Biography

CONCEPT      Straying away from the growing Symphonic Metal scene, Benighted Soul adds many elements of Progressive Music to their mix : intricate and powerful riffs, rich orchestrations and haunting atmospheres. The band goes effortlessly from Pop/Rock to Extreme Metal, taking the audience to various universes while following the little doll-girl Anesidora in her journey to the grown-up world.
Main character of the "Start From Scratch" debut album, her emotions are reflected through Geraldine's vast array of vocals, strong and powerful, atmospheric and captivating.

ANESIDORA : THE BEGINNING      Although created in 2003, Benighted Soul took a brand new start in 2007 after a few member changes. The new line-up decided to record an EP called "Anesidora" (2008). The progressive elements could already be heard in the Symphonic Metal, triggering very enthusiastic reactions among the press. MetalSymphonique.com webzine readers elected Anesidora "best EP of the year" and many reviewers agreed that Benighted Soul is one of the most promising bands belonging to the french Metal Scene.
The band also proved their talent live, opening for such acts as Delain, Vader, Belphegor, Ayin Aleph, MyPollux, Elis, Fairyland or Kells, everywhere throughout France.
The band's furious energy allowed them to achieve 2nd position at the 2008 Wacken Metal Battle, and 2 tracks filmed by NRV-TV at the Rock Girls Fest I in Paris were broadcasted on the Web and DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television).

Finally, after 2 years of concerts in France, Benighted Soul took over the European roads supporting Tarja (of Nightwish fame) during the What Lies Beneath Tour 2010 (Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Italy).

START FROM SCRATCH ?      In February, 2011, the band released their first full length album "Start From Scratch" on SAVAGE PROD / SEASON OF MIST, an ambitious project including philharmonic orchestrations and a 20 people choir.
Upon release, this debut album was universally hailed by the music press (all the press available by clicking HERE) and directly reached 1st rank in the FNAC Hard/Metal charts, and the 54th position all genres combined. France 3 devoted 2 TV reports to the band on their evening news.
Building on this success, Benighted Soul kicked off their french "Start From Scratch Tour 2011" as headliner to meet a growing number of fans everywhere they played (Lyon, Brest, Nantes, Montpellier, Marseille, Nancy, Paris, Lille...).
The band also produced and released its first music video "Edge of Insanity", and has already been seen more than 60,000 times on YouTube.
Since September 2011, Benighted Soul has been broadcasted on Francodiff' network of radios and "Start from Scratch" is available for MP3 download on the main platforms such as iTunes and Deezer.

AND NOW ?      If 2011 marked a turning point, 2012 is off to a flying start ! Thus, Benighted Soul won 4 categories out of 7 at the Metal Sympho Awards 2012 hosted by metalsymphonique.com (best album, best music video, best french band...).
But above all, in February, the band has been invited by Tarja to be her main support in Europe for 10 shows. This new tour took them to Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium and ended in France, at the legendary venue "le Bataclan" for a memorable and sold out show which has been fully shot on cameras.

Benighted Soul is now working on the second album and has already been confirmed to play at the Metal Female Voices Fest 2012 in Belgium, alongside Lacuna Coil, Arch Enemy and Delain...