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INTERNAL BLEEDING – “Settle All Scores”
INTERNAL BLEEDING – “Settle All Scores”
by Thor
Long Island, New York’s longtime purveyors of brutal grooves—INTERNAL BLEEDING—return with another album full of catchy death metal and personal grievances.
I’ve jumped in and out of this band’s discography since their first two albums over 30 years ago. Their approach—ultra-catchy, groovy, guttural death metal—should be tailor-made for me. Problem is, it always comes up short to varying degrees, and I’m not exactly sure why.
And that brings me to “Settle All Scores”. I really wanted this album to be the one to solve the puzzle…
…Unfortunately, though, it’s more of the same. Like, the EXACT same. These songs could have come from anywhere within INTERNAL BLEEDING’’s seven-album canon. The only thing that defines them as new is the fact that they’re sonically superior to the band’s early material.
In fact, “Settle All Scores” sounds fantastic, sonically. But the songwriting doesn’t take advantage. The music is relatively anemic. It lacks aggression. It’s somehow not heavy, in death metal terms, at least. And the result, for me, is another in a long line of confoundingly dull albums.
Fans of the band will no doubt disagree with me and find a lot to like here, and that’s fair enough. Fans of certain strains of heavy hardcore will find a lot here to dig as well. But if you’re craving something brutal, or even slam, this ain’t it.
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