Thought I’d try to write a little about this band (that had three names).
The band that was to become Benighted started out as a four-piece Thrash band in 1990 :

Toxic Breath : Back then our main influences were Metallica, Anthrax, Exodus (the name kinda gives that away) but also with some “deathish” flavour inspired by Napalm Death (Mentally Murdered & Harmony Corruption releases), the first Unleashed demo and Entombed. We started out rehearsing in a cellar in our small hometown (more of a village really). The reasons for us starting a band were probably quite different but in a small town you either play soccer or you are loser. Going to church is also an option but I have covered that with "loser". The four guys of Toxic Breath wanted to do something else. We were all big music fans and with all the new aggressive music coming in from the states along with new bands in Sweden playing brutal stuff that we felt it was rather natural to try it out for ourselves. The main man, Robert, actually could play his instrument so in the beginning he spent endless hours teaching us basic stuff. Since he was quite skilled we had to practice hard to keep up and the first real metal tracks we learned was “For whom the Bell Tolls” by Metallica and “Phantom of the Opera” by Iron Maiden. Toxic Breath played a number of gigs on the local circuit that was rather open to new and more brutal stuff at that point. As we in the band got a little more skilled and got divied deeper into the catalogues of labels such as Earache our sound shifted more towards death metal. This resulted in the band turning into a trio in 1992 and we renamed our combo to Sickness.

Sickness : Giged a bit in small towns and included covers by like “Scum” by Napalm Death and “Party and Fight for your right?” by Filthy Christians. Later in that year we recorded the five-track entitled simply "Demo 92". This cassette was circulated in the underground receiving some praise (for example in Hymen Zine) and was bashed in "Close Up Magazine" claiming it to be ’Konsum metal’. Konsum is a food store chain found in every village in the country and Close Up kindly implied that there were as many bands playing our sort of music as there were Konsum stores and that we were equally interesting.

Benighed : The band continued as a trio before recruiting Tobbe from Nässjö death act Obscene Death. At the same time another band (I think they were german) named Sickness threatened with legal actions (a very underground move, we thought it was a rather strange and silly thing to suggest). But we felt it was time change the name since the music had drifted more towards death-metal so the name Benighted was chosen (off course picked from a dictionary, and just as Sickness there were more bands around with the same name but you didn’t google then hehe). A new five-track demo "Master of Darkness" was recorded the same year and received equal bashings in Close up (sent to the magazine in a Konsum-plastic bag.) The demo did find its way into the possession of people here and there thanks to the wonderful tape-trade that was still going on at the time. Times were changing and Krille left the band in 1994 and the band recruited new guitarists Tomas and Jonas. A support gig for Dissection that same year marked the last public appearance for Benighted. The band recorded two more tracks for a promo that never surfaced (I have the only copy in the basement). Benighted also appeared on a German compilation CD "Requiem, morbid symphonies of Death" and the band got ripped off by Exhumed Productions. It might be worth noting that appearing on that same disc was another Swedish band namely Dark Tranquillity. They went on to reach a somewhat higher level of recognition than Benighted. The last line up change was when Tomas was replaced by Magnus on second guitar and the band recorded a last 10-track demo which never was released and the tape is lost. The band remained somewhat active until finally disbanded sometime in 1997 (or perhaps early 1998). The first two demos have been resting for a great number of years but have now been remastered by Johan Nordin at Scarecrow. We will put some tracks here for those who crave some depraved and dirty Swedish metal from an era when drums were not triggered and vocals were not processed. We had reverb, distortion and a great deal of desire to play. That resulted in music. It might have not always been sounding grand but it was damn honest.
As I am writing this my mind wanders and I arrive at the conclusion that these years with the band (to me it was the same band all the time) were damn good times and that they shaped me to who I am today more than anything else. I myself was a big metal fan that was also playing a bit myself, and I am exactly like that today. I live and breathe for, and because of, metal music. Bands come and bands go but the scene is practically the same and it offers the same to new talents and to us whom have been around for a while longer.

All members that I still am in contact with are still active metal heads with obsucre albums in their shelfs.

Source : Johan aka. Nephente