BLEED FROM WITHIN
Era
CENTURY MEDIA
Scotland’s metalcore merchants return to the fray with violent aplomb
it’s high timE that Bleed From Within emerged from the broiling underground. The Glaswegian quintet honed their craft and paid their dues on their early albums, Humanity and Empire, but it was 2013’s underrated Uprising – their first album on century Media – that should’ve earned them widespread recognition. If there’s any justice, Era will give the band the leg-up they deserve. In the five years since their last release, guitarist Martyn evans left, but rather than faltering, BFW have flourished in the face of adversity. Martyn has been replaced by Steven Jones, and his impact has proved both indubitable and immediate, especially on riff-fests Clarity and Afterlife, the former thriving on Parkway Drive-esque themes of positivity.
Era is a continuation, rather than a reinvention, of the monstrous sound BFW have established, but everything about it is bigger and tighter. There isn’t an inch of superfluity to pinch, be it on the mammoth groove and chorus of Shiver or Gatekeeper’s barraging riffs. The band haven’t shied away from progression either, introducing more melody than you can shake a six-string at, while retaining their ferociousness. Afterlife and Cast Down boast huge choruses while, on the latter, Scott Kennedy has introduced clean vocals into his blistering attack. They don’t add much to BFW’s vehement brew, but nor do they detract from it. It all comes to a head on closer Alive, a bone fide anthem that gallops into the horizon atop a hail of tumbling technicality and white-hot riffs. Era is everything we want to hear from a metal album in 2018.
FOR FANS OF: PARKWAY DRIVE, CARNIFEX, BLEEDING THROUGH
DANNII LEIVERS