BLACK BLEEDING: The awakening Tape.
REVIEWS

Niezastapiony Gab z Nihilistic Holocaust Assaults chyba nie zasnie, jak nie wypusci w swiat kolejnego obskurnego demosa. Tym razem padlo na BLACK BLEEDING i oto mamy przedni old skullowy wyrzyg w postaci kasety ,,The Awekening"! Potezne brzmienie, jak na klasyczny undergrounrd przystalo, omotalo cala te produkcje. Mamy zatem klimat starego IMMOLATION i motoryke DEATH. Takie zestawienie moze dac co nieco do myslenia, niemniej ta produkcja zwyczajnie niszczy! A sama muzyka? Miodzio! Równo jest i szybko, feeling jak w BENEDICTION, gitary jak w BOLT THROWER... Tylu arcy-porównan chyba w zyciu nie uzylem dla zobrazowania muzyki, ale tym razem nic innego porostu nie przychodzi mi do glowy. Calej tej precyzyjnej i bezlitosnej machinie do zabijania pomaga piekielny wokal, który, a to growluje, a to skrzeczy zupelnie na poziomie. Piec numerów mija jak z pejcza strzelil i tylko niedosyt pozostaje po tak malej, 10-cio minutowej porcji jakze zacnej mlócki! Ot i cala sztuka.

BESTIAL EXPERIENCE Webzine (Fra)

BLACK BLEEDING, ce nom ne vous dit peut-être rien mais préparez-vous à en entendre parler car ce nouveau venu dans la scène underground a tout pour devenir incontournable. En cinq morceaux, BLACK BLEEDING grâce à l’alternance entre death et black brutal, un peu à la manière de BEHEMOTH joue intelligemment, j’entends par-là qu’il n’est pas du genre à bourriner pendant cinq morceaux (ça reste néanmoins brutal). La tape commence par "the sleeper has awakened" très brutal avec des riffs black de tueurs. Un des meilleurs de cette démo. Comme je le disais plus haut, pas de blasts à tout va. Le second titre en est l’exemple parfais. Une intro mid-tempo et ensuite on alterne les rythmes plus ou moins rapides, toujours dans un souci de diversité. En passant, je tire mon chapeau au batteur qui a un niveau excellent (tout comme ses collègues). BLACK BLEEDING n’hésite pas à mettre en avant un côté plus mélodique, "Proxima centauri", un bon point. Si au niveau des riffs c’est black/death, pour le chant c’est registre totalement death, hormis quelques cris plus black par-ci par-là. Bref cinq titres pour autant de plaisir à les écouter. Continuez comme ça les gars, c’est du tout bon…

BLEED THE FREAKS Webzine (Usa)

BLOOD CHAMBER Webzine (Ger)

Dass es in Belgien Musik gibt, die sich auf der Grenze von Death-Metal zum Grindcore bewegt, dürfte nicht erst seit Aborted bekannt sein. Die Band, die es jetzt versucht in deren Fahrwasser zu segeln, nennt sich Black Bleeding und hat seit ihrer Gründung 1999 schon vier Veröffentlichungen vorgelegt. Bislang ist also der Erfolg außerhalb Belgiens ausgeblieben und deshalb soll nun mit ''The Awakening'' der Ausfall gemacht werden.

Würde ich mich vom Eindruck des Covers leiten lassen, so würde die erste Assoziation in Richtung Doom Metal gehen. Das dieses allerdings nicht in Erwägung gezogen werden kann, wird von Beginn an deutlich. Die Belgier können unmöglich etwas von der Existenz des Dooms gehört haben, denn hier wird von der ersten Sekunde an mit mindestens der 5-fachen Geschwindigkeit gearbeitet. Es dominiert ein brutales Drumming, das auf Dauer ein wenig zu sehr im Vordergrund steht und die rasenden Gitarrenspuren an die Wand drängt. Die Vocals sind als klarer Hybrid aus Death und Black zu verstehen, aber passen sich der Musik ohne Weiteres an.

Die Songs sind in sich schlüssig und man hat durch die recht langen Laufzeiten auch immer Zeit, sich in die Tracks hereinzufinden. Sicher werden Black Bleeding es nicht leicht haben, an Acts wie Aborted heranzukommen, viel fehlt dem Trio sicherlich nicht, außer der Bekanntheit vielleicht. Ein schönes, schnelles und vor allem lautes Album, das hier entstanden ist, und das obwohl es sich hier um eine Tape-Aufnahme handelt. Respekt! Die Wertung für diesesAlbum möchte ich aber nur unter Vorbehalt abgeben, da mir bei meiner Promoversion fünf Livetracks fehlen. Und da Live-Aufnahmen immer eine heikle Sache sind, könnten die die Qualität wieder herunterziehen. Doch die regulären Studio-Songs sind auf jeden Fall dafür geeignet, sich seiner Aggressionen zu entledigen.

BLOOD DAWN Webzine (Ger)

Noch ein Tape aus dem Hause Nihilistic Holocaust. Aber dies' hier hat es richtig in sich. Relativ akzeptabler bis guter Sound, den so manche Grind-Combo nichtmal vorweisen kann. Womit wir auch schon fast beim Stil sind, den BLACK BLEEDING uns um die Ohren Pfeffern, nämlich schön schnelles Grind-Gebolze in Kombination mit (Brutal) Death- und sogar dezentem Black Metal-Riffing. Der Gesang ist derbe tief und lupenreiner Todesmetall. Eine wunderbare Mixtur also für Genießer der brutalen Klänge. 5 Tracks gibt es zu hören und angesichts der durchaus guten Qualität der Stücke wundert es mich schon, warum "The Awakening" nur auf Tape erschienen und nicht auf eine reguläre CD gepresst worden sind. Das Material ist deutlich besser, als vieles von dem, was sonst so in der Szene unterwegs ist. BLACK BLEEDING sei es gegönnt, dass sie die Chance erhalten, die werte Hörerschaft mit einem richtigen Silberling zu beglücken, denn ich wage zu bezweifeln, dass es noch viele unter uns gibt, die sich mit Tapes und deren Unhandlichkeit (Spulen, Bandsalat, etc) rumärgern wollen. Ordern kann man das Tape über die Website von Nihilistic Holocaust.

BLOOD OF THE ANCIENT Fanzine (Ger)

When I got aware of the band logo as well as the layout I was kind of afraid of what I was going to hear when checking out this demo tape. But fortunately BLACK BLEEDING sound much better than the inlay looks like: You get very aggressive and brutal Death Metal that definitely is much better than the 1,000,000st CANNIBAL CORPSE clone out there. Yeah, `The Awakening` offers savage extreme music inspired by i.e. older and newer MORBID ANGEL, DEICIDE or MALEVOLENT CREATION instead. But BLACK BLEEDING cannot be considered as plain copy, as there`s definitely enough own spirit on board that makes something really special out of these all in all five songs. However, there are also some Black Metal influences every now and then, and this is not only due to the high screams that are added to the grunted vokills. The production`s ways above what you can expect from underground acts usually, so I guess most Death lunatics will be satisfied when checking out this new hopeful underground act here...!

BURNING ABYSS Webzine (Pol)

BURNING MISERY Webzine (Hol)

On their website Black Bleeding state, “We started playing in 1999 but this is the new 2003 line-up... so fuck the past.” Alright, let’s move the fuck on into 2005 and their new demo “The Awakening” made up of 5 new tracks and 5 live songs. While the live songs on this release are solid in sound and production the focal point of the review will be the new tracks. From the opening notes of “The Sleeper Has Awakened” the listener is gonna know that this is not Brutal Death Metal. If I’m wrong then I’ll never listen to Abysmal Torment and Liturgy again. No what we have in the music of Black Breeding is a hybrid of Melodic Death (Not pussy extreme melodic like Arch Enemy), and Thrash with hints of Black Metal riffing for trance like states of mind. Actually, the band these guys sort of remind me of is Kronos out of France. Black Bleeding is less technical but the creativity and potential to be on the Kronos level are evident.
Each song never fails to have a head bouncing melody, and Alexandre Pomes on guitar is an abominable freak. The bass and vocals are done with skill by Julien Marchand. Meanwhile Balmuzette slams away on the drum kit with a style that always makes me wonder if they bolt the kit to the floor to keep it from disintegrating. This music is filled with enough rhythm variance and melody blended with sheer heaviness to keep the listener in the mood to kick some metalcore pussy in the head.
To understand what I’m getting at listen to “Demonic Quantum Boundaries.” The song begins with a simple guitar melody that takes me back to some 60’s stoner stuff by Cream or the Doors. This is offset by amoral vocals and overcome when the bashing kicks in at 57 seconds. From that point the song takes on an epic feel that reminds me of my early days as kid wrapped up in post Paul Di’Anno Iron Maiden (They don’t sound like Maiden, but the vibe is grand) crossed into modern Arghoslent. The song ends with an ambient air that is quite nice.
Overall I give this album a recommend to all underground fans looking for something slightly less intense but heavy nonetheless. Hopefully this demo will stir some ears in the labels section of the Metal world and these guys will be able to put out an album soon. Otherwise they can just create a cannibalistic concoction at the butcher store I saw on their other website to earn the extra cash needed to put a future release out independently. Either way, I’m looking forward to hearing from them soon

BRUTALISM Webzine (Hol)

Brutal death metal from Belgium!! Black Bleeding (I like the name) started in 1999 but has a new line up since 2005. On this demo you heaer 5 songs that ram your face. Deep sounding vocals, crazy frantic riffing guitars and the fast drumming. Ingredients that stump your stomach, not only with the brutality but they add breaks and moshparts. 5 Songs that taste for more and hope you have the guts to continue!!

DA LYNX Webzine (Ita)

DARKMAG Webzine (Fra)

Black Bleeding est une formation belge qui n’en est plus à ses débuts et qui a déjà à son actif un certain nombre d’enregistrements dont le dernier en date, The Awakening, vient d’être réédité par le label Nihilistic Holocaust au format tape afin, peut-être, de mieux le faire découvrir dans nos contrées.
La démo démarre avec The Sleeper Has Awakened et met d’emblée les choses au clair ! Le groupe exécute sur ce titre un death/black véloce et ravageur, traversé de riffs mémorables et ponctué de quelques ralentissements bien sentis. Paradoxalement, difficile d’enchaîner après une entame si réussie et il faudra se rendre à l’évidence, les compositions suivantes n’atteindront pas le niveau affiché ici. One With The Universe et Proxima Centauri s’inscrivent certes dans une veine similaire mais une trop grande linéarité les empêche de réellement décoller. L’alternance des vocaux gutturaux et écorchés est réussie et contribue à la dualité death/black de l’ensemble. On note en particulier l’influence notable du death old-school new-yorkais (Immolation et Incantation en tête) qui se marie bien avec les parties black plus épiques. Un mot également sur la bonne tenue de la production qui rend justice à la lourdeur des guitares. On enchaîne avec Lord of the Worms, plus court, qui développe tout de même un riff évocateur et puissant. Le disque s’achève sur une bonne note avec Demonic Quantum Boundaries, un morceau qui fait la part belle aux mélodies, un domaine dans lequel le groupe a vraiment des atouts à faire valoir, et si ce dernier persévère dans cette voie, cela pourrait contribuer à varier le ton de sa musique pour ses futurs enregistrements.
The Awakening laisse au final une excellente impression, et Black Bleeding, s’il perdure à enrichir ses titres tout en conservant sa touche death old-school, risque de faire très mal à l’avenir !

DR GORE Webzine (Fra)

ETERNAL TERROR Webzine (Nor)

Nok en demotape i CD-R format fra Nihilistic Holocaust. Denne gangen er det et belgisk/fransk band det handler om. Stilen her er fyttirakkern-så-kjapt-og-brutalt-det-kan-bli death metal. Til tider minner en del om de brasilianske bandene Rebaelliun (RIP) og Krisiun. Men Black Bleeding bryter av mer i låtene med en rekke roligere partier. Men når de pøser på, så pøser de på. Litt småkaotiske trommer og et leadriff som sammen dominerer lydbildet, mens en mycket mørk growl ligger litt i bakgrunnen og gjør det hele både mørkt og ondt. Men selv om det er kjapt og brutalt, så er det en rekke breaks i de fleste av de 5 låtene som finnes på denne demoen. En annen ting som også er med på å gjøre dette til en ganske så lyttbar utgivelse, er at de har flere enn et hovedriff i alle låtene, og dermed blir det ikke kjedelig i lengden. Lydmessig er dette ingen godbit, men til å være opptak fra demokassett, så er det ikke så ille. Det låter litt rått og en smule uferdig, men passer låtmaterialet som Black Bleeding har. Langt fra det verste jeg har hørt fra den franske scenen.

EXECUTIONER Webzine (Spa)

FOEDUS AETERNUS Fanzine (Fra)

Que ceux qui osent encore squatter la région Mosellane et qui ont le privilège de côtoyer les provinces du Luxembourg et de taquiner la frontière Belge ont probablement déjà vu flotter la bannière de ce groupe dans un café tiercé ou lors d’un goûter d’anniversaire. Surtout lorsqu’un tambourin répondant à l’acronyme de Balmusette sème la discorde derrière ses fûts. Je me souviens très vaguement d’un concert il y a quelques années qui ne m’avaient pas tellement emballé. Lorsque j’ai reçu le promo, je me suis demandé par réflexe s’il s’agissait bien du même groupe. En consultant cette encyclopédie foutrement calée qu’est Metal Archives, mes soupçons eurent disparus. Il y a des groupes qui ne me font pas toujours bonne impression sur le papier, et il n’y a véritablement que la musique qui soit encore capable de chasser nos viles appréhensions. N’ayez pas le malheur de vous arrêter au site web, parfaite réplique de l’échoppe des produits frais de votre bon charcutier, et encore moins à la pochette colorée avec son interprétation psychédélique de la Holy Bible. Oubliez tout cela car la musique remue ciel et terre avec son stock de blasphèmes en veux-tu en voilà. Sans s’imposer comme de véritables donneurs de leçons en la matière, BLACK BLEEDING a parfaitement saisi comment asséner les coups qui font mal, annihilant toutes traces de monotonie. Les peuplades qui ont pu apprécier ANGEL CORPSE et les premiers VITAL REMAINS devraient y trouver leur compte. En plus, la production est adéquate, et agrémentation de quelques titres Live au Frontline à la clé. Maréchal, nous voilà !

GUTS OF DARLNESS Webzine (Fra)

IN EXTREMIS Fanzine (Fra)

Quelques grammes de finesse dans un monde de brutes. C’est ce qui me vient en tête après écoute attentive de cette excellente démo.  Car sur une base black/death-metal old-school primaire très entraînante, ces belges n’hésitent pas à faire souffler un esprit païen matérialisé en des superbes mélodies guerrières sur lesquelles n’auraient pas craché Primordial eux-mêmes. La voix bien gutturale du bourreau de service rythme les sentences, tour à tour ultra rapides et dévastatrices rappelant par là Incantation, ou plus posées presque heavy-metal. Du coté des ambiances, on se fraie un chemin en plein fog glauque et mystérieux, des atmosphères n’étant pas sans rappeler ces histoires passionnantes de Poe ou de Lovecraft. Un groupe à la personnalité déjà bien trempée, les fans d’ Agressor acquiesceront.

KLASMA Zine (Germany)

This is a completely unknown association of heavy musicians to me. They hail from Belgium bringing new material to the scene via Nihilistic Holocaust. BLACK BLEEDING already were founded end of 1998 and can present three demos - „Necroblasphemy" (2000), „Beyond the flames of hell" (‘02) and „Worship" (‘03). „The awakening" (very innovative title btw) was recorded with an almost completely fresh line-up. Obviously the old team was out of power. Now these four guys hope to have build up a solid wrecking crew. With 200% of motivation, it is said. Originally the demo was released as CD with live bonus trax. Now for the tape version. You can listen to five songs of a very dark mixture of Black and Death Metal. For the first moments BLACK BLEEDING run their way quite independently. The songs are partly build very dramatic. Diversity plays a big role, and there are some hooks. The guys aren’t permanently thrashing, vary the tempo ofttimes and change between circular saw attacks in the nordic vein and brutally hammering Death Metal riffing of the american school. Stakkatos are inserted as well as epic sounding guitar lines. Sometimes there’s a Thrash feeling. Even Doom-like parts („One with the universe") are to hear from BLACK BLEEDING. The drums are always played exactly to the demanded style. Excellent are the alternating presented grunts and screams too. But for the second sight some stuff of „The awakening" sounds familiar to me. The belgian guys try to hide it all somehow. But it doesn’t work at all, if you listen to „Lord of the worms" e.g. So BLACK BLEEDING are better, but even just mediocre. With the last track „Demonic quantum boundaries" they also don’t do a favour for themselves. First they blast forward in Black Metal, change to technique stuff, accelerate once again and drown in a Doom atmosphere finally. After five minutes the track is slowly fading out, followed by keyboard strumming for the same long time. It doesn’t make sense to me, and it doesn’t fit to the music before. After all it would be a great demo with more concentration and more individuality.

LA HORDE NOIRE Webzine (Fra)

LORDS OF METAL Webzine (Hol)

Heaven and earth shook while I was listening to 'The Awakening' from this Belgian band. I received a CD-R without any background information, or any other information useful for writing a review, for that matter. Listening to the CD itself, it turns out that Black Bleeding is not a black metal band despite the logo, but they play grind/death metal.

With a hard and enormously quick tempo the five tracks on this (mini) CD blast their way into the living room. The songs seem to have been influenced by black metal in a most interesting way. Listening to 'One With The Universe' and 'Demonic Quantum Boundaries' confirms that this band isn't afraid of black metal guitar parts and compositions. The brutal and coarse vocabulary from the vocalist turn this music into a varied mix of death, grind and black metal. The drummer appears to have a persistent mentality to combine blast beats and other extreme drum parts in such a way that the music does not turn into complete chaos, which is a good feature to have.

After some research on the Internet I saw that this CD is also being released with five live tracks. Shame that I only received the version without the live tracks. I would appreciate the CD-r with the live tracks. Because of its cassette release on 'Nihilistic Holocaust', I can imagine that East European countries will like this grind/death metal. However, the band's performance is very good indeed, and there's enough variety at offer here. I am not really the right person to review this kind of extreme bands, but I can imagine that my boss at LoM thought I needed a broader musical experience or something like that. The production is good and the music beats the hell out of my sound system in a most refreshing and original manner of playing and arrangements from Black Bleeding. This band can be branded as "just left underground status" with releases like these. Hell, even I liked it!  Rating: 67/100

MACABRE PEST Zine (Chile)

MENTAL FUNERAL Blog (Usa)
Solid heavy blasting death metal. Kinda like a more edger Edge Of Sanity with some Dissection melody. I believe you can download their latest album for free still at their Myspace page!?  

METALIZE IT Webzine (Bel)

MY LAST CHAPTER Webzine (Den)

Holy shit, this was a big surprise. I didn't really know what to expect, but I sure as hell didn't expect this brutal slab of vicious death metal to be rumbling across the room. Pummelling guitars and bass, fast drumming and growling/screaming vocals. Pretty brutal (but also quite standard) stuff. Some of the riffs here are really cool, and are of a quality that alot of death metal bands today are missing. The drumming's tight and top notch, and the vocals are good. My definite favourite on here is The sleeper has awakened, where they back the growling up with a gnarling scream, which fits this perfectly. Demonic quantum boundaries starts off with a melodic intro, and then evolves into a feast upon raging blast beats and pummelling riffs.
This is good stuff, but nothing that really sticks. I like it, and I'll probably have my speakers deliver it to me a couple of times more. But still... Don't know, just something hindering me from really go raving about this. And I gotta say it's an unnecessarily long outro. I mean, three minutes of just one prolonged note...

NECROSCOPE Fanzine (Pol)

Let's inaugurate the next review of the NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST's releases. This French label is known already from releasing an unknown, underground bands and that's why I wait with total hunger for their next works usually. "The awakening" it's the last one for the moment and again I can't say any bad word concerning the label's job. Of course it's the band's main merit, so let's look on their creation! BLACK BLEEDING performs something between death and black metaln however mostly this first genre inspires the band, I suppose. First of all I'd like to note, that these frenchmen play very fresh and aggressive songs: They are mostly based on the fastest, wildest means, most often they're quite twisted, varied with lots of changes, therefore everything sounds quite intense. Generally we should admit, well built parts of every instruments, in result every composition, every it's minute gives us something new, interesting, just holds in tension! Furthermore I've noticed also some, small (for the moment) tencendies to prety crazy, too twisted technical show,  the "Proxima centauri" song shows it the best. Luckily BLACK BLEEDING makes definitely compact and listenable music in general, and amongst all these twisted, intense riffs we can always find some little kind of melody, such devilish atmosphere, that's I've mentionned about black metal in the beginning, the "Demonic quantum boundnaries" got such devilish construction and "melody" for exemple.
"The awakening" it's the next record in the underground which showed, hot to combine the ancient brutality, hellish spirit with a newer technique, fresh ideas! Total recommendation!!!

NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST Webzine (Fra)

This band is pretty interesting. This 5-tracks demo (plus live shots) displays some competently executed material with a solid, bass heavy sound rooted in the euro death metal traiditon, but with riffs and melodies that mostly belong  to the early 90s scandinavian black metal scene. In a way, one could say this band brings the best of 90s BM without the moronic clichés that eventually killed this scene, song titles like ‘One with the universe’ or ‘Proxima Centauri’ reminding me of the spacey, sublime epicness developped by Emperor between 1992 and 1997, especially the final keyboard outro very reminiscent of Emperor’s most atmospheric moments, but with the raw edge and somewhat more conventionnal chord progressions of the early Enslaved. All this is backed with death vocals and drums, with no keyboards, which makes the whole stand out of the BM boundaries. Also, and despite its rawness, the overall sound is very clear and intelligible, not like most classic BM demos where guitars are drowned under oceans of distorsion and white noise. All in all this band is promising, if they get rid of two weak points : in their search for brutal epicness, Black Bleeding tend to forget a good riff repeated too much times can lose its impact and cause attention loss to the listener, and two, the drums and bass tracks lack presence on this recording. Regrettable, since the bass brings nice harmonies well combined with guitar more than with drums, and adds a heavy metal groove to the whole. As for drums, they sound very good for fast parts, but seriously lack heaviness and presence for the mid paced passages, while they could add a more warriorish feel to them. Still an underground stand out though. Waiting for a confirmation.      Torture Geniale

NOISE WEB Webzine (Fra)

PASSION ROCK Zine (Fra)

Mais où va-t-il les trouver? Une nouvelle production de Nihilistic holocaust, c’est toujours la promesse d’un excellent moment de métal, et ce au sens très large. En effet, le boite touche autant au vieux thrash qu’au death ou au grind, et à chaque fois ça fait mouche. Cette fois encore, pas de (mauvaise) surprise, ce qu’on attend d’une sortie chez Nihilistic est au rendez-vous : un putain de feeling old school, à faire frissonner les plus nostalgiques. On se penche plus vers le gros death métal avec cette tape de Black Bleeding, formation belge quasi inconnue par chez nous, ce qui va vite changer je l’espère ! Ce qui se dégage très vite de ce "Awakenig", c’est une énergie assez impressionnante, mise au service d’un death accrocheur. Oubliez vite la scène US, on parle bien d’un style old school européen, avec voix très gutturale, et riffs speeds qui flirtent parfois avec la mélodie. Certains passages de "The sleeper has awakened" sont limite black metal, c’est dire! Mais pas de fausse désillusion, la barrière n’est jamais franchie, on reste dans le death radical, et les rythmes sont frénétiques, le blast étant présent en proportions non négligeables. Pas forcement très techniques, la musique ici n’en a pas besoin, mais d’une redoutable efficacité, les titres se succèdent en écrasant l’auditeur, en variant juste ce qu’il faut pour rendre la galette parfaitement digeste. On trouve ainsi des plans plus thrashy et mid tempo, des descentes d’harmoniques à la Dying Fetus ("Demonic quantum boundaries"), des plans space à la basse, qui viennent mettre en valeur la déferlante supersonique. Une cassette qui passe comme une lettre à la poste, et qui apporte un indéniable bol d’air à une scène saturée. A se procurer d’urgence, pour tous les amateurs de death underground. (Stench)

PUTREFACTIVE EFFECT Zine (Fra)

"Father, the sleeper has awakened..." For sure you will be awakened by the last release of underground label Nihilistic (Alc)Holocaust and this is death metal for sure! More precisely, BLACK BLEEDING has a strong death metal basis with black metal elements (some riffs and screamed vocals). If you are into obscure, merciless and dark death metal with infernal parts, and pounding riffs this stuff is definitely for you. IMMOLATION, VITAL REMAINS and ACHERON are the bands that come to my mind when I listen to "The awakening". The sound is good enough, powerful and isn't too much clean. For 3 euros only, make your choice!

SHAPELESS Webzine (Ita)

I Black Bleeding provengono dal Belgio, e si sono formati nel 1998. Nel corso della loro carriera, hanno prodotto tre demo: "Necroblasphemy" (2000), "Beyond The Flames Of Hell" (2002) e "Worship" (2003). La formazione attuale vede Balmuzette alla batteria, Thomas al basso e Alex alla chitarra ed alla voce.
"The Awakening" è il demo più recente del gruppo, pubblicato a proprie spese in CD ed ordinabile dal sito del gruppo, e stampato su cassetta in tiratura limitata dalla Nihilistic Holocaust.
La cassetta in mio possesso è racchiusa da una copertina fotocopiata in bianco e nero, che fa molto vecchio stile. Tutta nera, è occupata per la tutta la sua ampiezza dal logo della band.
La prima traccia si intitola "The Sleeper Has Awakened", e fa capire immediatamente che questi belgi non scherzano affatto. Il suono è molto potente, rozzo ma assolutamente efficace per un demo. L'esecuzione del brano non è perfetta, anzi, le sbavature sono parecchie. Gli amanti della precisione potrebbero rabbrividire di fronte ad alcuni attacchi non impeccabili. Secondo me, queste piccoli imprecisioni danno una grande spinta istintiva alla musica, che ha un qualcosa di selvaggio, di bestiale. Il riffing è in possesso di quel tocco di black metal che non guasta, sebbene l'impostazione dei Black Bleeding sia principalmente death. E' una bella miscela tra i due generi, che convince appieno. "The Sleeper Has Awakened" è una canzone molto bella, che mi fa rimpiangere di possedere questo lavoro in cassetta! Sarebbe bello poterla sparare a tutto volume dagli altoparlanti dello stereo, con una qualità digitale sopraffina. Non credo ci si possa comunque lamentare di questa resa sonora, che tra l'altro fa molto "culto".
"One With The Universe" mette in mostra il lato più propriamente death della band belga. Si tratta di una composizione estremamente negativa, dai suoni oscuri e ribassati. L'incedere è pesante, ed Alex si esibisce quasi esclusivamente in un gutturale profondo. La seconda parte è veloce e distruttiva.
Più saltellante è la successiva "Proxima Centauri", che però non concede nulla in quanto ad umanità. Le battute introduttive ripetono lo stesso riff ossessivamente, variandolo sempre un po', e mettendo in mostra la creatività alle pelli di Balmuzette. Quando la traccia entra nel suo vivo, la si scopre vivace e vagamente arabeggiante. La ritmica è spedita, e l'esecuzione è potente come non mai. I Black Bleeding dimostrano una discreta creatività nell'arrangiamento, cosa che li rende interessanti. Inoltre sono in possesso di una buona personalità.
"Lord Of The Worms" è una traccia death, sostenuta da un blastbeat ferocissimo. Il gruppo qua si spinge su territori brutal, trovandosi perfettamente a suo agio. Anche in questo caso ritornano alcuni riff orientali, spinti da uno spirito black che mi fa venire in mente in Melechesh (più death però).
"Demonic Quantum Boundaries" è introdotta da un bell'arpeggio e da una ritmica delicata che fa molto sixties. Quando attacca, è un'esplosione di violenza e melodia negativa. Grande feeling, e un'intensità travolgente! Dopo un lungo susseguirsi di melodie fantastiche e di riff convincenti, la canzone si rilassa su una coda lunga e pesantissima. Grande canzone. Bella l'outro ambient.
"The Awakening" è un demo molto convincente, di un gruppo che non fa della perfezione assoluta il suo marchio di fabbrica, ma della grinta e della creatività compositiva. La Nihilistic Holocaust ha fatto un'ottima scelta proponendo questo demo. Spero che questa band si faccia notare, perché meritano di essere conosciuti. Forse è importante che curino un po' le rifiniture, ma un buon produttore potrebbe dargli i consigli più idonei. Basta solo che non perdano la loro potenza, l'istinto e la creatività.
Una nota di merito va al sito del gruppo, che fa il verso al sito di una macelleria. Orari di apertura, immagini di animali e di buona carne: insomma, solo leggendo le scritte si riesce a capire che si tratta del sito di una band metal! Molto divertente e curato! Da seguire con attenzione e curiosità.

SHRUNKEN AND MUMMIFIED Zine (Hun)

SOUNDS OF ETERNAL WARE Webzine (Ger)

Das neueste Release von Nihilistic Holocaust ist mal wieder einfach genial ausgefallen. BLACK BLEEDING nennt sich die Truppe und ihr Demotape heißt "The Awakening". Geboten wird eine Mischung aus Black und Death Metal. Eigentlich nichts besonderes, doch BLACK BLEEDING wissen vor allem durch ihre Aggression aber auch durch die gekonnt eingesetzten, leicht melodischen, Black Metal- Riffs zu überzeugen. Es wird mit brutalen und tiefen Vocals gegrunzt, sowie ab und zu mit einer Black Metal- typischen heiseren Stimme geschrieen. Die Gitarren wechseln sich mit derben Death Metal Rhythmen und düsteren Black Metal- Riffs ab. Auch Solos sind bei diesem geilem Mix vorhanden, die eine sehr gute Atmosphäre erzeugen und perfekt zu BLACK BLEEDING`s Sound passen. Der Klang ist kraftvoll und tritt einem in den Arsch. Laut anhören ist also Pflicht!
Fazit: Feine Sache! Nihilistic Holocaust hat wieder einmal ein sehr gutes Underground- Demotape veröffentlicht, das man nur empfehlen kann.

UNDERGROUND INVESTIGATION Zine (Fra)

C'est un Death black que nous propose Black bleeding qui est assez violent, avec un bon mélange de vocaux death et black. Les riffs sont excellents, rapides et mélodiques, soutenus par une batterie qui maitrise bien son sujet. Bref une bonne révélation cette tape. Chose qui est dommage, c'est le format K7. Mais bon, si on passe à côté de ça, le produit est d'une excellent qualité, sur tous les points de vue. Les cinq titres sont dans la même optique: la brutalité sauvage , et le groupe y arrive très bien. Vite, il nous faut un album de ce groupe. Les amateurs sauront apprécier.

VAMPIRE Webzine (Hol)

VIRUS Zine (Malaysia)
This is a 3 years ago releases. It recorded on January 2005. For the 1^st time hearing these Belgian, I thought they’re Black Metal act but I was wrong. They are into brutal death metal. “The awakening” is actually their 5^th releases so far after the recent “Worship” EP & it offer us with  5 trax of blasting drum, fast riffing, outrageous beat… 2^nd trax sounded really familiar but I’m not… I’m not gonna said they riff someband’s off but I’m just guessing. Unique kind of music. Great effort anyway… dig their stuff out! Another quality u/g stuff of NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST 

VOICES FROM THE DARKSIDE Webzine (Ger)

Time to dust off your tape decks – a cassette release from the Belgian trio BLACK BLEEDING demands your attention. On five tracks these guys elaborate on their brand of fast grinding Black / Death Metal. Actually, every song comes across quite different than the others making it hard to pinpoint the style of BLACK BLEEDING – maybe traces of MORBID ANGEL, BELPHEGOR and ZYKLON coupled with Black Metal edges, melodic riffs, a dose of Thrash and even some epic parts driven by fast blasts and double bass sums it up roughly. Being relatively lengthy (ok, 4:50 minutes on the average with the exception of track five, 9:26 minutes) the tracks are given enough time to develop so that the listener does not get a “new riff – new style” sensation, heh. Rather than that, the catchy riffs build up to each other and there are plenty of variations like cool midtempo breaks which add a lot of heaviness to the grinding speed and exact fast blasting. As tight as the instrumentations are the vocals which mainly are powerful deep midranged with some excursions to croaked Black Metal regions. The song 'One With The Universe' can also be downloaded from the bands homepage at: www.listen.to/blackbleeding. If I am not mistaken you can also order a CD version of this with aditional five live tracks there. All in all, BLACK BLEEDING have come up with an interesting and quite powerful release which is definitely not setting any new standards but offers cool catchy Metal instead. Might be interesting what the band will come up with next!