Review Summary: Bleeding Through continue their battle against well executed metalcore.
Formed in 1999, Bleeding Through is a metalcore band from Orange Country, California, originally formed as a side project for Eighteen Visions/Throwdown guitarist Brandan Schieppati. While their earlier albums remain strong fan favorites, it wasn't until their 2006 album
The Truth that the band truly hit their stride and found themselves basking in newly found mainstream popularity. Now true front runners of the metalcore scene, the band released
Declaration in 2008, an album that once again won them worldwide praise for an innovative take on what is most often a jaded genre. While many people would be curious about where Bleeding Through would take their sound from there, it's quite apparent from their 2010 self-titled
Bleeding Through that the only place the band will be heading, is nowhere at all.
Throughout their career, Bleeding Through has always found a way to stand out from their peers. With added keyboard atmospherics and strong death metal overtones, the band is not easily mistaken for any other current group to exist. That being said, it seems the truest and most problematic issue with
Bleeding Through is that the band can't even seem to stand out from themselves anymore. Every riff, every breakdown, even every keyboard section, seems just all to familiar. Not only does every song off
Bleeding Through essentially rip off a track from a previous album, but it feels as if the record is on song repeat, with each and every track seemingly created from one uninspired formulaic combination. Continuing the trend started on
Declaration the band seems to be delving further and further into black metal influenced metalcore, to unfortunately no avail; if you've heard "Declaration" from their last album, then the rehashing of the same, familiar keyboard heavy tact will prove utterly dull, such as on tracks like "Salvation Never Found" or "Anti-Hero". The breakdown has always been a curse that has plagued the previous albums in Bleeding Through's discography and on
Bleeding Through, it's no different. Breakdowns can be found in every song, just adding another bland factor to the already indecipherable songs. Even the guitar solos are derivative of themselves; the only song with a semi enjoyable guitar solo is first song "Anti-Hero", because it is indeed the first of many times that same solo will be heard throughout the album.
Despite previous victories,
Bleeding Through proves to be an overwhelming defeat for the Orange Country based metalcore band. Not only will the album alienate long time fans, but it will also serve as a very strong deterrent for new people trying to get into the group as well. It seems that in 2010, the only memorable factor of Bleeding Through remains to be Marta Peterson, who thankfully, is still smokin' hot.