Ah, Italy! Home to bands and artists such as Museo Rosenbach, Unreal City, Banco del Mutuo Sorcosso, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody of Fire, Le Orme, and La Coscienza di Zeno. It’s always good to see that Italy deserves massive amounts of recognition. But when it comes to a band like Benthos, this is where things get really cooking with a delicious aroma of the pasta that’s delivered to us.
Since their formation back in 2018, Benthos is a band that blend mathcore, melodic arrangements, powering riffs, and intricate rhythms, waiting to come at you in a nanosecond. The band consists of Alessandro Tagliani on drums, guitarists Gabriele Papagni and Enrico Tripodi, Alberto Fiorani on bass, and Gabriele Landillo on lead vocals.
Following up to their 2021 debut II, From Nothing is almost like a breath of fresh air, showing that the progressive metal genre isn’t going away for a very long time. It blends in the fiery power the quintet has unleashed for 2025. It’s like a massive tidal wave that is ready to hit the cities in about 30 seconds, track by track. And believe me, they’re not backing down without a fight.
There are the nods to Haken, which is absolutely true, but adding in the alarming momentum with its odd signatures. From the screeching nods to The Dillinger Escape Plan with Cedric Bixler-Zavala handling vocal duties in a parallel universe on ‘As a Cordyceps’ and ‘Fossil’, Benthos have unleashed all of the ammunition they need to raise hell with incredible momentum.
The nervous breakdown momentum behind ‘Let Me Plunge’ is very much going back to Haken’s Visions-era which almost speaks of a continuation of ‘Nocturnal Conspiracy’ followed by the mid-fast electro-groove of trip-hop detailing the mysteries behind ‘The Giant Child’. But what is really going on ‘Athletic Worms’ and ‘Perpetual Drone Monkeys’?
Have Benthos paid homage to Mr. Bungle by creating their own alternate score between The Ren & Stimpy Show, followed by the Robert Clampett short Falling Hare with Bugs Bunny? Oh, hell yeah! They made their own alternate soundtrack to the Looney Tunes short in their unique way by giving Mickey Mouse, the big, massive giant middle finger that it truly deserves!
This is a crazy, yet insane album Benthos have released to display the powerful force of metallic core with incredible electrical juice, ready to raise hell like there’s no tomorrow!
