At first, I was under the impression that I had been sent the latest album by the Spanish extreme metal band Golgotha. It took me a few minutes to realize that "Golgotha" was actually the name of the album, while the band itself was called With Blood Comes Cleansing.

It's the sort of band name that reeks of contemporary metal core or even some of the death metal emo crossover bands currently surfacing across the musical landscape. Suddenly, I found myself not so excited about hearing "Golgotha."

For the most part, I was correct: With Blood Comes Cleansing play a brutal blend of death metal and metalcore. No clean vocals or poppy choruses, but there is plenty of groove mixed in with the blasts. From an ambient, discordant intro, With Blood Comes Cleansing drops right into harsh vocals, blasts, breakdowns, chunk riffs, dirty harmonics, and everything else that one needs when crafting technical metalcore or rhythm-heavy death metal.

Part of the problem is just that: everything is there. The debut album by five previously-unheard musicians shouldn't nail a subgenre of extreme metal this perfectly. There is plenty on "Golgotha" to make you think that this is a band worthy of holding their heads equal with the likes of The End, Tetsuo or Between the Buried and Me. But while all the buttons are certainly being pressed, there is nothing in the form of heart or originality present. With Blood Comes Cleansing do an excellent job of blending death metal with metalcore, but so do dozens of other bands over the past half-decade or so. And when pressed to come up with something that differentiates With Blood Comes Cleansing from the rest of the pack, this reviewer comes up short.

That's not to say this is a bad album. Fans of brutal or technical metal are going to eat "Golgotha" up. From bizarre time signatures to stop-on-a-dime tempo shifts, there isn't a single song on this album that won't blow you away in one form or another. From the anthemic "Mark Your Words" to the ornate guitars in "My Help," there might not be much to bring home after the party, but the party itself is pretty kick-ass while it's taking place.

While I try not to let message play too major a role in any of my music reviews, it must be mentioned that this is easily the heaviest, most brutal Christian metal band that I have ever heard. Also, please note that the band's official site - www.withbloodcomescleansing.com - was down at the time this review was submitted for publication. The only With Blood Comes Cleansing site that seems up all the time is their MySpace site, which is listed over to the left in lieu of an 'official site.'

With ten tracks spanning only twenty-five minutes, there is little danger of "Golgotha" boring the listener before coming to a close. There is also little danger of With Blood Comes Cleansing making any sort of long-term impression on the listener. There is very little commitment required when facing With Blood Comes Cleansing's debut, for good and bad. But unless you simply cannot get enough brutal, technical death core, you need to ask yourself whether your music library needs yet another entrant into the realm of extreme core (or core-influenced death metal - take your pick). At the very least, this is a solid debut that proves With Blood Comes Cleansing possess the chops necessary to craft the extreme metal album of the year. Now all they need are the song-writing skills necessary for such a feat.