Internal Bleeding - Imperium (Album Review)

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 30/9/2014

Label: Unique Leader Records

“Imperium” CD/DD track listing:

1. Fabricating Bliss (04:21)
2. The Visitant (03:36)
3. The Pageantry of Savagery (03:55)
4. Patterns of Force:
  Part I. The Discovery (06:34)
  Part II.Plague Agenda (04:53)
  Part III. Aftermath (03:46)
5. Placate the Ancients (03:56)
6. (In the) Absence of Soul (03:53)
7. Castigo Corpus Meum (05:56)

Bio:

Iconic New York death metal tyrants, INTERNAL BLEEDING, will release their long-anticipated new full-length, Imperium, to the masses this Fall via Unique Leader Records. Produced by the band alongside Joe Cincotta at Full Force Studio (Suffocation, Dehumanized, Mortal Decay) in Ronkonkoma, New York and engineered by Cincotta and Derek Boyer, Imperium boasts the menacing artwork of Mircea Gabriel Eftemie (Carcass, Cryptopsy, The Haunted, Nevermore et al) and serves as the band’s most sonically debilitating and plainly brutal manifestation of their winding career.

Although Imperium is a new album, it is, in many ways, deeply rooted in the band’s past -- a culmination of strong emotions that have been bubbling their way to the surface since 1992’s now-legendary Invocation Of Evil demo reared its maniacal head upon the underground circuit.

The Band:

Brian Hobbie | Guitars

Keith DeVito | Vocals

Jason Liff | Bass

Chris Pervelis | Guitars

Bill Tolley | Drums

Review:

It’s been 10 years since Internal Bleeding last dropped the slam hammer on a willing and eager underground and while the world has certainly changed in that time; Internal Bleeding are standing ever-defiant, proudly waving the flag of dyed-in-the-wool, time-honoured slamming death metal. That isn’t to say that they haven’t made a few changes here and there, but I can’t imagine that if you loved the Internal Bleeding albums of the 90s and early 00s, you wouldn’t love this as well.

With the irrational hatred I have for “everything at the same time” blast beats, I should probably hate this album, but instead, I love it. The reason for this is that everything else on ’Imperium’ works so well that it overpowers my stupid eccentricities. Enough time has passed that ‘Imperium’ is a joy for me the way a new Midnight album or, more accurately, a new Autopsy album. In fact, it has reminded me that even brutal, slam-centric death metal can be fun, which is something I had forgotten amongst all of the single note breakdown-worshiping, arpeggio-spewing lifelessness we’re often inundated with in 2014.

I’d mentioned that there were a few changes earlier, and I think we ought to look at two surprises that are real highlights of ‘Imperium’.  First, we have studio debut of Keith DeVito, former vocalist of Pyrexia and Catastrophic. His scorched, tortured howl is an excellent new ingredient to the Internal Bleeding stew. The style he employs on this album might remind you of early Chuck Schuldiner, or John Tardy of Obituary. It also has the added benefit of further setting them apart from bands who have built their sound from the foundation Internal Bleeding helped lay in the 90s.

Another nice surprise is the opening moments of the “Patterns of Force” trilogy. Church bells and keyboard choir voices lead into an acoustic guitar riff not far off from the eerie atmosphere of the beginning of “Seasons in the Abyss”. Thunder cracks in the distance and the guitars swell with distortion. The atmosphere continues to build. It feels like a monumental moment where a band that has been so stout in its dedication to a sound truly branches out. It’s a real shift in the direction and focus for a band that’s been in the game for over 20 years and then… a slam? It’s so fucking tremendous! A juke to rival Barry Sanders in his prime! The notion of such a dramatic build up for a song that ultimately sounds just like Internal Bleeding always has brought me immense joy. That’s not something I can say about any old death metal band.

There’s a charisma and personality in an album like ‘Imperium’ and in a band like Internal Bleeding that is simply absent in so much of the brutal or technical or slamming death metal that’s put out there these days. For so many of these bands, you can’t really even get a sense about the people who make those albums. They make the requisite noise in a precise manner, but they often neglect their own humanity in the process. Internal Bleeding might have made an album that sounds like the past 10 years never happened, but they’re damned good at what they do and it doesn’t sound like it’s fresh off an assembly line. This is an album worth going out of your way to hear.

Words by: Daniel Jackson

You can pick up a copy at THIS LOCATION. 

For more information:

http://www.facebook.com/internalbleeding
http://www.Internal-Bleeding.com
http://www.uniqueleader.com
http://www.facebook.com/UniqueLeaderRecords
http://www.facebook.com/CarnivalOfDeathTour

Coinciding with the release of Imperium, INTERNAL BLEEDING will wage war on North America as part of this year’s Carnival Of Death tour. Set to embark on October 3rd, 2014 in New York City, the trek will fracture in infrastructures of more than two-dozen cities coming to a close on November 3rd, 2014, in Montreal. The band will be joined by Suffocation, Kataklysm, Jungle Rot and Pyrexia.

INTERNAL BLEEDING
Carnival Of Death Tour 2014 w/ Suffocation, Kataklysm, Jungle Rot, Pyrexia:
10/03/2014 Gramercy Theatre - New York, NY
10/04/2014 The Webster - Hartford, CT
10/05/2014 Bogie's - Albany, NY
10/06/2014 Oddbody's Music Room - Dayton, OH
10/07/2014 Reggie's Rock Club - Chicago, IL
10/08/2014 Altar Bar - Pittsburgh, PA
10/10/2014 Empire - Springfield, VA
10/11/2014 Tremont Music Hall - Charlotte, NC
10/12/2014 The Orpheum - Tampa, FL
10/15/2014 Scout Bar - Houston, TX
10/16/2014 Dirty Dog - Austin, TX
10/17/2014 Rail Club - Fort Worth, TX
10/18/2014 Tricky Falls - El Paso, TX
10/19/2014 Joe's Grotto - Phoenix, AZ
10/20/2014 Backstage Bar - Las Vegas, NV
10/21/2014 The Whisky - West Hollywood, CA
10/22/2014 DNA Lounge - San Francisco, CA
10/23/2014 Tonic Lounge - Portland, OR
10/24/2014 Studio Seven - Seattle, WA
10/25/2014 Rickshaw Theatre - Vancouver, BC
10/26/2014 The Level - Kelowna, BC
10/27/2014 Starlite Room - Edmonton, AB
10/28/2014 Rock Bottom - Saskatoon, SK
10/29/2014 The Zoo - Winnipeg, MB
10/31/2014 Mine Mill Hall - Sudbury, ON
11/01/2014 The Opera House - Toronto, ON
11/02/2014 Paramount - Rouyn, QC
11/03/2014 Foufounes Electriques - Montreal, QC