Benighted have carved out a niche that transcends the ordinary. This April, they continue their brutal saga with the release of their tenth studio album, Ekbom, under the banner of Season of Mist. Known for their intense blend of brutal death metal and grindcore, Benighted takes listeners on a journey through the darkest corners of the human psyche with their latest offering.
“It’s the first time I’ve kept a bass this long, with no desire to change it.”
Pierre Arnoux, the band’s bassist, plays a crucial role in grounding Benighted’s high-octane music. He shares insights into the gear that shapes their sound: “I play an E-II GB4 bass, which I bought in 2020, I think, and I also use the same LTD model as a spare. I really like this shape, reminiscent of a Fender Jaguar, but more modern. I tried lots of things before settling on this bass: passive, active, 4-string, 5-string, 35″, multiscales. In the end, I think a well-built 34” 4-string bass is more than enough to play in B or drop A, as Benighted does. It’s also much more comfortable for me, as I’m not very tall. On the other hand, for this style of music, I think an active bass offers more punch and precision. Benighted’s music is very fast, and I play with a lot of distortion, so I need powerful, biting, articulate sound at the source. I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the original preamp and pickups (Seymour Duncan STC-3M3 and SSB-4), so I replaced them with a Darkglass Tone Capsule and Nordstrand Big Split pickups, which I particularly like, and I’m very happy with the result. It’s the first time I’ve kept a bass this long, with no desire to change it. But for the spare, I’d be tempted by the Orion (Behemoth) model from LTD, closer to my custom GB4 than the LTD I currently own.”
“With the need to travel as light as possible, sometimes by plane, I gradually reduced the size and weight of my gear.”
Transitioning from traditional tube amps to a more portable setup, Arnoux explains his current setup: “When I joined the band 10 years ago, I was one of those guys who thought there was nothing better than a tube amp and a big cabinet. Back then, I played on an Ampeg SVT 2 pro head and a 6×10 cab from the same brand. With the need to travel as light as possible, sometimes by plane, I gradually reduced the size and weight of my gear, ending up using just one pedalboard since 2017. Fortunately, we live in pretty incredible times when it comes to technology, and today you can get almost the same sound from a 3kg pedalboard as you can from an 80kg stack. I used Two Notes products for a long time (and I still use them at home), with distortion pedals, preamps, etc., but since 2023 I’ve only been using Neural DSP’s Quad Cortex with my Shure GLXD16 transmitter, so a very simple and tiny pedalboard. To get the sound I want, I have to mix several sources: clear, compressed low with a low-pass filter, then a growling, warm and precise SVT-style sound, and finally distortion with a high-pass filter to take the whole thing into very wild territory. The QC lets me do this very intuitively, and I was even able to ‘capture’ my distortion pedals (Damnation Audio MBD2 and Aguilar Agro) to preserve the sonic signature of previous iterations of my pedalboard. Of course, I kept my pedals as spares, with a Line 6 HX Stomp; you can never be too careful. Another important thing to note is that for the sound I like, it’s necessary to use steel strings. I play exclusively on Savarez Focus strings, because they give me the brilliance I’m looking for, and the icing on the cake is that the brand’s head office is very close to where I live. I also use a pick to obtain a precise, articulate sound, which seems essential with such tempos and so much distortion.”
“Our singer is a psychiatric nurse who draws inspiration from what he sees at work to write lyrics that depart from the clichés of the genre.”
Delving into the themes of their music, Arnoux highlights the psychological depth Benighted explores: “Our music is a kind of soundtrack to madness. Our singer, Julien Truchan, is a psychiatric nurse who draws inspiration from what he sees at work to write lyrics that depart from the clichés of the genre. There is, of course, a very cinematic influence in the way he writes and represents mental illness. ‘Ekbom’ is no exception, as evidenced by the video for ‘Scars,’ where the young woman suffering from the syndrome that gives the album its name tears her flesh to reveal the vermin she hallucinates. Sometimes, the way the concept is approached reminds me of the dark, gloomy atmosphere of horror films from the 70s and 80s. In any case, that’s one of our inspirations.”
On his approach to writing bass lines, Arnoux remarks, “My philosophy on Benighted bass lines is: the simpler, the better. Our music is extremely dense, and insofar as we’re not a tech death band, it would seem counterproductive to me to add overly complex bass lines. I prefer to enhance the music by simplifying the guitar lines, to make the music as powerful as possible, so my contribution is essentially sonic. That’s why I need a massive sound. Of course, playing bass in Benighted requires a certain velocity, but I also try to bring in groove when the tempo allows it. Basically, when the guitar plays sixteenth notes, I play eighth notes; when it plays eighth notes, I play quarter notes… In short, I’m a lazy bastard [laughs]. But I’m encouraged to do it by Kristian Kohlmannslehner, our long-time producer, so no shame there! Plus, it gives me more freedom on stage, so all’s well!”
Ekbom not only continues the narrative arc of their previous albums but also introduces new elements that might surprise long-time fans. “I think ‘Ekbom’ is a continuation of ‘Necrobreed’ and ‘Obscene Repressed,’ but with even better songwriting. The choruses are really catchy, the tempos are completely crazy, and these songs are made to be played live. The black metal elements are more present than before, giving our music an extra darkness. Some very Carpenter-esque synths enrich the cinematic dimension we were talking about earlier, and I really hope we can accentuate that in the future because, as a bass player, I’m naturally drawn to the deep bass of analog synths. And how can we not mention the track ‘Nothing Left To Fear,’ on which Oliver from Archspire plays, and which started out as a joke about us being able to play 1 bpm faster than them. I sincerely believe that this album contains some of our most intense songs, and we’re really looking forward to playing them live.”
Ekbom is out now on Season of Mist. The album is also available for streaming.
Follow Benighted
https://www.benighted.fr/
https://benighted.bandcamp.com/
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https://www.facebook.com/brutalbenighted
https://twitter.com/_BENIGHTED
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0dUwIwaPc6UukkCZTaaf7J
