After more than a decade of relentless touring, blistering riffs, and sweat-soaked moshpits, Chicago thrashers Bloodletter are poised to drop the most ambitious and ferocious album of their career. Titled Leave the Light Behind, the record arrives July 25, 2025 via Wise Blood Records and Morbid & Miserable Records, and will be available on vinyl, CD, cassette, and digital platforms.
A vicious fusion of classic thrash and melodic death metal, Leave the Light Behind sees Bloodletter refining their sound into something darker, heavier, and more expansive than ever before. The album builds on the foundation laid by 2023’s A Different Kind of Hell and the band’s contribution to last year’s Wise Blood split series Faster Than the Devil Vol. 3, which teased a bleaker, more sinister direction.
“This time around we wanted to take the melodic riffing from our Funeral Hymns record and the brute force and speed of A Different Kind of Hell and really blend the two more,” said Bloodletter vocalist/guitarist Pete Carparelli. “We wanted to shoot for more grandiose and dramatic arrangements, while still keeping the elements of the core Bloodletter sound; speed, harmonized riffs and themes that can get stuck in your head.”
Leave the Light Behind is a masterclass in melodic violence, filled with shredding solos, infectious leads, and lyrical themes that straddle cosmic horror and personal darkness. With lyrics that explore supernatural threats, depression, and the unknown, the album feels like a sonic descent into the abyss — but with the intensity and precision that only Bloodletter can deliver.
According to Carparelli, this album isn’t just the next chapter — it could be the defining moment for the band. “Leave the Light Behind is the result of hard work, pushing ourselves and making sure we left nothing out. I’m the most proud of this album out of anything we’ve ever released. Quite honestly, if this were the last thing we did, I could hold my head high and know that this album is the exact mix of what I wanted us to sound like. It’s dark, it’s melodic, it’s heavy, it’s fast and most importantly, it’s what Bloodletter should sound like.”
Pre-orders for Leave the Light Behind are available here via Wise Blood and here via Morbid And Miserable.
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