Over the past nine years, The Bled has lived up to its name in more ways than one. The Tucson Post-Hardcore quintet formed in 2001, initially billing itself as the Radiation Defiance Theory and then almost immediately (and wisely) shortening it to The Bled. A pair of EPs within their first year raised the band’s profile, making them a hot local club draw and ultimately leading to the band signing with Miami’s Fiddler Records.
On the eve of recording their debut full-length, frontman Adam Goss opted out of the band and recommended James Munoz to take his spot. With Munoz at the mic, The Bled recorded 2003’s Pass the Flask and began touring nationwide for the first time, gaining positive notices for their Metal/Math/Hardcore diversity.
After changing labels and bassists, The Bled recorded its sophomore album, Found in the Flood, for Vagrant Records; the album cracked Billboard’s Top 100 and earned the band a slot on the Vagrant stage at 2006’s Warped Tour. In 2007, The Bled released a third full-length, Silent Treatment, and toured with My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Linkin Park, among others.
At the end of that run, the band members announced that they were taking a lengthy break from the road. Finding themselves mired in debt, The Bled’s members took day jobs and outside band gigs to make ends meet; three members ultimately left the band, leaving only Munoz and original guitarist Jeremy Ray Talley.
The arrival of new members was tempered by the band losing their Vagrant deal, but The Bled announced last November its signing with Rise Records and its fourth album, Heat Fetish, which will be released in February.
They’ve done their share of bleeding but they’ll never be desanguinated completely — The Bled has plenty more where that came from.
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