01. It Starts
02. From Nothing
03. Let Me Plunge
04. As A Cordyceps
05. Fossil
06. Recompose
07. The Giant Child
08. Pure
09. Athletic Worms
10. Perpetual Drone Monkeys
11. To Everything
12. It Ends

I spent a reasonable chunk of a review earlier this year discussing how mathcore and djent, as adjacent as they are musically, often tend to stick apart from one another. 2025 seems to be seeing a change in this practice; not only did said reviewed album from Vertex buck the trend, but I’ve now encountered two further records released a week apart from one another in April to which the same applies to varying degrees.

Still, while there are notable similarities between Snooze’s I Know How You Will Die, which I reviewed yesterday, and From Nothing, this new album from Benthos is quite a different beast. This sophomore release comes 4 years after the band’s confusingly titled debut album II, and sees the Italian prog-metal band flexing all of their many muscles across a chaotic ordeal that incorporates the likes of mathcore, djent, jazz and electronica.

The latter point there is one way in which From Nothing does resemble the new Snooze album, specifically in how it starts and ends in a manner that is very distinct from what comes in between. In the case of From Nothing, “It Starts” with ambient electronica, and “It Ends” with warbling sounds and hip-hop drum rhythms; there are further electronic dabblings in between, such as the ambient interlude “Recompose” and snippets of “Pure”, but it very much fades into the background in between those sandwiching tracks, making way for a smorgasbord of complexity, technicality and emotionality.

The emotionality is conveyed by vocalist Gabriele Landillo, whose cleans on different tracks resemble those of TesseracT’s Daniel Tompkins (see “Let Me Plunge” and “The Giant Child”) or more immediate angst akin to voices heard in the various -core scenes (such as during “Pure”). He also has harsh vocals locked and ready for the various mathcore sequences scattered across From Nothing; the mathcore threatens in glimpses to emerge during the title track, which is otherwise a clean-oriented jazzy, proggy technical romp. “Let Me Plunge” also stays on the clean side, with nice modern prog hooks and melodic textures slightly akin to the more atmospheric moments of bands such as Haken.

“As A Cordyceps” is the first song to unleash the aggression, and Benthos compensate for leaving people waiting by not holding back, serving up fierce djent breakdowns and frantic jagged mathcore rhythmicity. Later effort “Perpetual Drone Monkeys” is similarly ‘kitchen sink’ with its oddball intensity; it could come across as chaotic to the point of being disjointed to some, but the constituent parts (including the psychedelic ambient bridge) are enjoyable enough to make the madness navigable.

The middle stretch of the record perhaps houses its most impressively eclectic efforts, though. The longest song on the album is “Fossil”, and encompasses elements of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Swancore, Periphery and Haken, plus dizzying bass soloing, euphoric soaring melody, slick jazzy drumming, and moody downtime, all in less than 7 minutes. “The Giant Child” is more focused on a single vibe, but its calmness is a strong vehicle for the band’s melodic and emotional capabilities, which are then tasked with shining in more unorthodox settings as “Pure” chop-changes between the sedate and the hectic.

Benthos may have come From Nothing, but they seemingly aimed to stuff everything at their disposal into this second album. At times it becomes overwhelming and threatens to undermine the cohesion of the songwriting, but for large parts it’s an exciting and entertaining release that’s capable of delivering hooks even amongst all that dizzying technicality.