Album// Bleeding Through - The Great Fire

The new album from Bleeding Through, invites a walk upon what is quite possibly the heaviest end of the Punk spectrum, presenting itself as an onslaught of outright Metalcore. Providing a winding punch to the chest of the mainstream whilst declining the adoption of gimmicky pop gestures or melodic conformity.

As the opening track – The March opens with an ominous, mildly intimidating, bell toll of doom, battling with the sludgy down-tuned guitar riffs and pulsating drums, impressively fading into an almighty scene of carnage atop uncompromised vicious lead vocals.

Certain highlights of the album in total are without a doubt, Starving Vultures, displaying a mixture of an hint of power metal with an aggressive pinch of Death Metal, similar to that of Devildriver and Viking metallers: Amon Amarth. As well as Walking Dead and Trail of Seclusion, both containing introductions that shed light on to the least heavy aspect of The Great Fire. Walking Dead contains a severely unexpected sombre piano intro until the plunge into the vortex of layered guitars and drums that resemble the imposed heart beat rate. Where as Trail of Seclusion begins with sharp, clean sounding guitars, building into a commendable guitar solo screaming the words: Power Metal.

The album does contain the odd clean vocal breakdown and standout solo here and there, yet holds a repetitive intent as it races through the fourteen-track setlist. Still it maintains a blood rushing, eardrum exploding, Metal energy that resembles Attack Attack! without the pop gimmicks.

Jonathan Hatchman