BLOODLET will release, ‘Viper In Hand’, the bands first release since 2002, digitally on December 20th and on 10″ etched vinyl via Translation Loss Records on January 17th. The band have released one track from the two song EP, titled, “Viper In Hand” and it’s streaming now via Decibel Magazine HERE. BLOODLET will tour with Darkest Hour and Fallujah beginning January 17th.
BLOODLET emerged from Florida in the early 1990’s with a slew of demos and seven-inch releases. They quickly caught the attention of Victory Records and released three full length albums (including 1996’s much lauded Entheogen), as well as a compilation of early singles. Their relentless tour schedule throughout the 90’s included numerous headlining and support tours with Neurosis, Entombed, Hatebreed, GWAR, and others.
Fusing their love of early heavy metal and southern rock with hardcore sensibilities, BLOODLET’s early musical efforts placed them in the avant-garde of metalcore. As they continued to push boundaries, they increasingly incorporated odd time signatures, abrupt and unsettling changes, and bludgeoning rhythms into a hardcore framework. BLOODLET’s signature, genre-bending musical evolution has been on full display with every new release, punctuated by Scott Angelacos’s lyrical focus on religious paranoia and criminal psychosis set against a backdrop of the band’s swampy Florida home.
BLOODLET’s 1996 release, Entheogen (dubbed “evilcore” by many because of the demonic imagery layered over early metalcore), propelled BLOODLET to a prominent position in the hardcore scene. In 1998, BLOODLET released their most audacious album, The Seraphim Fall. Produced by Neurosis’s sound wizard, Dave Clark, The Seraphim Fall was a dark, off-kilter sludge metal album that has proved influential to many. BLOODLET went on hiatus in 1999, but eventually reformed in 2002, releasing the Steve Albini engineered, Three Humid Nights in the Cypress Tree.
2017 witnessed BLOODLET’s full time return to a live setting, exploding across This is Hardcore’s stage in a triumphant return to form. In the intervening time, BLOODLET has played numerous shows in the U.S., both as a headliner and as support (including runs with Integrity, Unsane, and others).
2020 will not only see BLOODLET return to Europe with Darkest Hour and Fallujah, but also their first release of new music since 2002. BLOODLET’s newest incarnation, a two song EP titled, Viper In Hand, will again unnerve and disrupt simplistic notions about what counts as ‘heavy’ music. Refusing to absorb the flat musical norms embraced in their absence, the newest embodiment of BLOODLET, reprising the classic line-up from Entheogen, will continue their tradition of tilting hardcore and metal on their sides in order to deliver an invigorating and deviant approach to music.
Recording credits: Engineering by Jeff McLear & Scott Angelacos; Mixed & mastered by Sanford Parker; Album artwork by Shawn Garrett; Photo by Pamela Bendezu
Tour dates with Darkest Hour:
01/17 Karlsruhe, GER – Weiße Rose
01/18 Antwerp, BEL – Kavka
01/19 Paris, FRA – Petit Bain
01/20 Manchester, UK – Rebellion
01/21 London, UK – Underworld
01/22 Den Bosch, NET – Willem Twee
01/23 Leipzig, GER – Conne Island
01/24 Hamburg, GER – Logo
01/25 Berlin, GER – Bi Nuu
01/26 Warsaw, POL – Hydrozagdka
01/28 Prague, CZE – Futurm
01/29 Budapest, HUN – Durer Kert
01/30 Munich, GER – Backstage
01/31 Aarau, SWI – Kiff
02/01 Bochum, GER – Matrix
BLOODLET is: Scott Angelacos – vocals; Tom Crowther – Guitar; Matt Easley – Guitar; Charlie King – Drums; Art Legere – Bass
