Sounding a lot like Cryptopsy’s deeper brother, Death Metal’s self-proclaimed inventors of Slam, Internal Bleeding are back with their sixth album Corrupting Influence. Having been around since the early 90s has certainly strengthened their weight in Meaty and Brutal songs. The groovier elements of their music add moments of Aborted and Benighted for good measure making for a formidable Death Metal music ethos. Thick bassy riffs and fast onslaughts of music dominate the album with layers of deep grunts and the occasional snarls. One could be forgiven for being overcome. There is a lot more than meets the eye and under these thick doses of brutality is an unashamed fun, revelling in the steady beat grooves that Death Metal can offer. The title track breaks through the mould first of all, bringing some steady stop start riffs to smash heads open to. Whilst the gallop of ‘Fatal Dependency’ offers the flip side to dynamic riffs hiding beneath the core Death Metal sounds. The album certainly has its problems in the similarity as well as the pinpointed audience. It can run very similar and samey throughout the album but there is a powerful hate filled music there to be found beneath it all. Fighting to disprove this constant sound we have ‘Unreality’ and ‘Litany of Insincerity’, which give atmosphere and more variation in the deep snarls and an overall slower but sometimes more brutal chug; whilst ‘Litany of Insincerity’ also offers one of the best gallops of the album. All the time the drums manage to dart around the songs binding and complimenting yet being thoroughly unpredictable in a way that only Cryptopsy have mastered. Internal Bleeding’s power is in a balls to the wall traditional Death Metal destructive power, that seemingly can only, with very few exceptions, be mastered by your older and bloodier Death Metallers. It’s a deep and technical, energetic and specific style that they have and Corrupting Influence is Internal Bleeding’s statement that there will be more, and raw, carnage. 8/10 Facebook: /InternalBleeding/ Twitter: @InternalBLDNG Bandcamp: internalbleeding.bandcamp.com/