Hailing from Milan, Italian experimental prog rockers Benthos have been honing their craft since they formed in 2018. Following on from their well-received debut, II, which was released in 2021, the band have returned with From Nothing, the band’s first release via esteemed progressive rock label InsideOutMusic. It is, without doubt, an impressive offering and, with its dark, evocative artwork, it catches the eye before it captivates the ear.
The album appears amidst a haze of ambience, the aptly titled It Starts giving way to the sparse From Nothing. A surprisingly slow burning number, where you might expect a gargantuan riff, you get watery guitar and vocal. However, the piece soon opens up, as skittery jazz beats emerge to drive the piece forward, and we’re off into a song that deftly combines Kamasi Washington with Haken and King Crimson. It’s a unique sound the band explore, and all the better for its staunch refusal to adhere to expectations.
The tougher Let Me Plunge is built around an arpeggiated riff, which builds towards a soaring chorus, although the band’s jazzier inclinations once again send the music spiralling off in unexpected directions. The pace further picks up on the absolutely mental As A Coryceps, which has a schizophrenic heaviness of which Dog Fashion Disco would be proud. With jazz, djent, art rock, and even a touch of At The Drive In style hardcore all floating through the mix, it’s a dizzying whirl of a track and it takes a good few listens to really wrap your head around it. Similarly blistering is Fossil, which finds talented vocalist Gabriele Landillo screaming into the void one minute, crooning in your ear the next, as the band deploy a series of energetic riffs behind him. A track that explores a range of sounds and styles over its run time, including a woozy break that combines Pink Floyd and early Genesis, it finally gets swept up in a mad rush of jazz metal, bringing the first half to a stunning conclusion.
Neatly placed at the heart of the album, Recompose is an ambient interlude providing the listener with the opportunity to do just that.
The second half opens with the soaring beauty of The Giant Child, but it’s the unholy outpouring of Pure that sticks in the mind. Building to a stinging conclusion that is as blisteringly heavy as anything to which Gojira have put their name, it’s a monumental assault that leaves you stunned in its wake. In contrast, the jazz-infused Athletic Worms, with its vocoder vocals, pairs deft passages of pure metal with off-kilter blasts of art noise worthy of Fantomas.
Rather more metallic is Perpetual Drone Monkeys, which does its best to out-djent Meshuggah, although an eerie passage at the track’s heart allows for a different set of dynamics to come into play. With the album briskly heading towards its end, the band deploy a range of tricks on the startling To Everything, which adds twitchy Aphex Twin synths to the mix, before the band go on to roam a metallic landscape with malevolent intent. It leaves It Ends to wrap up this most unpredictable of albums amidst a wave of corrupted synth that sees the rhythm slowly corroding, grinding to a halt after a minute or so. It’s a typically atypical conclusion to an album that delights in defying all expectations.
The term progressive metal seems to have been much abused of late. Too many times, it indicates a very specific sound rather than actual progress. Benthos, however, buck that trend to offer something genuinely ambitious – imbued with jazz spirit and metal attitude. In the final analysis, From Nothing is beautifully produced, perfectly played, and a stunning testament to the band’s desire to find their own sound. 9/10
