01. Violent Nature02. In Place of your Halo03. Zenith04. God Complex05. A Hope in Hell06. Dying Sun07. Immortal Desire (feat. Brann Dailor)08. Chained to Hate09. Known by no Name10. Hands of Sin (feat. Josh Middleton)11. Edge of Infinity12. PsychosisterOne of the hardest-working bands in modern metal, BLEED FROM WITHIN, have earned every ounce of their ongoing success. Despite being royally shafted by unscrupulous bad actors during their early years, the Scottish quintet have stuck to the task of giving metalcore a much-needed injection of power and originality, with a string of acclaimed albums pushing them ever further into the metal hivemind’s consciousness.The follow-up to 2022’s excellent evolutionary leap “Shrine”, “Zenith” exudes quality and authority from the start. Never a typical metalcore band, or even a particularly convincing one, BLEED FROM WITHIN have slowly morphed into an all-encompassing conduit for the heaviest and best elements of mainstream metal, and this, their seventh full-length, continues that recent tradition with an absurd amount of confidence and flair. Full of brawling riffs and towering grooves, these songs are also home to innumerable flashes of progressive and experimental bravery, as Glasgow’s finest flex previously underused muscles and revel in the opportunity to expand their sonic remit. Blessed with a monstrous production job courtesy of the band themselves, “Zenith” is aptly named for a record that propels BLEED FROM WITHIN to new heights.[embedded content]There are countless moments on “Zenith” that add color and depth to the sound that BLEED FROM WITHIN have established over the years, but the real story here is that they are heavier than ever. “Violent Nature” may not be too far removed from previous album openers, but its dark undercurrents and profoundly muscular execution best sum up the Scots’ musical state of mind in 2025. Vocalist Scott Kennedy’s barbarous growls have never sounded so intense or incisive, and his comrades have whipped up a pristine storm of riffs and grooves that aligns perfectly with their singer’s hostile delivery. “Zenith” is an album of vast, soaring melodies, too, and clean vocalist (and guitarist) Steven Jones repeatedly pulls off the neat trick of serving up sharp, melodic money shots without ever conforming to the dullard’s vocabulary that makes a lot of metalcore vocals sound like a narrow, weak-willed compromise. Between them, Kennedy and Jones sell these songs with fiercely focused intent, providing the soulful glue that sticks everything else together. On the overtly melodic and catchy likes of “Edge Of Infinity” and recent single “A Hope in Hell”, BLEED FROM WITHIN sound like a band that have become used to playing to huge crowds, and now know the best way to make them go berserk. Even these songs’ shiniest hooks have a dark edge to them, and an underlying bedrock of evolved and murderous riffing ensures that all the usual metalcore cliches are deftly avoided. Songs like “In Place of your Halo” and the title track toy with post-djent complexity, but in a resolute, metal-as-hell context. “In Place of your Halo” also wins the prize for most stylish and atmospheric use of bagpipes in metal since KORN’s debut album. “God Complex” stomps and strafes with palpable hostility, echoes of SLIPKNOT and DEVILDRIVER adding to the bone-snapping heaviness of it all, and a Kennedy vocal that is death metal to the bone but as nimble as a psychotic mountain goat. Grandiloquent centerpiece “Dying Sun” edges into progressive/post-metal territory, with a slow-burning intro that glowers with malevolence, and gritty, grinding verses that lead skillfully up to one of this album’s strongest melodic payoffs. Equally unprecedented, “Immortal Desire” weaves operatic choral vocals into the riff-driven maelstrom, and a giant, downbeat refrain augmented by MASTODON’s Brann Dailor; while “Hands of Sin” and “Chained to Hate” are as unashamedly brutal as anything in BLEED FROM WITHIN’s history, greatly aided by the extraordinary skills of drummer Ali Richardson, frenzied blastbeats and insane, octopus-like fills included.The most exciting thing about “Zenith” is that it clearly represents the ongoing development of this band’s already confirmed abilities. It is BLEED FROM WITHIN’s smartest, heaviest and most distinctive album by far, and an absolute vindication of all that hard work and dogged determination. Onwards and upwards, then.[embedded content]