Album Review: "Bleeding Through" by Bleeding Through

Bleeding Through is best known in the American metal scene for two things. The first is being one of the first metalcore bands to add keyboards to their sound, creating tones and atmospheres akin to those of European melodic death metal bands like Soilwork and Dark Tranquillity. The second is the woman who has graced the keyboards since 2003, Marta Pererson, a regular in press features that highlight attractive women in heavy metal. The Orange County six-piece group hopes to expand their identity beyond these two things in 2010, though. Having finally achieved their much-desired split from Trustkill Records, Bleeding Through aims to start over again with their self-titled sixth album and their first release for Rise Records. Bleeding Through is a step away from 2008's Declaration in many ways, and the changes are a mixed bag of positive, negative, and superfluous.

First round of cuts, and some adds!

It's been a week since I posted the list of albums that I was considering for my top albums of 2008. I've done some refining to the list since then. Here are the albums that are being cut from the list:

Continent by The Acacia Strain - Yes, this album is a big improvement lyrically. Musically, though, its very similar to their previous albums. And although I like their previous albums, it's not mind-blowingly good.
Declaration by Bleeding Through - Again, not a lot of variation from their previous albums musically. I suspect Jona Weinhoffen did not give a lot of input into the writing of this album - otherwise it would have sounded more like I Killed the Prom Queen, which would have been much better.
Ultra Beatdown by Dragonforce - What was I thinking here? Sure, it's a good album, but there is so much more power metal out there that is better!
Versus by The Haunted - I listened to rEVOLVEr the other day, and I realized why I first got into this band. The new album doesn't do for me what rEVOLVEr did for me.
Chapter VII: Hope and Sorrow by Sevendust - It's really unfortunate that I'm cutting this, because I had hoped that this album would grow on me over time. But it didn't, sadly. It just lacks the pure balls of Next and Alpha, which is a bit of a letdown for me.

And now, some adds to the list, both of which are not even out yet:
Stormchaser by Light This City - I've only heard two tracks from this album, but I can already tell that this album will end the band's career on a high note. It's very sad that they're breaking up, because I hear so much potential for this band in the songs I've heard.
The March by Unearth - The three songs I've heard so far prove that what Trevor Phipps and Derek Kerswill told me is true: Unearth have fused the pure metal of The Oncoming Storm with the thrash elements of III: In the Eyes of Fire to form a towering, brutal sound that features the most technical elements in metalcore today.

Keep an eye out for more cuts, and possibly more adds, in the coming weeks!