"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times;
it was the age of wisdom; it was the age of foolishness;
it was the epoch of belief; it was the epoch of incredulity;
it was the season of Light; it was the season of Darkness;
it was the spring of hope; it was the winter of despair;
we had everything before us; we had nothing before us;
we were all going direct to Heaven; we were all going direct
the other way..." - Charles Dickinson (A Tale Of Two Cities)
Why the dramatic intro? Well this statement actually rings true for
Bleeding Through's The Truth. In this I mean it has it's awesome moments; but it has its crappy moments It has its brilliant riffs; and its incredibly generic riffs It has it's good songs; and its filler songs. Get the point?
The Truth is the latest record from the metalcore band
Bleeding Through, and by far their most mature. After such albums as
Portrait of a Goddess, and
This is love; This is Murderous they already had a strong following. However they lacked that certain edge, nothing separated them from the pack. With The
Truth Bleeding Through have certainly progressed and matured, but they also have a generic feel at parts of their songs, keeping them from being a truly amazing band.
The Truth like previously stated has its ups and downs. For example, the very first song on the album
For Love and Failing is probably the best song on the album. It's really the
Bleeding Through song, but in consequence
The Pain Killer sounds like generic crap. This goes true for half the songs on
The Truth. It's not so much that the entire song is generic sounding, but more that it's either the song structure is predictable but the riffs are unique, or visa versa.
Even through all of the generic moments this album is not without merit, Brandon Schieppati is certainly a more than capable vocalist. He doesn't have the biggest range in the world, but his clean vocals are still pretty good. He has a strong voice, his screams are incredibly powerful. The double tracking of vocals are also used minimally. Obviously his cleans are harmonized, but for the most part that's it. They're are going to be a few places where screams are put over cleans, or two vocal lines overlap, but that's about it. I like that about
Bleeding Through, they don't put anything on the album they can't translate over to live.
Scott Danough and Brian Leppke have definitely shaped up for
The Truth. They have really matured in terms of technicality and song writing. One of their best pieces is
Line In The Sand, a power ballad and a damn good one at that. The guitar solo on here is simply amazing, brimming with emotion and feel it's really spectacular. However, these guys while good guitarists aren't great. They write a lot of bland and uninspired riffs. Not to say they don't write very good and original riffs, but songs like
Return To Sender and
Dearly Demented sound so generic and like filler that it's really hard to appreciate them at points.
The rhythm section on
The Truth is really right. Ryan Wombacher, and Derek Youngsma, and most of the times Scott and Brian really blend together well. Derek is really an amazing drummer, he has some fast feet and hands, but also brilliant feel and mind blowing technicality. Sadly Ryan's bass is rarely heard, but when it is he really shows whys he's in the band. On
Line In The Sand you can hear him really clearly for most the song, and he really showcases his talent there.
One of the main problems with this album (besides the generic feel) is the lyrics. While having an amazing voice, Brandon really isn't a great lyricist. Most of his lyrics deal with relationships and heartache. He is also very cliche in many of lyrics. Most of the time they are at least bearable, but
The Pain Killer's are really very bad. "
I'm driving the nails through your hands/ So you can't fuck the life out of me/ You won't fuck the life out of me/ You can't fuck the life out of me/ I never loved you/ You can't fuck the life out of me/ You won't fuck the life out of me" are generic lyrics at their best.
Kill To Believe while being a highlight of the album couldn't save itself from bland lyrics. "
Now what do you want from me/ When I've sacrificed my heart so you can be set free/ And time will never cure this disease/ I'm only left with tired arms to stop from drowning"
In conclusion I'm torn about this album, it has it's really standout tracks like
Line in the Sand, Love In Slow Motion, Kill To Believe, For Love and Failing, and
Tragedy Of Empty Streets, but it also has it's fair share of crap.
She's gone, Dearly Demented, and
Return to Sender make up for this. The other songs on the album are really in between, they both have their decent moments, and their generic moments. My final statement, buy this album if you're into metalcore, but if not you should probably leave this one on the shelf.
