In early June, Bleeding Through submitted a guest blog to us lamenting the situation they were in at the time with their label Trustkill Records. According to the bandmembers, their new album Declaration could only be recorded with money lent from singer Brandan Schieppati's dad and a loan from their manager since Trustkill coughed up less than 25 percent of the budget they had promised for the record. Contracts were breached repeatedly, and while the label eventually ponied up cash owed and set a release date of September 30 for Declaration, they're still not providing tour support, leaving the band scrambling to pick up the tab for tickets to fly to Europe for a tour with Bullet For My Valentine.

Clearly, the years of bitterness with their label and the industry in general have left a deep imprint on Declaration, and album so fueled by rage, so ignited by distrust and contempt that it's hard to listen to without wanting to send a mailbomb to sombody you despise. While the band's past records have combined hardcore aggressive with the precision of thrash and ominous keyboards, here Bleeding Through ramp up the brutality, infusing many of the songs with black metal blast beats, orchestral buzzsaw guitar and swooping keys reminiscent of Dimmu Borgir or Emperor. And while there are still some melodic vocal parts, they're substantially scaled down from those on The Truth. And instead of railing about painful relationships, Schieppati, who is now happily married, have substituted circumstantial and existential aggression for romantic dysfunction.

During an off day on the band's tour with Bullet For My Valentine, we sat down with Schieppati and discussed the quagmire with Trustkill, how it rubbed off on the new songs, how the singer was convinced he wad dying from cancer, the misconception that Bleeding Through would pull an Atreyu for this disc and get all commercial, and the band's determination to forge ahead and fight to persevere in the face of a record industry that seems to be collapsing like a deck of cards.

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It has been months and we have kept silent. But this latest slap in the face from our supposed record label has pushed us over the edge. We just read on the Internet that Josh Grabelle plans to release a "special edition" of our 2006 album "The Truth" one month before releasing our new album.

Let it be known that Bleeding Through is 100% against this so-called "special" edition. We did not approve the title, cover artwork (whatever it is), track-listing or bonus features for this transparent and obvious cash-grab of a re-release from a record label that despite selling a quarter of a million of our albums worldwide is having problems.

Over a year ago we suggested the idea of a re-release of the album to Trustkill -- on our terms, of course, with our artistic vision -- and he said he'd consider it if we could land a "big" tour. We confirmed a tour with Marilyn Manson and Slayer, followed by a tour with HIM, and he said, "NO" to us. He thought we should put out a new album instead (click "more" to read to rest of Bleeding Through's guest blog). Read more...