And so the determination of this Birmingham quintet - guitarists Peter Rew and Darren Brookes, drummer Neil Hutton, and Frank Healy on bass make up the rest of the band - is once again back with the release of their much anticipated Nuclear Blast Records release. _The Dreams You Dread_ is an 11-song offering that molds together past and present Benediction sounds and song styles, and an album that serves as thanks to all their fans. "It came together because of a lot of the mail that we got from our European and American fans asking us, 'Would you be able to do an album like _Subconscious Terror_?' (the band's 1990 debut album) because that is the album that sticks in everybody's head when they think of Benediction."

About the issue of whether or not to go back to basics, Ingram says, "We sat around in the studio and decided to go do an album where we would go back to the basics instead of making an album that was overly technical. It is like going one step back but it is an evolution for Benediction. It is like a mixture of them both: it is technical but it is still basic."

"So because the fans have backed us and supported us for the last seven and a half years we decided to call the album _The Dreams You Dread_ (the name of their first demo), kind of like a Thank You to the fans for all of the support."

This time around, unlike material and sounds of previous efforts like _Dark Is The Season_ (1992) or _Transcend The Rubicon_ (1993), Benediction felt that the band needed to find themselves. Soul searching never killed anyone, eh?

Talking about how their latest effort was put together (18 months of writing and six weeks of recording) Ingram notes, "We just tried to do different things with this album and use the new technology we had in the studio. We've never really rushed an album," mentions Ingram about the lengthy time put into this album. "You have to take time when making a record. If you rush it and put material down on record and it is crap, it is there for eternity."