Benedictum - Obey cd review

Band: Benedictum
Album: Obey
Label: Frontiers Records
Genre: Metal
Country: USA
Release Date: December 2013


Benedictum hail from San Diego, CA. They're one band that is a staple in my collection, as they reminds me of alot of great 80's rock and metal bands like Accept, Manowar among other heavy hitters. Oddly enough they covered Accept's "Balls To The Wall" as well which is pretty killer. Benedictum have have 3 other albums under their belt and those are Dominion, Season of Tragedy and Uncreation all of which are heavy hitting albums. And they all hit a sweet spot with me of all the music I grew up with most of those style bands mainly.

Their singer Veronica Freeman has an extremely powerful voice, and it fits great with the music. Going by her bio page on their official site, it shows her influences being Ronnie James Dio, Tina Turner among others. Comparing her vocals to others can't really be done fairly as she blows most other vocalists out of the water. But a close comparison would be Joey DeMaio from Manowar and maybe Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden for vocal ranges.

The rest of the band's influences are just as impressive. Such as Peter Wells on guitar, he has some impressive influences.. Randy Rhodes and John Sykes being just two of them according to his bio. The bassist Aric mentions, Geddy Lee, Geezer Butler, etc.. As for the drummer Rikard mentioning King Diamond/Mercyful Fate with their talented drummers all that needs to be said. Anyways the cd is about 10 minutes shy of an hour, and every track is good, can't really pick a favorite out of them. The guitars, bass and drums all stand out clearly and they certainly don't over power the vocals at all. Nor do the vocals over power them.

If you like powerful clean vocals, and classic sounding heavy metal then this is for you. Oldtime rock fans will most likely love this band to say the least. Newer fans of metal you should listen to bands like this preferably over whatever is "hot for metal at Hot Topic".

Anyways I give this disc 9 out of 10, could of been a full hour and I'd be a happy camper. It remains at a consistent speed/tempo throughout and never a dull moment.


Tracklist goes as follows:

01. Dream Of The Banshee
02. Fractured
03. Obey
04. Fighting For My Life
05. Scream
06. Evil That We Do
07. Crossing Over
08. Cry
09. Thornz
10. Die To Love You
11. Apex Nation
12. Retrograde

Youtube Video:

Band Contact:

Official Website: http://www.benedictum.net/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Benedictum.Official
Frontiers Records: http://www.frontiers.it/