Bleeding Through

A highly publicized fallout with former label Trustkill somewhat dampened the momentum of 2008's rock solid Declaration, but has not deterred Orange County poster boys Bleeding Through from mustering up enough material for a new full-length. While they are close to solidifying their inability to release an unlistenable album, their latest sees them coasting a little too ambivalently, and front-man Brendan Schiepatti really pushing the envelope with uninspired, mope-y lyrical content. The high-school love interest that has supposedly fuelled his angst-y prose in the past has still not been exorcised, and the songs that break free from the subject are by-the-numbers "question authority" mumbo-jumbo. Zeuss also turns up for a suitably irritating production job, rendering what little dynamics a metalcore band these days can squeeze out of the formula flaccid. It's unfortunate, as Bleeding Through is musically a confident collection of modern metalcore tracks that utilize some of the most reviled stylistic embellishments known to the genre ― keyboards and breakdowns ― expectedly tastefully. Additionally, their newfound home on Rise, and Distort in Canada, has the potential to do for them what Trustkill no longer can. It's just a shame that the record they've delivered doesn't represent them to their fullest abilities.