Bleed From Within

Humanity

Written by: BL on 04/09/2009 12:03:54

It isn't that often that a heavy Scottish band gets known beyond a few immediate circles. But that is what these 5 guys from Glasgow have just done with numerous tours in the UK and Europe under their belts, a self-produced EP and now their full length album to boot. I have a brief familiarity with their EP "Welcome To The Plague Year" and while it was passably decent, it was the same old The Black Dahlia Murder worship Bring Me The Horizon used to equally put out until their style change with "Suicide Season". "Humanity" though is quite different in quite a few ways and isn't as two-dimensional as it's predecessor (or Even "Count Your Blessings" for that matter), as you might expect though.

Scott Kennedy's vocals have always been very much akin to Bring Me The Horizon's Oli Skyes (though if you were to compare appearances this doesn't come as a surprise), and since the EP his voice has become stronger and a little more diverse. While still essentially utilising the dual wielding technique of low death growls and harrowing high pitched screams like he did on "Welcome To The Plague Year", he sounds much clearer and has raised his low end pitch to at least make the words seem more audible instead of just low grunt sounds. As such his high end is a lot more edgy, leading to him sounding deranged (in a good way though) on tracks like closer "The Abscence". Some standard metalcore screams also make his performance seem a little more fluid (the 1:05 interlude section on "The Fall Of Man" for instance) rather than before where he was too stiff in delivery and just stayed in one style or the other and just switched between rather predictably.

While I would not hesistate to call the guitar work deathcore, it isn't so trademark as you'd expect in the vein of Whitechapel, Molotov Solution, Oceano etc where the emphasis is on those samey tremolo sections or minor scale riffing layered ontop of dissonant breakdowns all entered for the competition to see who can out-brootal each other. The album isn't also as heavy as the EP and if you listen to their video track "Servants Of Divinity" - the intro sounds something more like Darkest Hour. Indeed there is a significantly greater metalcore/melodic death metal prescence in their sound combined with The Black Dahlia Murder influence, but if you ask this writer this has allowed the songs to breathe a little and the end result is some far more memorable tracks that don't feel the need to have a breakdown every 20 seconds and instead rely on some really catchy guitar riffing thanks to Scott McCreadie (who has now left the band and has been replaced by their bassist Craig Gowans) and Dave Lennon. "Monster" and "A Killer Born" both contain some of the catchiest guitar sections one has heard in deathcore recently - the tapped lead in "Monster" is simply deliciously worked and the outro riff of 3:11 in "A Killer Born" is just irresistably head-noddingly good as examples. Elsewhere the songs tend to keep the pace moving and never really slows to get dull if any chugging is involved (the end track starts a little slow as the only real exception), so instead you have some varied galloping rhythm guitars, and as I've already mentioned - breakdowns are only inserted every now and then (and barely seem like breakdowns).

Drum work is solid from Ali Richardson, the ride cymbals that came in during the various drum patterns were a great touch and the double bass pedal work is immaculate for the most part. Bass from Craig is audible but doesn't deviate all that much from the rhythm guitars (as usual) and so simply just does the job. The production is clean and very polished and really keeps the listening experience in good shape. Some of the songs could have used a bigger ambition in comparison to the strongest tracks and so perhaps the band is slightly guilty of occasionally producing some filler material. As such a lot of things are done right and done well but a lot of things could have been done so much more impressive too - other than a few excellent songs it doesn't really reach around your neck and threaten to break like you might hope for. If you grow tired of the sea of current Whitechapel clones then this might be a more interesting diversion for you if deathcore is really is your thing.

7

Download: A Killer Born, Servants Of Divinity, Monster
For the fans of: Bring Me The Horizon, The Black Dahlia Murder, Suicide Silence, As Blood Runs Black
Listen: Myspace

Release date 27.07.2009
Rising Records

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