Bleeding Through - The Great Fire Review

One of the originators of the metalcore sound, Bleeding Through might not be quite as popular as they were five or so years ago, but the Orange County six-piece’s recent recorded output is far from that of a band in a creative decline. Seven albums and a decade deep into their career, you could forgive the band for wanting to step off the gas pedal a little bit and take it easy in their twilight years. Well, the group’s newest album The Great Fire is basically the exact opposite of that, with the O.C. crew sounding completely reinvigorated from their fairly average last record (2010’s Bleeding Through).

It’s absolutely furious in parts, with the shorter tracks like “Everything You Love is Gone” featuring a merciless attack, fronted by man-mountain vocalist Brandan Schieppati’s powerhouse, yet always perfectly enunciated, roars and screams. With a huge lump of the songs under the 3 minute mark, there is a real hardcore vibe pulsing throughout the album, with the guitar-work falling into the punk-rock category rather than Gothenburg-esque melodic death metal.

“Faith In Fire” is a two minute speed fest and a great way to burst through the gates after intro track “The March”, while at the album’s back end “One by One” is a cracking tune, with a great, basic gang-vocal refrain. The keyboard work of Marta Peterson has always been a dividing point with fans, with some feeling that the orchestral parts are tacked on and unnecessary – but it’s her blackened contribution that will always make Bleeding Through stick out from basically all of their hardcore-influenced peers, and numbers like “Walking Dead”, “The Devil and Self Doubt” and “Trail of Seclusion” would sound bare without Peterson’s piano/organ/string section work.

Another aspect to the band’s sound that stands out is the occasional usage of clean vocals. Now, these days every sub-average ‘core’ band is over-using pop-punk singing for their choruses, but Bleeding Through’s vocal team of Schieppati, Peterson and bassist Ryan Wombacher create strong, cliché-free vocal hooks, as shown on the aforementioned “Trail of Seclusion” and “Back To Life”, while the morose vocal harmony’s at the beginning of “Entrenched” sounds eerily like Alice In Chains, and it’s one of the impressive parts of The Great Fire's standout track.

Though it doesn’t reach the lofty heights of the outstanding record Declaration, and a couple of songs could have been left on the editing room floor, Bleeding Through’s The Great Fire is still a very impressive release from a band who many might have written off or moved on from. Make no bones about it, Bleeding Through are still very much alive and kicking.

(released January 31, 2012 on Rise Records)

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