With Blood Comes Cleansing – Golgotha Review


Website: With Blood Comes Cleansing

The Inside Pulse:
Increasingly in the US metal scene, the line between death metal and hardcore is becoming blurred. Bands like Shadows Fall and Lamb of God are central to this movement, and their ideas are spreading. So it’s no surprise when a band like With Blood Comes Cleansing hits the scene, interpreting this style with their own spin. Full of breakdowns and extremely brutal vocals, Golgotha focuses on the progressive elements of modern death bands while still carrying a high quantity of melody. Oh, but did I mention the big difference? They’re Christian, and the entire theme of Golgotha revolves around the crucifixion and the effects of a society of nonbelievers.

Positives: Although With Blood Comes Cleansing is one of many bands to join the deathcore scene, they’re nowhere near the bottom of the stack. “My Help” is the clear standout, while “Fearless Before Opposition” and “Persecution” are both very strong, sonically varied songs. In fact, that’s a statement that could be applied to the entire album. It’s not terribly original, but they do, they do it quite well.

Negatives: There’s almost a pattern to the songs on Golgotha; breakdowns are predictable, riffing is predictable… everything falls into its tidy little place. With lack of surprises comes tedium, but thankfully the band is skilled enough to fill this formulaic style with something worth hearing. The album is also brutally short at 25 minutes, but it’s really just about the perfect length to keep that aforementioned tedium at bay.

Cross-breed: Lamb of God, Trivium, Killswitch Engage, et al. leaning more towards the Victory Records side of the crowd.

Reason To Buy: They’re definitely one of the better bands to join this side of the metal spectrum, although buyer beware if you’re put off by a Christian message.