While I was hanging down south at my ‘home away from home’ - San Diego, CA - with a few friends this past week, I heard about a rare occurrence taking place at a little dive bar in Santee (a suburb of San Diego). Who’s Got Riffs was the name of this battle of the bands competition, and the event in and of itself did not interest me but when I heard that local metal mongers Benedictum were slated to play an early afternoon set, I was immediately enticed into going. Being that they rarely play anywhere in the States, let alone their hometown, I was really surprised when this particular gig announcement came.

The band’s thirty minute set came in the heat of the day, and unfortunately didn’t attract too many fans, which is a total shame being that they were, no doubt, the best band on the bill and to my knowledge the only one with a record deal. Professionals all the way they hit the stage like a tornado and relentlessly pushed their powerfully driven music full-force letting everyone in attendance know that they were extremely serious about their art. Guitarist Pete Wells is a monster when it comes to delivering the goods via his six-string, and he alone could have won the contest for he does indeed have riffs. New drummer Paul Courtois works very well with the band and is a very capable replacement for the recently vacated position. A later set would have surely benefited the band attendance-wise, but in spite of the early set they did a great job in waking the crowd up. Veronica Freeman, who is more or less the primary focus of this band as is evidenced by her thought provoking metal garb standing in contrast to the jeans and t-shirt look of the rest of the band, is a powerhouse vocalist who has been likened to such legendary icons as Ronnie James Dio, Grace Slick and Tina Turner. Churning out a massive amount of energy with superb melodic prowess and a passionate gritty vocal capability, she is definitely up to par with her male counterparts. Benedictum played approximately thirty minutes and dished out such heavy hitters as “Wicca” and “Uncreation” from their debut release of the same name, as well as a couple of new tracks, one of which really stood out to me called “Beasts In The Field”.

Following their set I chatted with the band outside for awhile and quickly learned to appreciate Pete’s outstanding sense of humor and also was invited by Veronica to listen to a couple of new tracks from their forthcoming sophomore release that is due in January through Locomotive Records. What I can say is this - they have taken their sound up more than just a few notches and are venturing into the realms of Prog Metal. What I heard gives new meaning to the term ‘epic’ and is a far superior achievement as compared to their dynamic first release. Thanks for the tix, V - I look forward to the new CD and… a headlining set for god’s sake!

-Priest