Track listing: Banged Up

Ben Sebastian's "Banged Up" is as heavy and dark as it gets on this site, which is probably a good thing for the sake of our collective sanity. And I mean that as the sincerest of compliments. When a songwriter can conjure up intense feelings of any sort within the listener's psyche, they've conveyed their message as effectively as it can be done.

"Banged Up" is Black Metal. It's angry. Perverse. Fear-instilling. Horrifying. Sebastian's screams are intense. Only a brief smooth synth leads provides momentary relief from the sonic onslaught. Pair the music with the Runway ML GEN 2 AI-generated video, and you've basically wound up in Hell on earth--a dank, dark, dangerous prison bereft of all hope.

I share my cell with a man deranged
Furniture exploding as our fists exchange
In his delusions I'd become his wife who he put
through a window
and beat into confusion after he promise he'd change

A self-taught keyboardist and guitarist, and composer of a number of symphonic progressive releases, Sebastian has embarked on a journey into the heart of darkness with "Banged Up." Per his social profiles he warns: "Prepare for a new, darker, era of BEN SEBASTIAN."

The journey is one of solitude, as well. He performs all instruments, vocal tracks, engineering, producing, writing, and artistic design. A true one-man show. But "Banged Up" is not this is not his maiden solo voyage. He's a full year into his own reaction/review YouTube Channel, The Sonic Symphonic Podcast, attracting a couple thousand Subscribers and garnering thousands upon thousands of views.

But for the moment, Sebastian is focusing on this new turn in his travels: stepping in front of the microphone for the first time as a vocalist, putting lyrics to his melodies, and diving deeper into the depths of this new Ben Sebastian era. Be afraid. Be very afraid.