No Time To Bleed

Listen without prejudice. That was my first thought when going into Suicide Silence's second release, No Time To Bleed. The deathcore genre, even ignoring any prejudices you may have concerning fashions and fanbases, has a lot to dislike. There's often an over-reliance on breakdowns in an attempt to be a brutal as possible, the music lurching awkwardly between breaks and triggered blasting. But it's fair to say that, in small doses at the very least, it can kick up a fair bit of dust when provoked. But could Suicide Silence keep the familiar formula fresh and interesting for a whole album? The real sticking point with deathcore is that far too much of it is meaningless brutality with little purpose, that rapidly begins to leave a bad taste in the mouth. And the album's opening cut, Wake Up does little to dissuade fears that this is going to be anything more than a generic slice of brutality. The track's essentially one long breakdown, or rather several separate breakdowns at various speeds pasted together and called a song, held together by another breakdown masquerading as a chorus. Rather predictably, it's been picked as the lead-off single for No Time To Bleed, making it the only track most people will hear, and will probably dismiss it out of hand. Luckily, the album isn't entirely brainless tripe for the apes to mosh to. There's just about enough galloping thrashy riffing (not pure thrash riffing, lest the purists get all narky) and twisted melody to raise No Time To Bleed above the masses. Hell, there's even an atmospheric instrumental on here, and gosh, it's only got one breakdown! I feel I must call the band to task, however, for their somewhat tasteless usage of a sample of a woman being attacked by a chimp on aforementioned instrumental And Then She Bled, especially when it's being used so that gorehound jocks can smash beer cans over their heads while bellowing how hardcore it all is. The attempts to break away from the deathcore mould aren't stunning, but it's nice to see Suicide Silence putting in a little effort. The band do still love their breakdowns, but there are enough variations on the theme that it doesn't look entirely like a musical crutch. I mean, it is a musical crutch, but not such an obvious one as when some bands (*coughBringMeTheHorizoncough*) use it. Breakdowns in seemingly every permutation of the form turn up, and if you have a lot of free time on your hands I suggest you count them. If you really, really like the familiar rhythmic chug you're likely to be in heaven here, by the album's end it begins to get a little aggravating. In all fairness, the album's 37 minutes fly by, so I suppose even if No Time To Bleed doesn't particularly engage me, at least it isn't a crushing bore. I suppose your opinion on No Time To Bleed will really depend on your opinion of deathcore. Fans of the genre will eat this up, while at the same time it provides haters with yet more ammunition. I personally felt that although the album was entertaining in small doses, it all turned into an indistinguishable blur about five songs in. Give it a go, I guess, and if you're a fan of the band this'll no doubt be a must-purchase.