Even though I have not been the best friend with the Metalcore scene the albums form this genre keep coming to my direction. Maybe it's all about karma and after some days (years, decades) I will turn into a die-hard fan of this jumping up and down mainstream scene.
Ok, I will stop beating around the bush and give you my words of wisdom (yeah right) about the second full length release belonging to the five boys from Oklahoma City.
BLEED THE SKY were founded by singer Noah Robinson and guitarist Kyle Moonman in the fall of 2002. With a solid lineup the band started promoting itself by playing live whenever and wherever it was possible. This effort and their success drew the attention of Nuclear Blast that moved fast and inked a record deal with them. The product of this collaboration gave birth to the band's maiden release Paradigm In Entropy.
Knife In A Phone Booth enters with the expected screaming vocals, the dry drum sound and some groovy rhythm guitars. This is in a nutshell what Metalcore is about and sometimes is not that bad according to my standards. The melodic breaks come in the form of clean vocals that are very good giving some credit to Noah Robinson who is challenging his vocal chords to the maximum. Having watched live more than a dozen of Metalcore bands I can accurately say that this music genre is proving its worth upon live stages. Indeed, this music is all about energy with a lot of physical activity. Based on my significant experience on gigs I can say that BLEED THE SKY can meet the expectations of an energetic show. Songs like Morose, Bastion or the riff driven Kettle Black are excellent reasons for some violent mosh pits. The PANTERA are influences are found almost everywhere from the Anselmo-like vocals to the staccato down-tuned riffs. Personally, I appreciated the fact that there are some good guitar leads and a couple of solos that fall outside the rather restricted sound of Metalcore. My personal favs are The Demons That Could Be with the nice legato and Sulivan with the Thrash background and the pretty nice guitar solo
Well, don't expect miracles here since this album belongs to the aforementioned scene that has flooded the US (and not only) market and actually is doing very well. If you like bands like CHIMAIRA and do not share the same feelings about this kind of music then the new BLEED THE SKY should be a nice addition to your collection.