BLEEDING THROUGH - The Truth

It was already clear some time ago that the so-called metalcore bandwagon was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, probably starting from the moment Soulfly agreed to pull the proverbial handbrake in the hope of not plunging into an anonymous abyss of assorted banality. The heavy landscape today looks as desolate as one of those dusty old saloons, and the pointless reverb of a thousand In Flames clones, strummed away in the nearby, newly built plastic city, only makes things worse. Between Halloween parties and declarations of war, horror references and political rants, the genre that once belonged to Sepultura seems to be thrashing around harmfully in an unhealthy atmosphere of redundant riffs, trendy posturing, pseudo-metaphysical videos and lyrics where it's enough (indeed mandatory) to yell "fuck" half a dozen times to reach the required maximum level of transgression, seriously risking a painful extinction (and if it's true that Pharrell Williams intends to make a heavy-metal record, that prospect looks like a death sentence). Once again, though, it's the historic Roadrunner that offers something that doesn't sound like a pile of scrap metal pushed down a hill, releasing the third - and indeed much-anticipated - album by Bleeding Through, the California sextet coming off the solid results of "Portrait Of The Goddess" (Indecision, 2000) and "This Is Love, This Is Murderous" (Trustkill, 2003). So "The Truth" (again on the New Jersey label) unwittingly takes on the task of reviving a scene more depressed than usual, while running the risk of going unnoticed amid understandable general skepticism.

Brandan Schieppati and co.'s "vows of truthfulness" (whatever that means) burst out in the best possible way right from "For Love And Failing", the album's opening track. Rob Cangiano's production (he's previously worked with Cradle Of Filth and A Life Once Lost) translates into systematic yet disjointed violence, with abrupt melodic turns absorbed by a fast blend of guitars and drums, in the finest tradition of the famous Brazilian band. The sense of holding a substantial record in your hands is confirmed by the next track, the brutal "Confession", with its industrial drumming and the epic electronic backdrop courtesy of Marta's keyboards. Still, it's the dense grindcore guitars of Brian Leppke and Scott Danough that set the pace of this powerful performance (the exceptional ending really feels like a throwback). The O.C. boys ditch the frills and easy solutions, aiming to "fill up" the soundtrack as much as possible, aided by a rhythm section that's always on point.

With "Love in Slow Motion", Bleeding Through make good on the promise of "Dust To Ashes", returning to the semi-melodic structures of their early days with what is probably the most commercial - though no less effective - track on "The Truth". Alternating between Ill Ninño-style vocals and melodies very close to the last Faith No More album ("Album Of The Year", 1997), confirming the hybrid nature now firmly rooted in metal, the band attempts to move closer to acts like At The Gates (for the blasts of jagged guitars) and especially Soilwork (as far as the vocals go).

"The Pain Killer" and "Kill To Believe" carry on the "raw" approach set out by the first two tracks, without giving up on an effective chorus, which tempers the roar of the kick drums and the anger (whether genuine or contrived, it hardly matters) of Schieppati's lyrics. Echoes of Cradle Of Filth filter through "Dearly Demented" (featuring Nick 13 of Tiger Army), the track that ideally closes out the first half of the album.

The enthusiasm stirred up by the first six merciless tracks suddenly fades with "Line In The Sand", easily the weakest moment of the second half (and of the whole record): a ballad with no feeling, with by-the-numbers keyboards and a nostalgic, oddly defeatist lyric (a real paradox given the verse in "Dearly Demented": "Lascia perdere la tua angoscia/ Costruisci da solo le armi per distruggerli tutti"). Luckily, it's just a one-off, because "She's Gone", almost a Soilent Green cover (and not by chance, singer Ben Falgoust appears as a special guest on the album), restores the metal solidity enjoyed up to that point. The pace holds steady on "Tragedy Of Empty Streets", a track that owes a lot to the despair of bands like Living Sacrifice and Lamb Of God. The distortions of "Return To Sender", another standout, recall the hardcore of Cro Mags and the lyrics of Integrity, bands that have clearly influenced the songwriting on this third album by the American group, and whom Bleeding Through pay tribute to with "Hollywood Prison", the track that most closely recalls Killswitch Engage.

Having finished listening to "The Truth" and moving on to a final verdict, the overall impression left by this record is a fairly positive one, if nothing else because Bleeding Through partially bring back a way of making metal that's fairly close to the genre's noisy, glorious early days. Nothing new, of course, and the occasional rant veers into "caricature" territory, but on the whole it's a good, essential "heavy" album, the likes of which hadn't been seen in a while.

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17/12/2006