You should definitely change their style. They've been anything but symphonic metal since The Unforgiving, and that's when their sound lost a lot of quality to me. So far, the singles didn't get me excited for the new album, as I just liked The Purge and Don't Pray For Me. They became a very generic pop/industrial act for me since Resist.

I can smell the mediocrity all the way from here..

The monotonous music of the band does not allow Sharon to show her talent.

If someone classifies this album as pop-metal, it would not be wrong. If you take away the modern metal riffs, it would sound like synth-pop.

Crazy this band has two guitarists and both are taking a backseat.

Nja this band well maybe should focus on live and singles, some good singles in the past, but album is like falure.

Not as bad as I thought it would be. At least it works as background music while doing other stuff.

Nowhere close to their best but not as tedious as they've been in recent years. Going in with low expectations, it's enjoyable enough.

Don't buy the negative comments. This is one of their best and heaviest albums. Sharon's vocal performance is exceptional as usual. Highly recommended.

Written by NavyMetal on 22.10.2023 at 04:11

Don't buy the negative comments. This is one of their best and heaviest albums. Sharon's vocal performance is exceptional as usual. Highly recommended.

The last good album they did was The Unforgiving in 2011 and looking at your ratings you have given that one the same rating as this one. I heavily disagree that this album is equally as good. Only redeeming feature on this album is Sharon's vocals. She's fantastic as always. Other than that, this is sadly generic alternative pop metal at best.

There's nothing I find remotely interesting about this release, it's average at best imo. It has seriously generic and uninspiring songwriting. There's a decent enough vocal performance, but I'd say that's the only redeeming factor imo.

Yet another WT album rejected by many metalheads because it contains way too many "non-metal" elements and is thus unforgivable in this sin lol... anyway, I like Resist, but this one has way more balls to it, their guitar/bass guys clearly spun Meshuggah like crazy )) ... plus I like that they took a firm stand not only at women's rights (in Iran no less) and especially the ruSSian war on Ukraine, where Sabaton clearly lack any sort of balls as for me, worth the money spent ... currently listening to it on my mp3 player on the road, on CD player and PC at home

Written by Raziel X on 24.10.2023 at 00:12

their guitar/bass guys clearly spun Meshuggah like crazy )) ...

Say what now? This must the most far fetched connection drawn between two bands on this site.

As I said before, the singles didn't get me, but they fit way too well into the rest of tracklist. This is an enjoyable disc, which they couldn't achieve with Resist for me. I'll go for this one when I'm in the mood to listen to something with the likes of Evanescence, a band I think they've been trying to pursue in matter of popularity and success. I doubt they'll ever make it, but let's see whether something more enjoyable comes along the way.

Written by Nejde on 24.10.2023 at 06:24

Written by Raziel X on 24.10.2023 at 00:12

their guitar/bass guys clearly spun Meshuggah like crazy )) ...

Say what now? This must the most far fetched connection drawn between two bands on this site.

that was an ad absurdum expression to say that a lot of tracks contain djenty vibes, the bass especially (with Meshuggah being probably the most prominent/visible/popular djent band out there) which is not a bad thing, just sayin'... it's like when Manowar overused a certain bass effect on Lord of steel, maybe cos DeMaio fell in love with it, so it was in every track ... and you cannot really deny the djenty elements - even the band itself in interviews for the promotion of the album admitted that their guitar/bass guys did a lot of listening to Meshuggah and similar bands and it did leave its mark:
https://www.loudersound.com/features/to-protect-your-freedom-you-have-to-be-active-how-within-temptations-new-album-bleed-out-was-inspired-by-a-world-in-crisis
"Opener Go To War sets the tone with a colossal guitar part and an apocalyptic choir, a chorus dripping in grandeur, and a marriage of synths with the unmistakable mechanical judder of tech metal. The latter influence, Robert says, has filtered into the band’s sound not through bingeing on Meshuggah albums, but because its cold, almost cruel, mechanical nature best helped to paint a picture of a universe in crisis. “Somehow this [sound] resonates with that.”

In the quote he kinda downplays that, but it is clear they were influenced by tech metal / djent

and it isn't the only track I know I sometimes write strangely sounding stuff, but I listen to metal since like 15-16yrs old (and having over 550GB offline library of mostly metal stuff), so I guess I know a fair bit to make educated comparisons

Written by Raziel X on 24.10.2023 at 00:12

Yet another WT album rejected by many metalheads because it contains way too many "non-metal" elements and is thus unforgivable in this sin lol... anyway, I like Resist, but this one has way more balls to it, their guitar/bass guys clearly spun Meshuggah like crazy )) ... plus I like that they took a firm stand not only at women's rights (in Iran no less) and especially the ruSSian war on Ukraine, where Sabaton clearly lack any sort of balls as for me, worth the money spent ... currently listening to it on my mp3 player on the road, on CD player and PC at home

I get what you`re saying. For example, for me, the last 2 Leprous records are the best, I consider "Pitfalls" one of my favorite albums ever. And most metalheads had something to say about it being not metal. But... the difference here is the songwriting and the production. "Bleed out" is just form, without matter. There`s no content. Songs are dull. nothing inspiring.

I liked "The Unforgiving" a lot, sadly after that, they just started creating artificial songs. And it has nothing to do with being nonmetal.

Written by annodomini on 24.10.2023 at 18:56

Written by Raziel X on 24.10.2023 at 00:12

Yet another WT album rejected by many metalheads because it contains way too many "non-metal" elements and is thus unforgivable in this sin lol... anyway, I like Resist, but this one has way more balls to it, their guitar/bass guys clearly spun Meshuggah like crazy )) ... plus I like that they took a firm stand not only at women's rights (in Iran no less) and especially the ruSSian war on Ukraine, where Sabaton clearly lack any sort of balls as for me, worth the money spent ... currently listening to it on my mp3 player on the road, on CD player and PC at home

I get what you`re saying. For example, for me, the last 2 Leprous records are the best, I consider "Pitfalls" one of my favorite albums ever. And most metalheads had something to say about it being not metal. But... the difference here is the songwriting and the production. "Bleed out" is just form, without matter. There`s no content. Songs are dull. nothing inspiring.

I liked "The Unforgiving" a lot, sadly after that, they just started creating artificial songs. And it has nothing to do with being nonmetal.

well, for me it was like, I kinda liked their doomy stuff, LOVED Mother Earth, SIlent Force and Heart Of Everything... then they started experimenting with tons of stuff, which is when I abandoned them for a time (didnt really enjoy Unforgiving and it remains to till now)... then I decided to give them one more chance, which had a lot to do with me seeing them live in 2019 (they also had duet with Tarja, like, daaaamn)... so now I also enjoy Hydra till now stuff... still kinda unsure about Unforgiving, that one is kinda like a transition thing to me

I love the new album tho, also cos of the subject matters in songs O:) I should probably mention that I also love the new Edge Of Paradise and up till now also enjoyed the likes of Beyond The Black or Amaranthe and sometimes I have a penchant for liking stuff many others dont (like Gods Of War by Manowar, post-Tarja NW and such

Written by Raziel X on 24.10.2023 at 00:12

Yet another WT album rejected by many metalheads because it contains way too many "non-metal" elements and is thus unforgivable in this sin

I love metal and non metal music equally, but this is terrible no matter what camp you want to put it in. If this was my introduction to the band I would just write them off as generic female-fronted alt metal but since I know they’re capable of much better I admit it sours my opinion of the album a bit.

Written by Raziel X on 24.10.2023 at 11:44

that was an ad absurdum expression to say that a lot of tracks contain djenty vibes, the bass especially (with Meshuggah being probably the most prominent/visible/popular djent band out there) which is not a bad thing, just sayin'... it's like when Manowar overused a certain bass effect on Lord of steel, maybe cos DeMaio fell in love with it, so it was in every track ... and you cannot really deny the djenty elements - even the band itself in interviews for the promotion of the album admitted that their guitar/bass guys did a lot of listening to Meshuggah and similar bands and it did leave its mark:
https://www.loudersound.com/features/to-protect-your-freedom-you-have-to-be-active-how-within-temptations-new-album-bleed-out-was-inspired-by-a-world-in-crisis
"Opener Go To War sets the tone with a colossal guitar part and an apocalyptic choir, a chorus dripping in grandeur, and a marriage of synths with the unmistakable mechanical judder of tech metal. The latter influence, Robert says, has filtered into the band’s sound not through bingeing on Meshuggah albums, but because its cold, almost cruel, mechanical nature best helped to paint a picture of a universe in crisis. “Somehow this [sound] resonates with that.”

In the quote he kinda downplays that, but it is clear they were influenced by tech metal / djent

There is nothing in this album that are even slightly reminiscent of Meshuggah. Sure "Go To War" has some mildly djenty riffs but that's it. This is what Meshuggah inspired djent sounds like. Or Dead Soma for that matter. They can be as inspired by Meshuggah as they want, the comparison is still ridiculous to make. No one who listens to this album will think "Oh, this sounds like Meshuggah" or "I hear the Meshuggah inspiration". There's absolutely nothing techy about this album. Nothing. Boosting the bass to 11 doesn't make it djenty either. I wonder if they actually even used real instruments while recording this album. Everything sounds extremely synthetic. If you want this soundscape you should listen to Mechina instead, they're equally generic but at least they do it 10 times better. And just to quote Ricky Gervais: "Everyone has the right to believe anything they want. And everyone else has the right to find it fucking ridiculous." So if you can hear Meshuggah in this (imo) mediocre album, good for you, enjoy it to your heart's content. Cheers!

Written by Nejde on 22.10.2023 at 11:04

Written by NavyMetal on 22.10.2023 at 04:11

Don't buy the negative comments. This is one of their best and heaviest albums. Sharon's vocal performance is exceptional as usual. Highly recommended.

The last good album they did was The Unforgiving in 2011 and looking at your ratings you have given that one the same rating as this one. I heavily disagree that this album is equally as good. Only redeeming feature on this album is Sharon's vocals. She's fantastic as always. Other than that, this is sadly generic alternative pop metal at best.

I waited a while to respond to this, so I could really listen to this a few times. My initial assessment stands. Bleed Out is an outstanding album as is The Unforgiven. If you want to talk "Pop Metal," which IMO is a contradiction of terms, The Unforgiven is by far their most radio friendly entree, but by no means Pop. Each of their albums demonstrates their unique style and has a different flavor. Bleed out is SIGNIFICANTLY heavier and much less radio friendly (popish) but an outstanding addition to their catalog.

Good album, very poppy but much better than the preivious one

Written by TheCrazyGoat on 10.12.2023 at 20:01

Good album, very poppy but much better than the preivious one

That is true.

What is the point of recording a complete album with 11 versions of "The Reckoning" only with different lyrics?
Even their album of covers has more originality than this.

Written by NavyMetal on 20.11.2023 at 20:15

I waited a while to respond to this, so I could really listen to this a few times. My initial assessment stands. Bleed Out is an outstanding album as is The Unforgiven. If you want to talk "Pop Metal," which IMO is a contradiction of terms, The Unforgiven is by far their most radio friendly entree, but by no means Pop. Each of their albums demonstrates their unique style and has a different flavor. Bleed out is SIGNIFICANTLY heavier and much less radio friendly (popish) but an outstanding addition to their catalog.

I still disagree with you. And you're absolutely right, it's an outstanding addition to their catalog, but not in a good way. Everything that once made Within Temptation the biggest band in symphonic metal together with Nightwish is completely gone. But times changes and so do people. Now if you'll excuse I'll go and give The Silent Force a spin instead.

They are so generic now that even the music video for the titular song is AI generated?!

Tbh i think this is very, very boring. What happened to the band?