Mixed Feelings About Bleeding Through's "The Great Fire" [Updated]

Because I like to over analyze tiny details, here's my two cents about the new Bleeding Through album The Great Fire. In short: I don't think people will really notice it, but I have hopes that it might sound pretty good. [A new song has been released, and my thoughts have been adjusted accordingly.]

[ORIGINAL POST]

It's far too early for anyone to really be voicing his opinions about this album, but there has since been a few details released that I could form at least somewhat of an educated opinion about how this album will turn out. Plus I haven't posted anything in what feels like a decade!

Bleeding Through's self-titled album released in 2010 was their first album released through Rise, and it was also the lowest charting album since they broke out of the underground with The Truth in 2006. I expect  The Great Fire to follow this downward trend.

First thing I notice here is the release date of January 31, 2012. It's pretty much a death wish to release an album between mid-November through mid-February. I don't fully (yet) understand the business side of this, but this time frame is just not a time that people really buy albums. Maybe people are so caught up in the holidays? I don't have an educated response to that, it's just something I've noticed over this years as an avid music lover.

From this I can assume it will hardly sell any copies--at least in the first week. Not that Rise Records is really fantastic at promoting albums. In the last two years they went from being that tiny label no one has ever heard of, to being that tiny label no one has ever heard of with some bands that were mildly popular eight years ago. I don't expect much of a promotional campaign for this album. Though, I did give some props to Rise's promotional website for This Is Hell's Black Mass released a few months ago.

Many of Bleeding Through's metalcore peers have either broken up, gone silent for several years but not officially broken up, or changed their genre completely. The only band from the scene who's still pumping out solid releases is As I Lay Dying.

So will Bleeding Through release something that sounds like Bleeding Through? Will they soften up (read: sell out) and go the way of Killswitch Engage? Or will the constant onslaught of newer/younger whatever-core bands encourage them to reclaim their throne and release the sickest, heaviest BT album to date?

I'm going to point to The Great Fire's cover art and track listing to answer this question.

Cover art for 'The Great Fire'. Wax, glass, brick and blood.

The artwork seems like one of the darkest covers released by Bleeding Through to date. It's also one of the least cheesy. What looks like a broken down church (perhaps religion will be a lyrical theme?) is way less cheesy than the bleeding heart and knife on This is Love, This is Murderous and the skeletons and fire on Bleeding Through.

But was mostly stands out is the BT logo that was last seen on Declaration. Sometimes bands will use artwork to signify a relationship between albums within their discography. Unfortunately no hardcore examples come to mind, but the pop punk band Goldfinger did this with their "return to roots" 2008 album Hello Destiny which similarly featured the same giant space woman from their self-titled 1996 debut album.

If Bleeding Through is following this pattern, then this might turn out to be a pretty good album. Declaration is the only Bleeding Through album I still enjoy. The rest just became incredibly boring and generic to my ears. Though, this might have largely been due to Devin Townsend's production work.

Taking a peek at the track listing, I see what appear to be some of the darkest and most depressing song titles of Bleeding Through's career. Titles like "Final Hours," "Everything You Love Is Gone," "Trail of Seclusion" and "Starving Vultures" leave me feeling cold and alone just reading them. Way more so than the love-y, vampire-y titles they used to have like "Love in Slow Motion" and "Shadow Walker." 

This to me suggests at least a lyrical change, if not a musical change as well. Maybe Marta Peterson will play some super haunting and chilling keys on this one.

But this is all conjecture. I don't really have much to go on, but I sure do love to be right. Look out for another blog posting if even one claim here turns out to be half correct, and keep an eye out for The Great Fire on January 31 via Rise Records.

[UPDATE]
So ten days after my original posting, it turns out I was wrong.

Rise Records has begun promoting The Great Fire which included the online stream of the second song off the album "Faith in Fire" and some fancy little pre-order packages.

It's a super short, fast and pissed off song. It sounds very much like something off of their other Rise Records album, Bleeding Through--an album which completely denied any progression they had made musically for the sake of writing an unnecessarily heavy album. I am substantially less excited after hearing this song. Oh well.