Track Review: “Benign” by Scaphist

Having toured extensively across the United Kingdom and Europe in 2022, sharing stages with everyone from Knocked Loose to Terror and Lionheart off the back of their critically acclaimed debut album “Vile“, everything seemed to be going well for Hounds. However all was night right for the Ise of Wight based Metal outfit and after a line up change and some disconcerting revelations about a former member of the band, they felt they needed to call time on their promising career. Having got so far, the fires still burned in the hearts of Ben Paget, Guy Brackenbury and Thomas Jones so they reached out to guitarist Kieren Radford of Becoming the Leviathan fame and formed Deathcore four piece Scaphist. Perhaps an outlet for the fury at the frustration of the circumstances that they found themselves in a few years ago, the quartet wrote an EP that is said to contain their heaviest work to date. Touching on sensitive subjects of suicidal thoughts and overcoming life’s little pressures while learning to realise when enough is enough the promise is of a brutal cacophony of low tuned guitars and guttural vocals. The first single from that yet to be dated record is “Benign“…

Building tension with an eerie piece of lead as the guitars begin to chug, “Benign” raises the hairs on the back of the neck when its barely out of the gate. A brutal roar from vocalist Thomas Jones gets the party started before the percussion kicks in, the heavy grooves unfolding alongside the first caustic verse. He may have spent a decade wandering the wilderness before he joined Hounds in 2023 but make no mistake, he has worn out the warranty on his larynx. Bouncing off the walls like a bullet ricochet in the darkness the harrowing lyrical narrative orientating around being the victim of a dark deceit, the skull crushing staccato rhythm guitars echoing the sentiment with sheer sonic weight. Radford’s lead guitar layers increase the sense of tension and set the teeth on edge before the biggest surprise, a guest vocal appearance from The Acacia Strain guitarist Devin Shidaker. A man also known for his time in Rose Funeral, 1931 and of course Oceano, his deeper, darker death growls give the song another dimension, the perfect foil for Jones shriller tones. All in all a dark new dawn for those who felt betrayed by someone they once called friend and a demonstration that good things can come from dark places [8/10]