territories, relying more on atmosphere than brutality. The song has many sections so it’s not just an atmospheric track, but those sections could have been arranged better in my opinion. In its current form, the track seems to be a bit all over the place, and has a problem maintaining a natural flow to the music. 

The rest of this EP is not just filler like a lot of another EP’s out there. A cover of “Slaughter of the Soul” originally by At the Gates, of course, is present, and it’s done really well. Benighted has always enjoyed doing covers and paying homage to artists that they like, and I really enjoy that about them. So far, every cover they’ve ever done, they’ve made it their own somehow, and elevated the originals. This is no different, it’s extremely well done. We are then greeted with six assorted live tracks, and while I’m not really a fan of live records for the most part, Benighted are quite enjoyable to listen to live, even when it’s just audio. They’re a band I would love to see live and wouldn’t miss the opportunity, however, sitting at home listening to their live recordings isn’t really my cup of tea, even though they’re enjoyable enough.

Overall, I’m happy that they released this EP. It’s strange hearing them without Olivier, but the remaining guys have done a fine job. “Martyr” is a really fantastic song, though not quite sold on the other two originals on here. This definitely has potential - I guess we’ll just have to wait and see where they take the band next. But wherever that may be, I’ll be there with sharp ears and a notepad.

Rating: 8 out of 10