Black Veil Brides - Bleeders [Red]

Black Veil Brides open a new chapter with Bleeders, a three-track EP from 2024 pressed on red vinyl in a gatefold sleeve, and it wears its theatrical heart proudly.

The release was the band's first for Spinefarm Records, following a run on Sumerian that included The Phantom Tomorrow and The Mourning. Andy Biersack has never hidden his love of gothic spectacle, and this time the inspiration is Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, the demon barber whose tale of grief and revenge suits the band's flair for melodrama perfectly.

The title track, written by Biersack with guitarist Jake Pitts and Erik Ron, is a big, sweeping hard rock anthem that puts Biersack's rich baritone front and centre. The two covers are where the fun really starts. My Friends, Sweeney's eerie love song to his razors, gets a heavy, theatrical makeover that leans into the menace hiding in Sondheim's melody. U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday is then given the full Black Veil Brides treatment, louder and darker than the original but still driven by that urgent marching beat.

With Jinxx, Jake Pitts, Christian Coma and Lonny Eagleton alongside Biersack, the band sound tight and confident.

For the fanbase that has followed them since the early days, this red pressing is a striking short-form statement from a band still happy to go big.