Splitting up and getting back together since we last heard from them, not to mention releasing an album with added guitar input from Anaal Nathrakh's Mick Kenney, Orange County metalcore crew Bleeding Through have been a busy bunch! And this, their (cunningly titled) ninth full-length continues in the run of fairly solid releases that they have been making ever since 2008's Declaration. There are some line-up changes, new guitarists John Arnold (Cerebellion) and Brandon Richter (ex-drummer for Motionless in White) joining the band and bassist Ryan Wombacher (Light the Torch, Devil You Know) already departing after the recording of this album, yet the band's sound remains much along the same lines - metalcore with a hefty dose of influence from the blackened realm, not least in keyboardist Marta Demmel's contributions.

That's usually been enough to grant Bleeding Through some much-needed personality and style in the past, and in the opening tones of album beginner Gallows they do the same, giving the galloping riffs an epic veneer alongside frontman Brandon Schieppati's snarls and clean singing. Yes, the clean-sung choruses are still present and correct, and still something of an acquired taste for those in search of something a little harsher and heavier. Yet the dips into extreme metal territory are still a vital part of the Bleeding Through formula and work well with the melancholic keyboards and tone. Together they're enough to make this interesting with more of a complex song structure than strictly necessary, and that holds up throughout the album and strengthens weaker, chuggier moments that perhaps dip a bit too much towards the band's hardcore past for personal tastes such as the more straightforward Our Brand is Chaos.

To be expected with metalcore, of course, and yet it has to be said that the Cradle of Filth-esque keyboards that drench that track make the brute "fuck with us and find out!" chorus far more effective, even before the late-song dip into deathcore bluntness. And generally songs avoid sounding too much like your typical metalcore that this site is well-documented as being tired of even at its heyday. Cuts like Dead But So Alive and Path of Our Disease are beyond solid, with touches like guitar solos and the female vocals on the latter adding memorability atop the already potent gothic-hardcore mix, gang shouts co-existing quite tidily alongside tinkly piano. The dramatic Hail Destruction has more than a little Dimmu Borgir DNA, the keyboards especially grandiose, and Emery slows things initially for a doomier pounder that is still effective even with the heavily-featured clean-sung dramatics.

And the multiple guest spots will be of interest to fans, not least Lost In Isolation's guest solo from God Forbid's Doc Coyle, yet the backing vocals from Shadows Fall's Brian Fair on War Time or Comeback Kid's Andrew Neufield on I Am Resistance are also decent additions. All fit in well enough without being especially head-turning, adding a little but not unbalancing the tracklisting, the best probably War Time with the even more intense and furious pace even without the heaviest breakdown on the album. Hell, even interlude Last Breath doesn't do anything offensive in its brevity with female vocals, piano, and ambience adding to the atmospherics. Past reviews have seen laments that the band weren't doing exactly what your reviewer wanted them to do, yet even he must admit that we've been very lucky to have a run of genuinely good releases from Bleeding Through to date, and Nine is a solid addition to their goth metalcore (or whatever we call this!) catalogue.