I don’t think it would be too wrong to state The Bled have clearly grown up since their Fiddler Records debut. Tell the truth I really enjoyed ‘Pass the Flask’. Granted it came at a time when the genre wasn’t as saturated as it is now, but the songs were played with a passion and intensity that many of The Bled‘s peers failed to match. It was the spark, that ignition, which really drew me to the band. And while the follow-up, the band’s first record for Vagrant, was still god, over time I found it lacked the same punch and bite that made the first record so powerful.
‘Silent Treatment’ is a rarity in the fact it completely shuns the commercial side which many ‘big’ name bands go for. As Underoath have done on their last record, the band have pulled away from the big shiny hooks and a polished sound and instead have become interesting and intriguing. They’re grown up a lot. ‘Platonic Sleepover Massacre’ still shows the band can rock the fuck out with the best of them, but this record as a whole is more of a brooding affair. It’s certainly not as in your face and energetic, at times it’s arguably the heaviest the band have ever been, but for the most part it drifts along and the dynamics between the heavy and softer parts are what makes this record so good. It’s a thinking man’s album.
‘Asleep on the Frontlines’ twists and turns, ‘Threes Away’ mixes the brutal with the beautiful. And while words such as ‘maturity’ and ‘growing up’ get thrown around with gleeful abandon any time a band reaches record number two or three, you sense The Bled‘s songwriting skills have been honed to the point this is now the band they were probably always meant to be. It’s not as raw as the first record, but it’s good all the same.