originally written by Erik Thomas
Arguably one of the first metalcore bands to add keyboards, Orange County’s Bleeding Through have been a steady, if divisive, force in US metal. Now apparently less concerned with being rock stars (This is Love This is Murderous, The Truth) after 2008’s vicious Declaration–which played more like a black metal record–the band has continued on that that album’s path with the always-questionable self-titled album.
Sporting the same sweeping synths (and Dimmu styled intro in “A Resurrection”) as Declaration, Bleeding Through appear to be done finding a niche or crowd and appear content to deliver their surprisingly intense and high octane thrash/metalcore…which is a nice move. Once you get beyond the band’s past and Hot Topic flirtations, you realize that this band has been plying this style for nearly a decade, regardless of trends, scenes and criticism.
After “A Resurrection,” the band launches into the furious “Anti-Hero” and “Your Abandonment,” showing bands like Winds of Plague and Abigail Williams a thing or two. “Salvation Never Found” might be the kind of track detractors point to–with the kind of sugary chorus that ‘real’ metal fans hate–but its erased by the burly swirl of “Breathing in the Wrath” (and its nice closing solo) and the blistering machismo of “This Time Nothing is Sacred.” Of course, it sounds as pummeling as you’d expect from a Zeuss production. Even the rare restraint of “Light My Eyes” and “Divide the Armies” is murderously heavy and laced with menace, despite those clean choruses showing up again.
The album leads you to believe its going to end on a clichéd keyboard outro with “Distortion, Devotion,” and while it is the albums weakest cut, there’s a depth and emotion to it that breaks from the album’s prior furies, ending the affair as fittingly as these veterans can. Though when it’s all said and done, it is still a Bleeding Through album–so take it or leave it. I’m still taking it.
