DeathOfSeasons I first heard about As Blood Runs Black when I attended a Bleeding Through gig. As Blood Runs Black were one of the opening bands. Anyway, I wasn't expecting too much from them when they first came onto the stage. However, by the time they had finished their first song I felt the need to worship them as Melodic Death Metal Gods. After they finished playing I immediately purchased their album. Too bad it wasn't anywhere near as good as these guys are live.

Anyway, As Blood Runs Black are a Deathcore band, but they sort of standout because of an increased Melodic Death Metal influence in their sound. They do manage to be better than the average Deathcore band, but these guys have tonnes of problems on this album that they really need to workout.

"Allegiance" starts off with a decent intro simply titled "Intro". Once "Intro" is done, the album begins proper. "In Dying Days" comes blasting out of the speakers (thanks to the unbearably loud production) with a fairly good riff that wouldn’t sound out of place in an In Flames song. Follow up “My Fears Have Become Phobias” features some great drumming and a very well executed breakdown, plus a nice solo. “Hester Prynne” features great fast paced riffs and leads, and is by far the heaviest track on the album And once that song is over we hit the “transition” track.

So welcome to the biggest problem with this album. After track five, “Pouring Reign”, which is a beautiful, if overlong, instrumental, As Blood Runs Black completely run out of any ideas. And I am not exaggerating. The final five tracks are absolute torture to get through. It’s not that they do anything all that bad, but they don’t do anything good either which just makes it all the harder to sit through. “The Brighter Side Of Suffering” starts off decent enough, but it just repeats itself non-stop throughout it’s five minute play time. “The Beautiful Mistake” sounds like they took the worst parts of “In Dying Days” and “Hester Prynne” and threw them together.

But the worst part of the second half (and the whole album) is without a doubt “Strife (Chug Chug)”. It starts off like almost every other track here, but it finishes with a chugging breakdown which lasts for over ninety seconds. It’s made even worse by the fact that it is the second breakdown to be used in the track. Around half of the track is just one breakdown. It sounds like an extreme parody of Deathcore bands everywhere.

And to make it worse, there are more problems here. First, the vocals. They’re just not good. Every now and then Chris Blair does the odd growl which is actually quite good, but the majority of the time he sounds like a fifth-rate Tomas Lindberg. Blair even goes as far as to throw in the odd pig squeal every now and then (such as in “In Dying Days”), which too are poorly done.

A lot of the things found in this album just aren’t needed. The gang vocals seem forced and out of place. The breakdowns are far too overlong, even for a Deathcore band. The production is unnecessarily loud. There’s loud, and then there’s this. It’s seriously the loudest album I have ever heard.

But despite all the problems I have with this release, it’s actually quite decent. Sure, it’s repetitive and it runs out of ideas, but the riffs and leads are generally quite good, and some of the breakdowns are perfectly executed. So if you’re a Deathcore fan, give this a listen. Everyone else should probably approach this with caution.

Download: In Dying Days

For fans of: Salt the Wound, The Black Dahlia Murder

(Originally written for Rate Your Music)