Bleeding Through

Bleeding Through

Background information
Origin Orange County, California, USA
Genre(s) Metalcore
Years active 1999–present
Label(s) Trustkill Records
Roadrunner Records
Prime Directive Records
Indecision Records
Associated acts Throwdown
Cold War
Enewetak
The Mistake
Eighteen Visions
Taken
I Killed The Prom Queen
Website www.bleedingthrough.com
Members
Brandan Schieppati
Brian Leppke
Jona Weinhofen
Ryan Wombacher
Derek Youngsma
Marta Peterson
Former members
Chad Tafolla
Marc Jackson
Vijay Kumar
Troy Born
Molly Street
Scott Danough
Mick Morris

Bleeding Through is an American metalcore band from Orange County, California, formed in 1999. Their current line-up consists of Brandan Schieppati (vocals), Brian Leppke (guitar), Jona Weinhofen (guitar), Ryan Wombacher (bass), Derek Youngsma (drums) and Marta Peterson (keyboards). They were a fairly underground group when they signed with Trustkill Records in 2003, and have released two albums, their breakthrough, This Is Love, This Is Murderous and The Truth.

The band received considerable media attention outside of the heavy metal community for their involvement in a van accident in December 2003, filmed by a TV crew, which happened to be there to report on another crash.

In 2003, Spin called Bleeding Through an "artist to watch".[1] In 2004, Revolver magazine hailed Bleeding Through as one of eight bands ushering in the "Future of Metal" cover story.[2] Their latest album, The Truth was named "one of the four most important hard rock albums of 2006" by Billboard magazine.[3]

Contents

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[edit] Biography

[edit] Dust to Ashes and Portrait of the Goddess: The underground years (1999 – 2002)

Bleeding Through, a straight edge metalcore band, formed during the summer of 1999[4][5][6][7] in Orange County, CA. The band's roots can be traced back to 1998, when Breakneck was founded by Brandan 'Sheep' Schieppati (Eighteen Visions / Throwdown), Javier Van Huss (Eighteen Visions / The Mistake / Enewetak), guitarist Scott Danough, bass guitarist Chad Tafolla and drummer Troy Born (Taken).[8][9] They made their live debut as the supporting act to Throwdown and Adamantium.[8] As the band witnessed lineup changes, the departure of Van Huss and subsequent recruitment of Marc Jackson (Throwdown / Cold War) to cover bass whilst Tafolla reverted to guitar, they decided to expand their current hardcore sound and added elements of death metal to their music.[8] With that shift the new band name of Bleeding Through was adopted (after playing only one show as Breakneck[4]).[9] The origin of the band's name was explained in an interview as follows: "Well, it is summed up by the explanation that whether black, white, red, brown, yellow, religious preference, straight or gay, we all bleed the same, and we bleed through this life the same. Thus Bleeding Through."[10]

Their 2000 Demo was followed by a full length album through Prime Directive Records entitled Dust to Ashes in April 2001. Just prior to entering the studio, Vijay Kumar (of Roundhouse and Cat Burglar) took the bass position and Molly Street enrolled as keyboard player.[9] The addition of keyboards was an unconventional move for a metalcore act as it brought some black metal influences into the music.[11][12] Just as the album saw issue Born quit the band but a quickfire substitute was located in Derek Youngsma of Cast in Stone repute.[9]

Severing ties with both Eighteen Visions and Throwdown, Schieppati opted to pursue Bleeding Through as a priority upon completion of the Indecision Records 2002 offering Portrait of the Goddess.[9] At this juncture the group comprised the guitar pairing of Scott Danough and Brian Leppke, bassist Ryan Wombacher (replacing Vijay Kumar who played on Portrait of the Goddess[13]) and drummer Derek Youngsma.[9] This record was far superior in engineering and production than Dust to Ashes, and Brandan's vocals were more diverse as opposed to the earlier death metal screaming.[14]

[edit] This is Love, This is Murderous and The Truth (2003 – 2007)

After these two relatively underdistributed albums,[15] Bleeding Through signed to a larger label, Trustkill Records in 2003,[16] releasing their third full length album in September of the same year. Promoting the Ulrich Wild produced This is Love, This is Murderous they embarked upon US nationwide touring, opening for AFI.[17] These dates had propelled the band to national attention albeit for all the wrong reasons.[18] Traveling from Utah to a show in Colorado the group's vehicle hit black ice on the highway, spinning out of control and slamming into a truck that was already flipped over.[19] A mobile TV unit, there to report on another crash, caught the entire incident on film as their equipment trailer rolled and exploded, showering their instruments and gear across the road.[19] Fortunately the band escaped with only minor injuries (Johnson had a minor cut on his head), but due to this accident they had to drop off the "Pure Hatred" tour with Chimaira, Soilwork and As I Lay Dying.[19] The KSL-TV footage of the accident taking place can be viewed in Real Media format on the channel's official site.[20] The dramatic televised footage was broadcast everywhere from CNN Headline News, Good Morning America, NBC News and even The Weather Channel.[18]

This Is Love, This Is Murderous received generally favorable reviews from the mainstream media; Allmusic reviewer, Ed Rivadavia wrote that "Bleeding Through's blindingly technical execution provides a constant source of entertainment",[21] and Aaron Troy from DecoyMusic.com called it "the best metalcore release of 2003".[22] The metal community praised it as well, even to a greater extent, with Deadtide.com calling it "a very mature offering from still a young band that will only get better and bigger in the future",[23] Metalrage giving it an 85 score out of 100,[24] and The Metal Observer giving it the highest, 10/10 rating.[25] The videos for "Love Lost in a Hail of Gun Fire" and "On Wings of Lead" became staples on MTV2's Headbangers Ball and on Fuse TV's Uranium as well.[26] It is also Bleeding Through's most successful album to date with more than 125,000 copies sold.[27]

The following year kicked off with the band's "Mutilation Tour",[5] which culminated in a sold-out performance at The Glasshouse, near their Orange County home that was captured on a live DVD,[2] the next major step in Bleeding Through's career was a spot on Ozzfest 2004, sharing the second stage alongside headline act Slipknot and fellow supports Unearth, Lamb of God, Every Time I Die, Hatebreed, Lacuna Coil and Atreyu.[28] They earned the direct support position on MTV2's third "Headbanger's Ball: The Tour" in November, featuring Cradle of Filth, Arch Enemy and Himsa as touring partners.[29] In an unexpected move, Bleeding Through also donated their rendition of "Rocket Queen" to the Guns N' Roses tribute album Bring You to Your Knees released by Law of Inertia Records in March 2004.

Bleeding Through performing live at New England Metal and Hardcore Festival, 2005
Bleeding Through performing live at New England Metal and Hardcore Festival, 2005

A 2005 re-issue of This Is Love, This Is Murderous added three bonus live tracks, "Revenge I Seek", "Rise" and "Our Enemies", two music videos and a ten minute documentary.[30] Following this, the band embarked upon European touring in February 2005, supported by Swedes Cult of Luna.[31] In April the group, working with Rob Caggiano as producer, ensconced themselves in Cherokee Studios, Los Angeles to cut a new album billed The Truth.[26]

As This Is Love, This Is Murderous passed the 100,000 sales figure in the USA,[32] further touring found the band headlining the second annual "Strhess Fest" in alliance with Darkest Hour, Zao, Misery Signals, and Fight Paris commencing early July.[33] Upon completion of these gigs the group hooked up with the "Warped Tour" tour for a two week stretch.[34] November saw shows with Day of Contempt,[35] before the group entered the recording studio to lay down cover versions of Black Flag's "My War", for use on a tribute album, and Unbroken's "Proverb".[36]

Bleeding Through's latest album The Truth was released on January 10, 2006 through Trustkill Records. It was produced by Rob Caggiano, lead guitarist of Anthrax. They decided to rebuild their sound from the ground up, quoting to Alternative Press as "Taking out the Metalcore, and then adding the metal into hardcore, if that makes any sense." (--Scott Danough, guitarist). "I don't think this album sounds like anything else out there right now. We're very proud of that fact." says guitarist Brian Leppke.[5]

The Truth was met with lukewarm reviews, Vik Bansal of musicOMH.com described it as an album that shows "whilst they're not quite there yet, Bleeding Through do have the ability to become bleeding edge",[37] Allmusic's Eduardo Rivadavia's opinion was that the band "played it safe" this time and emphasized their "infuriatingly one-dimensional reliance on victimized, self-pitying lyrics of a middle school maturity level".[38] Although some critics praised the improvement of production, recording, and mixing quality by Rob Caggiano, and the melodic approach to song writing.[39] The album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 48,[40] and No. 1 on the Top Independent Albums. However, it was the lowest charting effort from the band.

Promoting The Truth, the band opened 2006 with US dates throughout February and March backed by Every Time I Die, Between the Buried and Me and Haste the Day.[41] The band also put in a significant appearance on the second stage at the Tool, Guns N' Roses and Metallica headlined Download Festival in Castle Donington, UK on June 9.[42] On July 18, Bleeding Through appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Stand-up comedian Mitch Fatel joined the band for a song, Brandan Schieppati called this "surreal in the best possible way".[43]

The group once again played on the second stage at the 2006 Ozzfest, now as part of the non-rotating lineup along with Black Label Society, Unearth, Atreyu and Norma Jean.[44] In addition to their own headline dates, they also filled Ozzfest "off dates" with shows supporting Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold and Hatebreed.[45] The band members were on a day off from the festival passing through Medford, Oregon, when they pulled into a Taco Bell parking lot to eat. This resulted in a fan recognizing them and then calling over a bunch of his friends. The band talked with the fans, signed autographs, posed for pictures and also asked the kids if there were any shows happening that night they could participate in. They ended up doing a small club concert with local bands, roughly 150 people in attendance. The show was a benefit with all proceeds going toward cancer research.[45]

In April 2007 Danough left the band. "We felt that we had grown apart and it was time for both parties to move on", the band wrote in a statement.[46] After his departure he wrote on his MySpace blog: "..Just know that when this all comes out don't think you've seen the last of Scott. I'm on to the next chapter very soon and I'm excited to see what the future brings."[47] After Danough's departure he was quickly replaced by Jona Weinhofen of Australian band I Killed The Prom Queen - leading to the band's split up days later and the cancellation of American tour dates.[48]

Bleeding Through headlined the Darkness Over Europe 2007 Tour with I Killed The Prom Queen, All Shall Perish, and Caliban from February to March.[49] The band then toured on one of the two opening slots for the Slayer and Marilyn Manson summer tour.[50] Following that, the group embarked on a six-week stint across the U.S. and parts of Canada opening for HIM, with the arduous year of touring finally reaching an end with shows in New York City, on December 1 and December 2, 2007,[51] while HIM was simply done touring North America and set to move on to Europe.

[edit] Declaration (2008 – present)

According to frontman Brandan Schieppati, the band is in the process of writing a new album and have a total of nine songs. However, the writing process will be delayed due to a Slayer and Marilyn Manson Summer tour and more forecoming tour dates.[52]

In May 2007 the band released the song "We Want the Truth" on Our Impact Will Be Felt - A Tribute To Sick Of It All compilation album. The follow-up to The Truth is expected to be released in the summer of 2008.[52]

In Revolver Magazine it was stated that Bleeding Through would be going into the studio in 2008 to record the follow-up to 2006's The Truth, entitled, Declaration with musician/producer Devin Townsend. The new record will be a concept album about being on the road and all of the songs will be named after a different city or state.[53]

In June 2008, the band released a blog on MTV's Headbanger's Ball website. The blog addressed numerous disappointments the band had with current label Trustkill. These disappointments included unpaid royalties, lack of funding for Declaration, and an unapproved re-release of their 2006 album The Truth. Despite Trustkill's website saying that the new album, Declaration would be released August, 2008, the band stated that they do not intend to hand over the master recording of the album, until they are paid the minimum fees required to pay back producer Devin Townsend and Brandan's father who loaned the band money for recording. The blog concluded with the band asking to be dropped from Trustkill completely. [54]

Declaration now has a Sept. 30, 2008 street date via Trustkill Records. The band inked a deal with Nuclear Blast for the distribution of Declaration in Europe. It will be released in Europe on Sept. 26, 2008.

[edit] Musical style and influences

Like many metalcore bands, Bleeding Through shows a trace of the Swedish melodic death metal influence.[55][56] It is the most apparent on Dust to Ashes, while with time the band's music got gradually more and more melodic, with the latest album being the most melodic to date, even containing a power ballad, a novelty for the band.[57] A keyboard player was introduced shortly before the band began performing as an unsigned act. According to former guitarist Scott Danough "it adds a different element" to their music.[58] Although the band plays metalcore, when Brandan Schieppati was asked if he considers Bleeding Through a hardcore band, he said: "I think we're a hardcore band and I'll never say we are a metal band, we're all hardcore kids and we came from the hardcore scene. Ours is just a different version of hardcore, we're trying to do something which adds a different variety to the hardcore scene, which has been sounding the same way for so long."[59]

Former Guitarist Scott Danough has said that he is influenced by metal and hardcore, bands like At The Gates, Slayer, Cradle of Filth, Integrity and Earth Crisis.[58] Vocalist Brandan Schieppati has also mentioned American thrash metal bands as an influence on Bleeding Through, e.g. Testament or Exodus.[60] In an interview, guitarist Brian Leppke added Cro-Mags, Entombed, Crowbar and Pantera as well to the list of influences.[61] Lastly, keyboardist Marta is the one who brings industrial and goth inspirations to the band's sound.[62]

[edit] Band members

[edit] Current members

[edit] Former members

[edit] Guest members

[edit] Discography

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