Culture

Bleeding Through
Rise Records
(3/5)

Bleeding Through’s brand new self-titled record combines the best aspects of tough-guy hardcore and polished, melodic heavy metal. Riffs vary beyond the traditional “chugga chug chug” fare, and guitar solos are well-timed and dynamic. Drums are triggered, but not to the point where each song is a maelstrom of blast beats and drum fills. Vocals are par for the course screeches and growls with a handful of gang vocals tossed in for good measure.
But that stuff doesn’t really matter with metalcore. What we are really looking for is appropriate use of breakdowns. Bleeding Through is conservative with their breakdowns. This is a good thing. Songs filled with breakdowns are like eating dessert for every meal: it’s awesome at first, but by the end of it you just want to throw up. Breakdowns are meant to be the “dude, this is the best part!” moment of the song, and Bleeding Through make damn sure that it is.
The only thing I can really bag on this album for is the use of synths. Synths in hardcore-derived genres are always inappropriate. Hardcore is all about kicking ass. Synths in metal are about being “epic.” An “epic asskicking” ends up as neither, but instead sounds silly. This album would be much better sans-synths, but delivers regardless. If you like metalcore and you can handle the synth, you will like Bleeding Through.