Bleed from Within – Uprising

Rising, but not Above

Scottish five-piece Deathcore outfit, Bleed from Within, offers no surprises or disappointments on its third full-length album, Uprising. There may be room for growth in this genre, but Bleed from Within has no aspirations towards that end. Its purpose is to deliver loud, ear-splitting, tight music that fits right in with bands like The Black Dahlia Murder and In Thy Dreams, but does not stand out, and Uprising accomplishes this goal.

After a brief melodic instrumental introduction (“III”), “Colony” pounds in with machine-gun precision. Scott Kennedy’s high/low screaming stabs along with the percussion, and guitarists Craig “Goonzi” Gowans and Martyn Evans provide the minor arpeggios and dissonant riffs that move the song along. The tracks meld into one another, implying that Uprising is designed to be listened to as one piece, but whether or not you do so depends on your tolerance of this kind of music. Among the typical, though, there are a few standout moments. “Nothing No One Nowhere” begins with a gut-wrenching high-pitched axe wail, and the rest of that song offers some effective beat changes that make the track itself memorable. “Speechless” is another short, quiet instrumental that leads into a heavier song (“Our Divide”), creating an indelible tandem.

Uprising ends with “Devotion,” and perhaps that’s a good title to describe Bleed from Within. The musicians are devoted to their talent, to their chosen profession, and they play their instruments with deliberateness; the band is devoted to present the Deathcore genre with respect and seriousness. This final number sums up the album with loud, mid-tempo riff-based thrashing mixed in with lovely orchestrations, including a stellar break in the middle involving bassist Davie Provan. You may not remember individual songs from Uprising, but a few of these moments will stick in your head, and those are the bits that will have you putting on the album a second and third time.