If I recall correctly, my first encounter with Bleed From Within was chatted to them in 2018 in the runup to Bloodstock (we “festivals”, yeah?) and two years on we have some new material from them to enjoy.
Bleed From Within straddle a few sub-genres (a bit of tech here, some nu-metal riffage there) but for my money they nicely encapsulate lovely, noisy metal. From the off with “The End Of All We Know”, the bass rhythms courtesy of Davie Provan’s four strings and Ali Richardson’s larger tubs have the walls shaking. The aforementioned guitarwork of Steven Jones and Craig Gowans flies in with flurries and fast fretwork before the recipe is given the final ingredient of Scott Kennedy’s abrasive vocals. Yes, the same lineup as Era and the first time the band has maintained their crew between two releases. Which is good as they seem to have nailed it.
It’s a good opening track, but frankly it’s completely eclipsed by “Pathfinder” that both out-thrashes and out-heavys it. I don’t know if “out-heavying” was a thing before this review, but it is now. Starting off at blistering pace and finishing with the kind of slow riffs that would have a doom metal band posing with their testicles resting on the floor, it’s a thing of musical beauty. “Into Nothing” manages to add a bit of “melo-” to the mix, a sweet icing covering the razor blade-filled cake.
Throughout the album, there’s great songwriting and musicianship on display. It’s just such an easy album to get into, with my head banging away as I dried the dishes earlier (look, I had the kids over and I can multitask – washing dishes can be metal, deal with it). Trivium’s living legend Matt Heafy even pops up to rattle off a solo in “Night Crossing” – for which a very entertaining lockdown-themed video is viewable below.
Fracture is a superb example of modern metal from a band who’ve been working their arses off for over a decade. If there’s a release that deserves to break them into the bigger time, it’s this one. I’m not even going to list my highlight tracks as it’s “most of them”. Highly recommended.
Fracture is out on May 29th
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