Album Review: Benthos – From Nothing (InsideOutMusic)
‘From Nothing’, the highly anticipated sophomore album from experimental progressive metal band Benthos will finally be released on April 11th, 2025, via InsideOutMusic. The album offers a profound reflection on the meaning of life while exploring positive and negative imprints left by mankind, and how they have shaped entire societies in various aspects – artistic, cultural, and social.
Released in 2021, ‘II’ was the debut album from Benthos, a thoughtful and grown-up take on progressive metal. It was a challenging listen, but it left an impact and put the band on the progressive map.
This new album is something else entirely. Not from a challenging progressive standpoint, but rather the impact it will have. Benthos have poured years of experience, years of growth as individuals, and years of evolving as artists, into this new album, and it is incredible. A statement of intent, they’re coming for the world, and now, It Starts.
Which serves as the title of the album intro, a little over a minute of burgeoning ambience that sets the scene for the extravagant showcase that follows with the title track. Even though it begins in mellow fashion, featuring soft melody and quiet vocals. Note the peculiarities here, it’s a big sign of things to come, as this track transforms into something spectacular. This is experimental metal, and with that comes a flurry of instrumental oddities, yet bit by bit, it starts to take on a more anthemic form. It’s a brash showcase of who this band is now, and how far they’ve come since ‘II’.
One of the most captivating aspect of the album is how Benthos deliver vibrant shifts in style and tone constantly throughout. It allows their sound to expand and retract in the mind, keeping the listener engaged and excited for what comes next. Even if, as expected, it comes with a ton of challenging aspects too.
Take a listen to Let Me Plunge, a stylish showcase of melody, twisted by moody experimentation and with flare-ups of intensity. Or feel the immense redefining of what we all mean by the word ‘progressive’ (in the musical sense) via the madness that comes from As a Cordyceps. These tracks are all the proof anyone needs that Benthos stand alone, and you’re either going to embrace it fully, or run screaming in terror.
Entranced? That’s not a surprise and with jagged rhythms, post-hardcore style power, and a developed palette for melody, Fossil deepens that connection.
It is time to take a breather though, a necessary one, and Recompose creates a relaxing environment via vibrant atmosphere. Of course, it’s sensible to not relax too much, but with The Giant Child, Benthos take a dramatic turn with dynamic melody, rockier parts, and some of the album’s most captivating vocals.
Dreamy and smooth, but with power, it’s another notable aspect of the following Pure. Although what makes this track so memorable overall is the wild ride it takes the listener on. The words that can best sum this up (and the album as whole) is dazzling addictive chaos, and it’s staggeringly creative, but what isn’t on this album!?
Athletic Worms, Perpetual Drone Monkeys, To Everything… I’ve run out of ways to tell you how utterly brilliant and utterly mental this album is. Just go and listen to it. It’s the stuff you tell your grandchildren about. Benthos have outdone themselves here in every single way, and if this doesn’t send them into the progressive stratosphere then the music industry is well and truly f**ked. So, It Ends. Not just a statement, but the finale of the album, and just like that, Benthos leave you seeing stars.
Benthos – From Nothing Track Listing:
1. It Starts
2. From Nothing
3. Let Me Plunge
4. As a Cordyceps
5. Fossil
6. Recompose
7. The Giant Child
8. Pure
9. Athletic Worms
10. Perpetual Drone Monkeys
11. To Everything
12. It Ends
Links
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Author
Benthos - From Nothing (InsideOutMusic)
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The Final Score - 10/10
10/10
