Artist: Benediction
Title: Ravage Of Empires
Label: Nuclear Blast
Cat #: NB582876
Release Date: 2025
Duration: Album 
Format: CD
Case Type: Jewel Case

Ravage Of Empires is the ninth full-lengh studio album from the British death metal band Benediction.

Benediction are without a doubt one of the few remaining originals in the death metal scene and have achieved legendary status through various albums over the years. Until today they love what they do and always do their job without compromise - on record and on stage.

“Sometimes They Come Back” is not just the title of a horror movie based on a macabre tale by Stephen King, it is also a summary of what happened to UK death metal veterans Benediction, yet you might like to add a “better than ever before”. While never officially disbanded, 2020’s Scriptures, the group’s eighth studio album achieved what is usually not an easy feat. It connected well with classics like Transcend the Rubicon (1993) and its immediate and memorable songwriting, the heavy-as-a-brick Grind Bastard (1998), and also saw legendary vocalist Dave Ingram return with his merciless roar and knack for morbid, twisted lyrics.

After two albums with Dave Hunt on vocals, Scriptures was Benediction’s first record in over a decade impressing with aggressive up-tempo attacks like ‘Iterations of I’ and ‘Rabid Carnality’ or the neck-breaking mid-tempo barrage of ‘Stormcrow’, songs that became live staples alongside ‘evergreens’ such as ‘I Bow to None’, ‘Magnificat’, ‘Subconscious Terror’ or ‘Vision in the Shroud’ in no time. With Scriptures, Benediction even almost cracked Germany’s top ten by entering at a phenomenal #11 of the Official German Charts showing that the death metal veterans founded 1989 in Birmingham, England, offered an extremely well received sonic catharsis when due to the pandemic, people were locked down and pissed off.

Kicking in the door without further warning, fast-paced opener ‘A Carrion Harvest’ which mounts in a vicious Slayer-style break, starts with Ingram growling ‘Brace for impact, go!’ giving an unmistakable hint at what to expect during the following 47 minutes and 11 songs. With tremolo riffs and hammering grooves in spades, tracks like ‘Engines of War’, ‘Genesis Chamber’, ‘Crawling over Corpses’, ‘In the Dread of the Night’, and ‘Psychosister’ show a remarkable consistency and Scott Atkins, who produced the record at Grindstone Studio once again, ensures with a crisp and massive sound that the aforementioned impact leaves no bone unshattered. Garnered with artwork by Wolven Claws Artist, Ravage Of Empires continues Benediction’s flawless discography on Premier League level and promises to become one of 2025’s undisputable old-school death metal highlights!

Recommended if you like: Bolt Thrower, Deicide, Entombed, Massacre, Malevolent Creation, Obituary, Autopsy, Gorefest, Unleashed, Asphyx

Track Listing:
01 A Carrion Harvest
02 Beyond the Veil
(of the Grey Mare)
03 Genesis Chamber
04 Deviant Spine
05 Engines of War
06 The Finality of Perpetuation
07 Crawling over Corpses
08 In the Dread of the Night
09 Drought of Mercy
10 Psychosister
11 Ravage Of Empires