Bleeding Through - Love Will Kill All (2018)^{Release ID: 8777}

I’d heard quite a bit of Californian metalcore outfit Bleeding Through while preparing the monthly The Revolution playlists but had never felt the need to investigate them further upon until this point. Perhaps I’ve been put off by their associations with the more melodic side of the genre or it may be because they simply don’t seem all that likely to appeal to my taste. I’m not too sure but my commitment to the Hall of Judgement & a site with the highest level of accuracy in regard to our genre-tagging has finally brought me face to face with my very first Bleeding Through album & I’m gonna do my best to keep an open mind.

As is very much the norm with the more well-known metalcore acts, “Love Will Kill All” is a really well-produced & executed record with polished & shiny performances from all of the band members. It’s a big, in-your-face collection of short & catchy metal tunes that’s made to appeal to a particular audience. You see, while Bleeding Through certainly integrate various external influences into their sound to good effect, they also showcase all of the signature traits of the metalcore genre at the same time so fans will never find themselves feeling the slightest bit alienated. I wouldn’t describe Bleeding Through as sticking to the conventional metalcore model here but neither would I say that the album is a melodic metalcore release either. It kinda sits in the middle with the band jumping from a straight down the line aggressive tune to a more melodic one with a clean-sung chorus hook quite consistently. If anything I’d probably suggest that the melodic side wins out in the end but a dual tagging is probably the most appropriate result.

The points of difference for “Love Will Kill All” are twofold. On the one hand you have a clear melodic death metal influence with At The Gates seeming to be the obvious point of reference through the driving, up-tempo yet melodic tremolo-picked riffage. Then we also see a clear melodic black metal influence in the use of gothic symphonics & well-executed blast-beats. Cradle of Filth is undoubtedly the source of those sounds. Having never been the biggest Cradle of Filth fan, I have to admit to struggling a bit with the overly melodramatic gothicisms on offer even though they do make for something a little different which is certainly required with a record like this one. The clean choruses on the more melodic tracks remind me quite a bit of Fear Factory so I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that they were somewhat of an inspiration too.

One of the problems here though is the more generic elements of Bleeding Through’s sound as they kinda overshadow their more creative ones. The breakdowns are very much the standard model for metalcore & whenever they pop up I find myself snoozing a bit. The vocals of front man Brandan Schieppati are also terribly common. I mean he sounds EXACTLY like every other metalcore vocalist in America & that’s a big detractor for me personally. There are a couple of really enjoyable tracks here though & they generally occur when Bleeding Through simply release the shackles & go for broke like they do on album highlight “Buried” or the pretty decent “Cold World”. The rest of the album seems to drift into areas of insignificance though I’m afraid, even though there’s nothing particularly terrible here either.

At the end of the day I just don’t think I’m the target audience for a record like “Love Will Kill All”. I'd imagine that it’s exactly what the band were trying to achieve & that it’s disappointed very few of their rabid fanbase but it’s simply not something that would generally appeal to me. In fact, the only reason I’ve even found myself listening to it is to assist Andi with his Hall of Judgement entry to have it removed from The Horde & in that undertaking Andi will be receiving a resounding YES vote from me as (despite the At the Gates influence) there’s absolutely no way that this is a death metal record.

For fans of Unearth, The Agonist & early Shadows Fall.

Since their formation in 1999 (same year I was born), Bleeding Through have been touring different countries, signing into different labels, facing stylistic genre definitions, releasing immense albums, and influencing young new generations. This Californian band's style is a metalcore combo of hardcore and symphonic death metal, weaving a magnificent maelstrom of melody and mayhem together in chaotic aggression. Bleeding Through is cited by many extreme metalheads as one of the first metalcore bands to be truly heavy. Years later, here they are, strong as strong can be. The band split up for 4 years from 2014 to 2018, except for a benefit show in 2016 for another metalcore band The Ghost Inside that was in a horrific traffic accident. During their split-up, the heavy metal landscape was facing really serious changes. Metalcore has fallen into the mainstream trap, with A Day to Remember adding more poppy elements and Bring Me the Horizon switching to completely electropop-rock.

Fortunately, not only has Bleeding Through returned, so has their symphonic death/hardcore-influenced metalcore sound, with no pop in sight. The force of aggression is strong in their epic comeback album, Love Will Kill All! Vocalist Brandan Schieppati wasn't really happy about how the metalcore scene was going and decided that the only way to restore balance to the metal universe is to "do it our f***ing selves again". Good to know that he still has metalcore fury within...

While this album is perfect as h*ll, the only weak part is the intro "Darkness A Feeling I Know", which just consists of church organs and poetry that sounds like a 7th grade heartbroken goth emo wrote it. It sounds a little more appropriate as the intro to a recent Avatar album. However, "Fade Into the Ash" completely makes up for it!! A blistering mix of epic and extreme and one of the most glorious metalcore songs ever! It displays the band's crushing music with huge hooks and one of the greatest choruses in the album and the band, topped off by symphonic keyboards. Pretty much every element the band has is served in just 3 and a half minutes. WELCOME F***ING BACK!!! "End Us" once again shows a new beginning for the band. "Cold World" has spectacular melodic singing beyond better than their previous work, especially near the two-minute mark.

"Dead Eyes" shows more of their epic death metal influences. "Buried" brings back the crushing heaviness from their first 3 albums. "No Friends" is a song that can cause a roomful of metalhead kids whipping their long hair that they keep uncut against parents' orders to create a violent mosh pit to practically tear that place down, while bringing back their early 2000s Gothenburg-inspired guitar melodies. "Set Me Free" is the first song to be released by the band after returning, one month before the rest of the album. It's all filled with symphonic death-influenced metalcore! How sinister can that song get??

"No One From Nowhere" just punches you in the face right out of nowhere with crushing guitars before easing things up with ethereal strings while still having suffocating lyrics. That's a great killer callback to This is Love This is Murderous! "Remains" once again proves that Bleeding Through is one of two bands who can return to their heavier metalcore sound, the other band being All That Remains with their album Victim of the New Disease released later that year. The album's best song in terms of heaviness is "Slave", but it's also where the keyboards have the least presence. That chorus is so brutal yet memorable. And finally, "Life" is a perfect ending song, once again mixing epic with extreme. Keyboardist Marta Peterson sings background vocals for the first time in the choruses. I want more of her vocals in the band's next album!

If Love Will Kill All has never made it to any "best metal of 2018" lists, well I personally think it easily should! This album puts Bleeding Through back in the higher metal tier. I love this album slightly more than This is Love, This is Murderous and definitely The Truth, and everything you love from those two older albums with all their influences, new and old, executed perfectly. The band still has their true side which proves that they haven't lost any steam in their 4-year split. Bleeding Through is definitely my favorite symphonic death/metalcore band along with Winds of Plague. Here's to more epic extreme metalcore awaiting!

Favorites: "Fade Into the Ash", "Cold World", "No Friends", "No One From Nowhere", "Slave", "Life"