Label- Nuclear Blast Records
Release Date - 3 June 2022
Words- Tony Bliss
As the UK metal scene begins to take a tighter stranglehold internationally, there is no band better equipped to be a genuine future force than Bleed From Within. In terms of quality it’s hard to fault anything they have released to date, and whilst 2013’s Uprising looked to be the sort of focused and ferocious breakthrough needed to propel the Scottish quintet into the uppermost ranks of our world, in truth, it was two records in as many years with 2018’s Era and the beastly creative high of Fracture where Bleed From Within not only looked to have finally found their stride, but once again began stamping their authority as serious contenders. Now’s the time to capitalise, which is just as well really, as ‘Shrine’ is stuffed to the gills with career defining songs.
A deeper and smarter realisation of the band’s established formula, this is a collection of twelve deftly-crafted metalcore A-bombs that crackle with hooks and breath-snatching dynamics, whilst never being anything less than sinew wrenchingly metal to the bone. Indeed, even when the band do let their melodic instincts take flight (which is more frequent than ever on ‘Shrine’) there is little room for any post-Killswitch preening here, those arena–sized choruses more than often served up behind an avalanche of gnarly, precision-tooled riffs, and although this record finds Bleed From Within turning in their most polished tunes so far, it’s the sheer ferocity of these songs that’s still the real kicker.
Take recent single ‘Levitate’ for example, which teased a profoundly bombastic and multi-layered approach from the band with its immaculate chorus hook and some violin-led drama swelling away at the fringes, before all that Melo-death opulence is swept aside amid a mid-section breakdown which ensnares us in a spider-web of knotted riffing. ‘Flesh And Stone’ on the other hand erupts like peak-form Cradle Of Filth with its blast-driven symphonics, then quickly morphs into a later-day Parkway Drive shit-kicker gone black metal. And it works spectacularly.
Elsewhere there are so many money-shot riffs and moments of full blooded anthemic gusto that it’s difficult to deny that ‘Shrine’ is Bleed From Within truly operating at the very top of their game. The piano-guided slow burn of closer ‘Paradise’, the electronic touches invading Lamb Of God-esqe rage-rush ‘Killing Time’ and the omnipresent shimmering of keys may all be clever embellishments lending that new textural colour to the bands core sound, but it is when they lock into that signature, groove-powered onslaught where they remain at their exhilarating best. Hell, on the strength of opening one-two punch ‘I Am Damnation’ and ‘Sovereign’ alone, the band wield that special kind of metallic power that only the very best of our world possess, and for every moment of melodic nous and atmospheric glow, there is always an absolute shit-storm of riffs brewing behind the scenes. ‘Shrine’ is an imperious show of strength, confidence and authority that once again re-confirms Bleed From Within as a cut above the rest, and more importantly should, surely to Satan, see the band ascend to the level of success and acclaim they have so richly deserved for years.
9/10
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