Let's face it, screamo/hardcore hybrids are a dime a dozen these days and with an exponentially increasing number of bands, it's no easy task to break out and be recognized. This alone puts the new hopefuls in a tough spot, but when you factor in the lack of innovation that has plagued the genre in recent years; It's almost as though a lid has been placed over a pot of boiling water, with a thousand angry bubbles all basically doing the same thing and getting nowhere. The Bled are sadly one of those bubbles. A talented group of angry young men using clever wit, grating riffs and the occasional melody to express themselves, yet never really establishing an identity or doing anything that hasn't been done before.

There's no questioning the The Bled's ability to play their instruments or write solid songs, because the music on this disc is entirely competent and the group have the routine down pat. In fact, they can even bring to mind the slight musical schizophrenia of earlier Cave In and the tongue in cheek ferocity of Every Time I Die without so much as a flinch. But this alone isn't enough to really make them jump out and stand on their own. The songs are just too standard-fare and follow the basic guidelines of the current screamo deluge too closely, with disjointed crunchy guitars leading into chugging breakdowns and speeding back up into contrasting metallic choruses and verses. Sure aggression is favored over melancholy and there is some creative juxtaposition of tempos and part changes, but it's essentially not anything that hasn't been heard prior.

Sure there are occasions when the band does go it on their own, such as the interestingly downbeat excursion on "Porcelain Hearts And Hammers For Teeth", or the varied emotional approach on "Sound Of Sulfur"; But in the end they are a rare commodity and all too often get drowned out in an album that falls victim to sounding pretty much like everything else. The boys chops are great, their intensity is well-placed and the songs will surely incite a mosh whenever placed in front of a live audience, but with so many others following similar blueprints, it's hard to really give this disc repeated listens.