Sometimes fruit is picked from the vine before it's ripe and sometimes it just never reaches its maturity. Unfortunately for Nuclear Blast, Bleed The Sky could easily pass as either case. A bitter-sweet release, "Paradigm In Entropy" sees the band honing their modern metalcore (by way of thrash, grind and death metal influences) sound to the sharpness of a Hattori Hanzo forged katana. The only problem is, with the band sounding inherently similar to Chimaira, it has all the earmarks of an imitation.

From the dense riffing to the growled vocals and excessive double-kick drumming right down to the subtle use of sampling, the band have a sound that draws striking comparisons to that of Chimaira. The only real noticeable difference is that rather than drawing melodic inspiration from Alice In Chains, Bleed The Sky instead sound more influenced by the likes of Mudvayne - with heavy tonal similarities to Mudvayne's Chad Gray being shown.

That aside, this album is still enjoyable on a modern metalcore level. It has the polished dynamics, the bruising energy and staccato crunch necessary to fuel a mosh of any size. Plus the Mudvayne-esque moments of drawn out experimentation do give it some intrigue. But whether it be the production of Ben Schigel (who has also produced Chimaira), the lack of time to find their own unique sound or whatever else, the paradigm adhered to here is one of impersonation more than anything else - a shortcoming they will assuredly bleed from for some time to come.