BLEEDING

This is an amazing album, unfortunately the last that this awesome band made before they split up. It's somewhat different from their other albums, a little more relaxed and not as complex as A Social Grace or Into The Everflow. But I like it very much, and I gave it 3 stars because the other Psychotic Waltz albums are a bit better, and some tracks on Bleeding are not very progressive, but just plain metal. Still, they're very good. All in all, the album will not disappoint Psychotic Waltz fans, but is not essential for the general prog fan. Fans of Sabbath-inspired Metal can add one star to my rating.

From all the Psychotic Waltz albums, this is the one that's most similar to the music of Dead Soul Tribe, the band that the Psychotic Waltz singer founded after they split up (Devon Graves/Buddy Lackey). Having said that, it's clear that it's also not as complex as masterpieces like A Social Grace and Into The Everflow.

Faded: The track starts with a Primus inspired bass line and quickly turns into an epic Sabbath-like track.

Locust: Wonderful epic track with majestic chord progressions.

Morbid: Great guitar riff driven track - powerful 8th rhythm as opposed to the 16ths feel of the first track. This also features a traditional guitar solo.

Bleeding: Great Sabbath-inspired multivoice guitar lines here, and wonderful dynamics. The song alternates between a laid back verse with sparse instrumentation, and the epic chorus.

Need: This track is as majestic as the others, with the chord progressions not being as dark and sometimes even in major chords.

Drift: This features very interesting bass/drum work, and interesting structure.

Northern Lights: This is mainly a good straight metal song.

My Grave: This song starts with flutes and acoustic guitar - in fact, this is the track which reminds me of Dead Soul Tribe the most. Not very progressive, but a nice unusual metal ballad in 3/4 - or rather 6/8.

Skeleton: Nice heavy track with distorted vocals - another decent metal track.

Freedom?: This song begins with some quite interesting arpeggios on an acoustic guitar, and soon the distorted guitar kicks in with some organ and harpsichord-like sounds (nearly burried in the mix). This is another epic track, like the tracks from the beginning.