I'm don't have any pretenses to be "the busiest music nerd on the Internet" nor am I that guy who's  "fear of missing out" compels him to try to keep up with all new albums, TV shows etc. - an impossible race against time given the limitations of our bodily existence. When in comes to Metal music, though, I feel that as a reviewer, I should have a good picture of the main representatives of all genres and be familiar with the discographies of the great bands of the past or the "OGs", so to speak. I wasn't familiar with INTERNAL BLEEDING and once I saw that this band was around since 1991 and that they are considered one of the first "Slam Metal" bands it grabbed my curiosity. So here I am, checking out these New York slamsters for the first time.

INTERNAL BLEEDING play straight-forward, mid-tempo Death Metal with a breakdowns and palm-muted riffs with the occasional blast beats or faster olds-school Death Metal riffage. Their music has a lot of that Hardcore swag that it typical for their fellow New Yorkers SUFFOCATION or for DYING FETUS - this music is just made for people to go nuts in the mosh pit, if the word "slam" that it used to describe this style of music doesn't make that clear form the get go. The first song "Compelled to Consume" is rather groovy with cookie monster Death Growls. The second song is faster and has a more old-school Death Metal tone - you can tell that the band likes their CANNIBAL CORPSE or DEICIDE. Then there are those fun, mosh pit triggering breakdowns like in "Surrounded from the Inside" - it is super basic but somehow the song does it for me. When the chugging and gurgling starts to wear a bit thin in the second half of the album "Unreality" surprises you with a slow section at the end; it is not even an outro, the song just transitions to a slow pace right in the middle. But we go straight back to the chugging and breakdowns on "Lithany of Insincerity".

INTERNAL BLEEDING play meat and potatoes Death Metal, they are keeping things interesting by shifting between different tempos and riffs, or by doing something surprising like when they incorporate a cool melodic riff in the last song "The Supreme Sacrifice". The musicianship is good, but one can't escape the feeling that once you've heard one song you've heard it all. The individual songs can be fun to listen to, the band must be fun to hear live, but as far as studio albums go it can be a bit too much.