Corrupting Influence

I have always liked Internal Bleeding, despite their hardcore/slam orientation (anyway I prefer their oldest releases). But this album is just unbearable; I only could listen to it three times, the first time I felt pretty disappointed as I thought it was going to be more varied, the second time I felt frankly bored and the third time I stopped it before it ended, and I think I won't feel like listening to it ever again... The only word I find to describe this release is boring.

The biggest flaw I find is the overall speed here, which is mostly mid to slow, with plenty of breakdowns, some of them even slower than the average slow breakdown; I have the impression this album is a very long breakdown in itself, with slower breakdowns, some "breakups" here and there and tiny bursts of faster sections (well, not that fast though)... Ok, I think not all death metal must be always played at 1000 bpm, but I don't think it should be played at 40 bpm either, and some variation is always nice. Although it's true this album doesn't reach doom metal's levels of slowness and boredom, it's also true that the final result is quite linear and clearly lacks variety, intensity and catchiness. Maybe breakdowns are not that bad and even sometimes are enjoyable, but when all you hear in a record is a neverending breakdown from beginning to end, it's plainly boring, bluntly. Just like it happens with pinch harmonics, which surprisingly there are none on this release (I am really thankful they did not play any harmonics here).

Guitars sound really not heavy at all, I thought I was listening to Soundgarden or the likes at times, with a total lack of power and a pretty weak distortion really not appropriate for a death metal band (let alone for the so-called "Fathers of slam brutal death metal"). I also found at least three or four riffs and leads to be quite happy, and some Slayer-esque sections here and there (whih is not necessarily bad, but I think these sections are out of place here).

Drums are corectly played and there are lots of fills and rolls (not the most original either, just average death metal drumming), but not so much tempo changes. There are some faster sections, few and far between, which could be quite enjoyable, but they don't last but a few bars before they become slow and boring again. On the end of the last track there is a solo drum section, which I think is pretty show-off and unnecessary, and it doesn't really add anything to the final result. It seems just like the end is near but the band doesn't want to finish the musical torture yet, and here it comes this unnecessary drum solo, about a minute of even more boring slow stuff.

In this album everything adds its share to the final boring result so that vocals sound pretty average, with low guttural grunts and growls yet lyrics are easy to understand (although this time I didn't even bothered to read them), and somewhat deathcore oriented at times which helps this being even more boring. There are also some deathcore screamed higher backing vocals, not my cup of tea though.

The production here is really clear and all instruments are balanced, this is not the problem: I think a band like this must have a budget high enough to have such a really good production. Maybe bass guitar is a bit low in the mix, as always on death metal, but I can be heard here and there though, with the almost mandatoy solo bass section at the beginnig of the last track. The problem, as I said, has to do with the general speed of the album, its almost unvaried tempo and its lack of power. On the other hand, there's somethig good about this album, which I find as a flaw in other death metal releases: the short duration of the albums; but here, its short duration is almost a blessing, I felt grateful when it finally ended...

It's a pity the band has become this boring. Maybe the fact that just Chris Pervelis is the only original member and the only one remaining from their previous release "Imperium" has somethig to do with it. But I think if Internal Bleeding is ever to release anything again, maybe I won't give them any chance...