Bleeding Through

The Truth (2006)

Aubin Paul

The last thing I would do is blame a band for delivering exactly what they promise. But oddly enough, some of the criticisms people have of Bleeding Through come from the fact that they play metalcore and seem completely unashamed of that fact.

It's strange that the genre is so divisive; many have written it off entirely while others have embraced it completely, taking even lousy bands that are in turn exalting them to fame. But in this rather wide spanning genre of hardcore-influenced metal or metal-influenced hardcore, there are the very good, and the very bad. I would contend that not only is Bleeding Through one of the former, they succeed admirably in addressing most complaints I had about their last album, This Is Love, This Is Murderous.

That album suffered from a handful of foundational problems; the keyboards seemed to serve little or no purpose, the band seemed a little aimless with their songs and some of them were far too long. With The Truth, the band has successfully incorporated the keyboards, not just as a flourish but as an essential part of the songs; in addition, the songs have been stripped down to their important parts, and the whole album is far more confident and energetic.

"For Love and Falling" comes out of the gate at escape velocity and the album manages to maintain that tempo for almost its entirety except for the somewhat odd "ballad" in "Line in the Sand." I'm not entirely clear on the role of that song on the album, but I suppose any decent metal band needs an excuse to get those lighters in the air. Thankfully, songs like "She's Gone" are so unabashedly heavy and vicious that you can't help but find them compelling.

With The Truth, the band has really delivered a near-exceptional metalcore release, though the genre-specific habit of destroying momentum to throw in a "hooky" melodic vocal line still seems to afflict some of the songs. The trouble with that is not just that the entire bands seems to come to a halt to accomodate it, but the fact that the melodies are well carried by Marta's keyboards; in fact, some of their best moments are the contrasting harshness of Brandan Schieppati's vocals and her more gentle keyboard lines.

In August of 2005, Schieppati promised a far more "blunt and direct" album and The Truth certainly delivers not just that, but a memorable album that manages to surpass their peers in almost every way.