A few months ago I was talking to drummer John Gotelli about one of his bands, Deathvomit Records’ Vulgar Pigeons, when he finally forced me to admit, along with my lust for him, that I’d never heard his main group, Benümb. Over the years of horrid release after horrid release by Relapse Records I had just stopped buying any discs from the label out of complete disgust. If it weren’t for John’s kindness, and horniness, he wouldn’t have sent me a copy of the band’s second Relapse release, Withering Strands Of Hope. If I hadn’t mentioned it, I would truly be missing out on something amazing, and I’m not just talking about his package.

The disc starts out with the track, "Synopsis Of Ignorance Within The Society At Large". The track is all spoken word, with vocalist Pete Ponitkoff expressing his views, starting off in a calm voice, getting more agitated with each passing word, slowly building up aggression until bursting forth in pure anger, which sets the tone for the album and is a perfect leeway into the first musical track, "Once And Never Again". The sampling of the spoken word on two channels has a similar impact as Pig Destroyer’s "Piss Angel", only with much less reference to necrophilia, at least that I can tell.

The band plays in a style that has been described as power-violence, or thrashing grind, but, honestly, the only description that perfectly fits is pure aural hatred. The average track is only about 45 seconds in length, but in that time the band chug, pound, shriek, growl and pummel their way through the listeners ear-drums in pure mindlessly savage grind. Benümb have absolutely no intention of blowing you away with a 5 minute solo, they have no interest in complicating things by including fifty time changes per song, their only interest is to get you out of your chair, in the pit and killing everyone within a 50 foot radius, and their relentless assault will certainly leave many a bar room floor covered in beer, blood and ball-gags.

This band actually strangely reminds me of early Brutal Truth at times and at others like John’s other project, Vulgar Pigeons. At times they are straight-up grind, whereas at others they sludge along at a snail’s pace, and at others they’re reminiscent of some hardcore. Everyone will have their own descriptions for this band, but one thing remains constant, this band simply lays waste to all in it’s path and if you are any true fan of aggressive music, you will buy this album, you will go to the shows, and you will punch the nearest person to you in the face, and have them punch you and have the only thing going through your mind being "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!"

While I admit to being friends with John, and he and I being so touchy-feely we’re nearly conjoined twins, it still has no bearing on my thoughts toward his band and the music they play, and I can honestly say that over 32 tracks in a span of 24 and a half minutes, I was thoroughly entertained. If you have any sense at all you will buy this disc and you will buy it NOW!

Written By: Teufel