Benefactor Decease emerged out of the Athens scene back in 2007, waving the flag for complex, gnarly Old School Thrash Metal that owes as much to Sadus and Dark Angel as it does to the obscure technical brilliance of early Slavic acts like Aspid. After a turbulent history and a solid ten-year gap since their debut, the Greek quintet is back to snap some necks.
Man, let me tell you, when a band disappears for a decade, you never quite know what you’re gonna get when they resurface. But Benefactor Decease didn’t just scrape off the rust; they came back swinging a damn sledgehammer. ‘Abnormal Attachments’ is exactly what you want from a long-awaited sophomore record, a massive upgrade in musicianship that doesn’t sacrifice a single ounce of its underground filth.
Right out of the gate, you can hear they’ve shifted gears into a highly chaotic, progressive territory. This isn’t just your standard beer-fueled Thrash Metal. The riffcraft here is absolutely dizzying. Guitarists Zissis “Coroner” and Apollo “The Parafiliak” are laying down these jagged, spastic riffs that twist and turn on a dime, pushing heavy into Technical Thrash Metal territory with some distinct Death Metal undertones. The tone on the guitars is rugged and electrifying, not overly polished, but sharp enough to slice through bone.
Behind the kit, Joni Moas puts on an absolute clinic. His drumming technique flies across the kit during the album’s most frantic moments, yet he somehow keeps everything tightly in the pocket, acting as the anchor for the erratic tempo shifts. Panos “Cut-throat” Toufexidis matches this intensity perfectly on vocals. He’s delivering these distant, echo-soaked, group-shouted barks dripping with visceral phlegm. It gives the whole record a deranged, claustrophobic atmosphere.
If you want to hear what I’m talking about, just throw on ‘Imprisonment Atrocities’. The opening riff on that track is a complex, hyper-active brain-melter, and it perfectly showcases the sheer speed and aggression they’re capable of. Then you’ve got ‘Acid Stalker’, which leans into this pissed-off, juggernaut groove where the power of the vocal delivery really shines through the madness.
Now, if there’s one minor gripe to be had, it’s the production values. There’s a rugged unevenness to the mix, and at times, the massive wall of guitars and drums tends to drown out Toufexidis’ vocals, burying that killer aggression just a bit too deep. Furthermore, Dimitris “Deathlike Silencer” drops some nasty bass lines here and there, but the low-end feels a little under-utilized compared to their debut. But honestly? That unpolished grit is part of the charm. It keeps ‘Abnormal Attachments’ grounded in the raw, unhinged spirit of the late 80s underground, rather than sounding like some sterile, modern ProTools plastic.
In short, Benefactor Decease has crafted a frantic, psychic blitzkrieg of an album. It’s technical, it’s aggressive, and it’s unapologetically old-school. Grab a beer, crack your neck, and let it rip.
