Band:	Bleed From Within
Album:	Zenith
Style:	Metalcore
Release date:	April 04, 2025
A review by:	omne metallum

01. Violent Nature
02. In Place Of Your Halo
03. Zenith
04. God Complex
05. A Hope In Hell
06. Dying Sun
07. Immortal Desire [feat. Brann Dailor]
08. Chained To Hate
09. Known By No Name
10. Hands Of Sin [feat. Josh Middleton]
11. Edge Of Infinity

Once you break through glass ceilings, rock bottom is littered with broken glass.

Having turned things around since the turn of the decade when they were a run-of-the mill deathcore act, Scottish metalcore mob Bleed From Within have not only caught up with their peers after a decade of treading water, but have, in many cases, surpassed them with the quality of their recent output. Continuing this upward trajectory, Zenith is yet another solid collection of metalcore that will have its hooks in you and choruses screamed along to.

Whereas Shrine was too focused on its arena anthem ambitions to the detriment of the finished product, Zenith focuses solely on putting together a collection of solid, heavy metalcore tracks first and foremost. The band are still to top Fracture, but Zenith is by no means a failure, and takes an enjoyable second place in a discography that is padding out nicely.

Blending upbeat ferocity and hard-hitting groove, Zenith offers fans of metalcore a range of variations that will catch your ear by hook or by crook. Starting on its strongest foot, the first few tracks get the blood pumping and adrenaline flowing, with the likes of "In Place Of Your Halo" and "A Hope In Hell" carving themselves on the inside of your cranium. After a wobble in the album's middle, it picks up with the aptly named "Chained To Hate" and ends the album in as similarly strong manner as it began.

Kennedy's powerful roar adds extra heft on songs like "God Complex", while its combination with the melodic parts of "A Hope In Hell" produces a soaring contrast that will give even the most beer-addled attendee at a festival or concert something to (attempt to) sing along to. While not as experimental as he is in his other projects, Richardson doesn't phone in his performance, and throws in some unorthodox parts (well, for metalcore standards anyway) on the likes of "Edge Of Infinity".

There are moments when Zenith doesn't quite achieve its objectives; "Immortal Desire" aims to be a grandiose and vibrant mini-epic but falls short in the execution, instead giving off the sense that Bleed From Within are trying and failing to follow an instruction booklet in how to bring all the components together. Similar can be said of "Dying Sun", which builds tension like a coiled spring and leads you to believe it will snap to life at one point, but instead merely limps to an unsatisfying conclusion. Placing them both one after the other in the middle of the album results in a lull at the halfway point.

Having steered themselves away from obscurity, Bleed From Within are navigating their way to a level of success that would have been hard to imagine a few years ago. Thanks to releases like Zenith, the band have built a solid reputation for themselves, and look likely to start breaking through ceilings that were once far out of their reach.