Bloodlet

Since the 1980s, heavy metal and hardcore scenes have regularly overlapped, with acts like Bad Brains and Biohazard among the early examples, yet fresh offshoots keep surfacing. One such variant, dubbed Evil Core, originated with the Southern Florida quartet Bloodlet. The group came together in 1992, its lineup featuring Scott Angelacos on vocals, Matt Easley on guitar, Art Legre on bass, and John Stewart Jr. on drums. Bloodlet cultivated a strain of hardcore marked by greater angst and brutality than that of most peers. After releasing several singles in quick succession, the band aligned with the established hardcore imprint Victory shortly after forming, which yielded three projects across the middle and later 1990s: the 1995 compilation Eclectic, drawn from those initial singles, followed by 1996’s Entheogen and 1998’s Seraphim Fall, before the members parted ways. Scant activity followed from the former lineup, whose individuals largely relocated elsewhere. Throughout that hiatus, however, a wave of emerging hardcore bands began citing Bloodlet as a key influence, Eighteen Visions among them, prompting a reunion and renewed rehearsals by the close of 2001. Linking with veteran indie producer Steve Albini, the quartet delivered its fourth overall recording in 2002, the hard-hitting Three Humid Nights in the Cypress Trees, resuming its earlier direction without interruption.