“Finnis Fatalis Spei,” the opening of Bleeding Through’s latest, Declaration, is promising: it evokes a dark mood with a rich sense of melody and delightful faux-classical layering, complete with siren vocals by token hot girl/keyboard player Marta Peterson tastefully low in the mix. This all coheres into to morose buildup as the guitars predictably make their first appearance, climaxing with a tense final note, then a shitty-yet-effective sample to trigger the heaviness that will presumably follow. And because this is Bleeding Through, upon first listen, the cynic in you will be tempted to be immediately disappointed, to think that the first track – just under two minutes – will be the only thing remotely interesting about the album. Then the title track blasts in, with the grandiose intensity of decent symphonic black metal, almost taking a cue from Emperor’s Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk (arguably their most underrated effort) with tight, triggered drums, persistent guitars, and a subtle keyboard line like a mist around it all… then, twenty seconds in, the cynic in you is pleased, as a generic metalcore riff gets dropped in there like a dead kitten at a children’s birthday party, and you’re quickly reminded that this is Bleeding fucking Through, and that Bleeding fucking Through are still a generic metalcore band at heart. The rest of Declaration continues like this – flourishes of something interesting followed ever so dependably by Bleeding Through’s (and almost all post-Killswitch metalcore’s) hallmarks: generic breakdowns, reheated Swedish death riffs, forgettable vocals, and an overall air of crushing mediocrity. This is still Bleeding Through; shame on us for thinking that they’d make anything of themselves.
Click to read more…