2006-03-29
The OC (Orange County, if you insist) seems to be responsible for not only fine drama but also some of the best bands of our time, including Bleeding Through.
This is their 3rd release and in my opinion their best so far since it keeps a good balance between their jugged newschool thrash side and their emotional/screamo influenced side.
“For love and falling”, the opener, immediately blasts into your face with crazyass drumwork, vocals that range from Pantera-like shouts to emo-like clean ones and Keyboard addition that make it a worthy opener.
The sound in this album is spotless; Rob Caggiano has done wonderfully well ascending Derek Youngsma’s pounding, trigger-happy, drumwork especially in the rough “Confession”, the impossible-not-to-move-to “Love in slow motion” and the grandiose “Return to Sender”.
Bleeding Through stick to what they do best: Metalcore, in the same manner of similar acts like
Caliban or
Killswitch Engage.
They show some originality in the dynamic “Tragedy of empty streets” and the multiple- guitar-layered “She’s gone” but go back to chewed up basics in the slaughterious (yes, I made up a word, it comes from the word Slaughter) downtuned “The pain killer” and the nevertheless strong “Hollywood Prison”.
The highlights in this album are probably “Kill to believe”, with its upbeat pace and young sinister spirit along with a very catchy chorus, and the multi-charactered (it features nick 13 from Tiger Army and Ben Falgoust from Soilent Green) follower, “Dearly Demented”, with crunching guitars doing standard Swedish influenced moves and different parts in the song showing some variation so it wouldn’t be a surprise to hear it played at some alternative-metal rave.
The follower to those two starts with a softer effected guitar, some cymbals and Brandan Schieppati’s clean voice – could it be a ballad? In deed it is a bitter ballad with a good guitar solo added as well.
To close the album, the title track starts off with a known melody that I can’t put the finger on from where I know it; Marta gives a good feel with her keyboards, this track is different from the rest not only because it is an instrumental but because it shows a different side of the band – a more calculated or structured one – with a massage that perhaps the truth is that there is no truth.
Ofer Vayner
