Bleeding Through

Wolves Among Sheep (Trustkill)
by Mike Delano

Although the band members joke about the absurdity of the TV show named after their hometown, Orange County metalcore crew Bleeding Through share a lot of The OC‘s “me me me” tendencies on their DVD, Wolves Among Sheep. At no point during the two-hour, interview-only documentary about the band’s rise to popularity does anyone seem to realize we don’t need to know every obscure piece of information about their evolution. It’s professional, but outside of misty-eyed memories of fights in Del Taco parking lots, and vocalist Brandan Schieppati’s harrowing account of teenage depression, what’s left is a near-hypnotic parade of monotone interviews and bassist Ryan Wombacher getting the longest haircut of all time.

If those 120 minutes weren’t enough, there’s also (inexplicably) mounds of deleted scenes. But the real reason for this DVD to exist is the live footage, and that’s the source of the biggest letdown. The 50-minute San Diego 2005 concert features a proud preface, stating that the footage is untouched, with no subsequent retooling in the studio, but just a few minutes in and you’ll be begging them to overdub to eternity. The tin can sound quality is so dismal as to nearly negate the ferocity of the performance (the assorted shows in the “Live Archive” section fare a little better). Of course, if you believe in the old black metal credo that “the worse the sound quality, the truer it is to the cause,” then you’ll be in hardcore heaven.
(www.trustkill.com)