Bleeding Through
The Truth
Released: January 10, 2006
Produced: Rob Caggiano (of Anthrax)
Trustkill/Roadrunner Records

Brandan Schieppati – vocals (aka Cookie Monster mating calls)
Brian Leppke – guitar
Ryan Wombacher – bass
Derek Youngsma – drums
Marta Peterson – keyboards
Scott Danough – guitar

1. For Love and Failing – 3:33
2. Confession – 2:39
3. Love in Slow Motion – 4:35
4. The Painkiller – 2:36
5. Kill to Believe – 3:57
6. Dearly Demented (featuring Nick 13 from Tiger Army) – 5:22
7. Line in the Sand – 4:09
8. She’s Gone – 1:31
9. Tragedy of Empty Streets – 2:57
10. Return to Sender – 4:20
11. Hollywood Prison – 2:52
12. The Truth – 4:17

The Truth is the fourth album by American metalcore band Bleeding Through, as well as their second album released through Trustkill Records. The album was released on January 10, 2006, produced by Rob Caggiano, lead guitarist of Anthrax.

A special edition of the album entitled The Complete Truth was released on July 15, 2008. The band post a blog on the Head banger’s Blog commenting on the release: “It has been months and we have kept silent. But this latest slap in the face from our supposed record label has pushed us over the edge. We just read on the Internet that Josh Grabelle (Trustkill CEO) plans to release a ‘special edition’ of our 2006 album The Truth one month before releasing our new album. Let it be known that Bleeding Through is 100% against this so-called special’ edition. We did not approve the title, cover artwork (whatever it is), track listing or bonus features for this transparent and obvious cash-grab of a re-release from a record label that despite selling a quarter of a million of our albums worldwide is having problems. Over a year ago we suggested the idea of a re-release of the album to Trustkill — on our terms, of course, with our artistic vision — and he said he’d consider it if we could land a big tour. We confirmed a tour with Marilyn Manson and Slayer, followed by a tour with HIM, and he said ‘No’ to us. He thought we should put out a new album instead. Now we have a new album finished that we are very proud of and he wants to squeeze our fans, and our band by throwing out an unapproved ‘special’ edition in a fast and overt attempt to pay some bills.”

Somebody get me a tissue.

Nick 13, of Tiger Army, sings on the song Dearly Demented. Unfortunately, Nick’s vocal on this song is kind of like a steaming pile of crap on a rose bush. If you can dig through the shit you can find a thing of beauty. The few seconds of good vocals can’t make up for the hour or so of horrendous “cookie monster” vocals on the rest of the album. In conclusion:

The album blows Donkey Dong!

If you get the chance to set a copy of this on fire, go do it.

Rating: -* ** minus one out of three stars.

On to the story . . .

Sometime in the middle of 2005 I caught a really nice flick called Secondhand Lions. Starring Haley Joel Osment, Robert Duvall, Michael Caine, and Kyra Sedgwick. In a nutshell it’s a story of a young boy who is dumped on the doorstep of his two eccentric uncles while his mom takes off to find herself a man.

On the way to the uncles house the mom tells the boy rumors of the uncles hidden wealth, and stories of them being bank robbers. The boy is dropped off, and he and the uncles are not wild about each at first, but slowly it all comes around. The script is somewhat predictable.

Later that week my dad stops by to see my son (who is about a year old at this point), I tell him about the movie, thought it would be something he would dig, as he always had a fondness for movies where the lead character was a crotchety, unlikable character. Cobb (starring Tommy Lee Jones) was his favorite film.

So I summarize the flick, two crazy hunter uncles, a young boy dropped in the middle of nowhere. My dad then looks at me and says, “That’s like my life.”

Now I’ve known this man most of his fifty-eight years, and I thought I had heard damn near ever story there was to hear, but this . . . was brand spanking new news.

So, of course I had to ask, “What do you mean your life?”

So, he digs in, and tells me that his father, my grandfather, didn’t care for him too much, and every summer he sent him to stay in Canada with my grandmother’s two brothers, his uncles.

My dad’s uncles were very large Swedish men that were raised in Canada. They made their living as hunters, trappers, and hunting guides.

Let me give you some background on my grandmother’s family, her father was in the Swedish army. During morning inspection a Swedish sergeant made a remark to my great-grandfather that he didn’t care for, so he shot the sergeant. The man lived, but great-grandfather was thrown out of Sweden.

With his engineering background he secured a job building the first railroad across Canada. As his children got older they all went in different directions. One son, Eric, moved to the Pacific Northwest and started Nordstom’s department stores, my grandmother moved to California and worked as a cook for silent film star Clara Bow. And the other two sons became the hunters of Canada.

My grandparents met at a dance on the Santa Monica Pier in the 1930’s. My grandfather, who was there with his friends, was taken with my grandmother, and wanted to drive her home. She told him “no” several times, but he was persistent. Finally she gave in, with one condition, “Tell your friends to find another way home, I’m not riding in a car with all of you. You I can beat up.” They married a short while later.

My dad’s uncles definitely lived by a different code, unlike men nowadays. My father was, basically, left to do as he pleased. The uncles would come home late from hunting, fling my dad the keys to the car, and say drop us off at the pub, give him a watch, and say be back to pick us up at this time.

After he would drop them off, my dad, who was ten years old in 1956, would have to stand up, while driving, to see over the dashboard, and work the peddles, would go and explore the Canadian countryside.

The countryside where my dad was staying those summers were so far from the any city, that there were no traffic lights, farmland for as far as the eye could see. My dad, at least in his mind, had free reign of Canada.

It wasn’t until almost twenty years after these summer trips that it dawned on him why he got to stay with the uncles, while his sister, my aunt Deanne, stayed back in California, my grandfather wanted him out of the house. Deanne was his favorite kid.

I thought he had experienced an incredible adventure that I wished I could’ve lived, but reasoning behind was kind of screwed. I’ve seen the movie twice since then, and I can’t help, but to think of my dad driving these two huge Swedes home in the middle of the night. God love this crazy family of mine.

LAST ONE TO DIE is officially out: Order at: https://www.createspace.com/3669330.