Hailing from Orange County, California, Bleed the Sky is yet another Metalcore band plagued with the growing disillusion that makes people think that they are Metal because they have somewhat deeper melodies and the occasional solo in their music, “unlike a true hardcore band”. Excuse my blunt introduction, but Bleed the Sky fits perfectly in the niche where bands such as Killswitch Engage, Heaven Shall Burn and Chimara lie - and THEY ARE NOT METAL no matter how much they whine or profess they are. While I don’t hate this genre of music (in fact I enjoy a lot of it, including the occasional breakdowns and plodding riffs from time to time) I have to admit that I despise the fact that these bands try to be something they’re not. What incited me to include a straight-forward opinion in this review is mostly a statement on the band’s official website in the bio area: “with musical inspiration ranging from the standard metal classics to old-school hip-hop, Bleed the Sky are six guys with one common goal: to create a new respect for metal through musicianship, lyrical depth, melody, and unabated brutality”. … Yeah…right… good luck guys… I bet that’s the phrase that helped you land a deal with Nuclear Blast. What it should have been written in their bio section is something like this: “With musical inspiration stemming from generic radio metal classics to old-school hip-hop(??), Bleed the Sky are six guys with one common goal: to market their music under the name of metal with the help of simple musicianship, lyrical shallowness, repetitious melodies, and unabated trendiness”… On with the music.

The overall sound of this album could be described as your typical Metalcore album complete with brutal screams, breakdowns, and lame, emo-esque, clearsung interludes. I know that the clear-sung moments in Metalcore albums are one of the pivotal elements responsible for their success, but for the most part… THEY DON’T SOUND GOOD! In the case of Bleed the Sky the clear-sung vocals sound whiny, out of place, and take away from the overall ferociousness and brutal sound the band is going for. The tune that kicks off the album titled Minion is a huge foreshadow for the rest of the album since the rest of the tunes are structurally similar – ferocious screams, pedal bursts, hard and heavy riffs, whiny vocal interludes and, of course, breakdowns. Perhaps the only tune that deviates slightly from the standard Metalcore attributes I mentioned is the title-track Paradigm in Entropy. This track is actually fairly kick-ass since the brutality and destructive riffs pound your ears relentlessly from start to finish without the addition of girly vocal interludes or anything else that would tarnish the furious sound. Unfortunately, tracks such as Skin Un Skin, The Martyr and Borrelia Mass don’t make the cut as they are simply tiresome tunes to listen to – they follow the same structural pattern and that generic metalcore sound which becomes quite tiresome after a while.

There truly isn’t much more to say about this release - Decent production, decent musicianship, and a few appropriate moments to bang that head of yours. Aside for these small positive aspects, Paradigm in Entropy is a sub-par Metalcore album that fits in with its genre like a piece of a puzzle.