heavy-metal-darkness: Internal Bleeding | Settle All Scores

Monday, October 20, 2025

Internal Bleeding | Settle All Scores | Maggot Stomp

Release Date: October 17^th, 2025
Format: LP, CD, MC, Digital
Genre: Death Metal, Slam
Country: USA

Internal Bleeding has been around long enough to earn veteran status in the extreme metal world. Formed in the early 1990s in Long Island, New York, they were among the first to merge brutal death metal with hardcore grooves, effectively giving birth to what would become the slam subgenre. Across their career, from “Voracious Contempt” through “Corrupting Influence”, they’ve faced loss, lineup shifts, and countless challenges, yet their sound has always carried that New York toughness. Now, more than thirty years since their inception, they return with their seventh full-length, “Settle All Scores”, released through Maggot Stomp.

This album is Internal Bleeding at their most direct and aggressive. It’s fueled by decades of frustration and aimed squarely at anyone who doubted the band’s endurance. The riffs are thick, blunt, and cut straight into the groove. The drums drive forward with machine-like precision, and the vocals have that mix of fury and authority that’s become a hallmark of their sound. Everything is built for impact, no filler, no distractions, just pure punishment from start to finish.

Taylor Young’s mix at The Pit Studio (known for his work with Nails and Xibalba) gives the album a powerful punch. It’s heavy, dirty, and alive, with every instrument hitting like it’s meant to. The mastering by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege only tightens that punch further. Guest appearances from Sherwood Webber (Skinless), Joe Marchese, Jay Lowe, Mikey Petroski, and Frank Rini tie the band’s long history together, almost like a reunion of all eras of Internal Bleeding condensed into one furious half hour.

What makes “Settle All Scores” work so well is its energy. It’s not just another release from a band coasting on their legacy. There’s intent behind every riff, as if the band had something to prove again, and they do it without losing the rawness that made them who they are. The songs hit fast, keep their hooks simple but effective, and never let the aggression fade. It’s the kind of album that speaks to slam’s roots, where death metal meets the street-level attitude of hardcore.

Internal Bleeding still knows exactly how to crush, groove, and destroy without hesitation. “Settle All Scores” is brutal, confident, and built from the kind of scars only long years in the underground can leave. Three decades in, the originators of slam prove that their sound doesn’t need evolution to stay dangerous, it just needs conviction and fire, both of which they still have in full supply.

Score: 8.0