Twenty years into their musical career, things are still looking upwards for Scotland’s Bleed from Within. The metalcore act has managed to really strike a chord in their last few years, rising to much higher prominence in the scene. For good reason, as their approach has been catchy, heavy, and ripe with energy. Their latest album, Zenith, continues to see the band take risks and it makes their sound even stronger. We spoke with drummer Ali Richardson about all of this and more, dissecting out some of the points of Zenith and looking at the band’s will to survive over the years.
Dead Rhetoric: Zenith is your newest album. Did you have any goals in mind with this release, or anything you wanted/didn’t want to do?
Ali Richardson: We really just wanted to progress. That was what the album title was referring to. It was about trying to capture this period of growth. The previous three albums, we had an illustrative artwork. We were working with our good friend Nolly Getgood on the mix side of things. But for this album we just wanted to change it up. I believe it was the same thing over again, so expecting different results is insane…it’s like the definition of insanity. We just wanted to challenge ourselves and put ourselves into a slightly different creative space and see where it took us. We are always trying to grow and develop. It was quite early on when we realized we were onto something special, and this new formula was working for us. I really feel like we have achieved something special with Zenith, and I’m excited to see where that takes us.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you feel more comfortable in doing some outside of the box things at this point?
Richardson: Of course. When you get older you start to care less. I don’t even think its about caring less, but more about scratching an itch that you might have. For us, we just felt like we…the bagpipes are a prime example of this, as we wanted to do it for about ten years but always thought it might be a bit cheesy. We didn’t want it to be attached as a gimmick. So this time we were floating the idea around and we all thought, “fuck it,” this is what it’s all about. We couldn’t be more happy with how it sounded. But there’s a bunch of stuff on there, experimenting with clean vocals, the production, and some of the songwriting elements as well. There’s been a lot of that. What is the point in not doing it at this point? Our fans have been so supportive and at the end of the day, it’s still a fucking metal album, so I don’t see why you wouldn’t enjoy it.
Dead Rhetoric: The bagpipes definitely stood out. I saw in a previous interview that someone had said it was a future goal. I think you did a fantastic job with them.
Richardson: Thanks, that’s great to hear that it’s not going down as a gimmick. So that makes me very happy.
Dead Rhetoric: Bleed from Within has had a slow build up of success over the years. Do you feel it has helped you to enjoy it more as you move upwards?
Richardson: I don’t know, I’d call it character building, that’s what I would say. Sometimes bands have overnight success, and sometimes it’s a long path, and it’s sometimes in the middle. This is our 20th anniversary as a band this year, so I like to think of us as the working man’s metal band. We have had our heads down for so long, we just work like that. We write music and we have continued to learn, and our bond as friends has kept us together as friends. The desire to continue creating new music and travelling the world together. It blows my mind that I was in Australia recently with my other band, and I went into a shop and had to give someone my email address, which is @bleedfromwithin.com and the guy was like, “You are in Bleed from Within, that’s one of my favorite bands!” I couldn’t believe it, I was in Perth, Australia!
I think the amount of time we have done it, we are all very humble. There’s not an ego between us and we are very grounded in that sense, because of the time and hours we have put in. I think it probably does make us appreciate where we are right now more than if it has happened over night. We don’t take anything for granted. We appreciate how far we have come, and how far we have to go. That again taps into the album title. We are grateful for all the opportunities we have enjoyed over the last 20 years, but there’s still a lot more to come for this band.
Dead Rhetoric: Fracture was released in the pandemic 5 years ago. What did you learn from that time with the band?
Richardson: Stick to your guns. We got told we could push the album back, but for us, it was important to get it out there when we felt people needed it the most. We continued to write and that material became Shrine. When we got out of COVID and the world opened up again, we actually had two albums worth of material to tour, which was actually really beneficial to the band. It put us on this course for the last five years, just having so much music. I think that’s important to consider for other bands. People consume so much content these days, it’s important to have a good turn over of content to be consumed. We enjoy writing and like the challenge it brings. We are just continuing that cycle as much as we can in order to give us the best chance of being noticed and getting out there. Unless you have the new content, you don’t get to tour so it’s the cycle repeating.
Dead Rhetoric: When you have that motivation, love, and drive, I imagine it makes it easier to continue to put out that content.
Richardson: 100% yeah. We did it years ago, we had some gaps between albums. We have done it that way, and saw how hard it was to piece things together. When you are active and pushing it, when you have a tight-knit unit like we have now, everything gets a lot easier. It’s just more enjoyable. No one knows what the fuck they are doing, and you can apply that to any walk of life, and we are just the same. We are figuring it out album by album and day by day, to go to something better, to create something that is Bleed from Within. But there’s more to come!
Dead Rhetoric: For a band that has been around 20 years, you haven’t lost a ton of members, especially considering some of the rough times you have had. What do you credit this to?
Richardson: [Laughs] I don’t know, I’d like to say that since we are Scottish, we are very thick-skinned. But it’s a group of friends that have really stuck together through this. The core group of the four of us, and then Steven [Jones] joined us and he’s fast approaching 9-10 years in the band now. I wouldn’t change it for the world, we have that for each other. We found, and it’s so hard to find, to find people that can work together the way we work. To be able to travel and spend so much time in confined spaces too. It’s a very delicate balance to find. So to be able to run a business and travel the world with these guys is a dream come true.
Dead Rhetoric: Since it is 20 years this year, are you planning anything special for it?
Richardson: No, honestly it’s just a number. There’s so much more to come, I don’t think we need to make a point of taking a break and saying what we have done. I don’t think about it much, we are still in the middle of our growth as a band and to many people we are still a new band. It’s just head down and keep working. We are playing some headline shows in Glasgow later this year, and I’m sure we will probably say something on stage but really, just head down and keep going. There’s a lot more to do.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you have any big, concrete goals that you’d still like to see Bleed from Within achieve?
Richardson: World domination! I mean we did support Slipknot in Europe and that was kind of like a dream come true for us. I think Goonzi’s goal in life was to get bagpipes in a breakdown and we’ve achieved that. Honestly I just want to keep it sustainable and keep it going. I’m happy to see the fanbase grow and we have a big headline tour across the UK and Europe and the ticket sales are overwhelmingly positive across the board. If we can just continue this trajectory that we are on in any way, shape, or form, I will be really happy.
Dead Rhetoric: How do you feel the metal landscape has changed from when you first started?
Richardson: I think it’s what I just said, the rate at which people go through content. I think that is the biggest, which is more of an observation about people in general, with stuff being just squashed down your throat. A Reel or TikTok is like 30 seconds long and they hear a song and that’s it. With Spotify, if you aren’t pumping out singles all the time it’s easy to fall into obscurity. I think that’s the biggest observation. To stay relevant you have to work fast and create content and a brand that people relate to. I think that’s part of the reason that we have done really well in recent years. We are very open and honest and people can tell that. Maybe moreso now than ever, it’s about creating connections with people. Either through your music or as people. Being able to connect with people is really what makes for a worthwhile relationship with your fanbase.
Dead Rhetoric: So have you had any interactions that really stand out over time?
Richardson: I think just in general. I think it’s not so much one interaction that comes to mind, but a blanket reaction to how we are with fans and how they react to us. They feel like an extension of us and feel like people we can hang out with more and actually engage with. It feels like people actually give a shit now, which is really heartwarming after you have been doing it so long and put your soul into it. I look forward to that developing more as time goes and the band gets bigger. It’s really fun to see as an artist.
Dead Rhetoric: What would you like to teach a class about if you couldn’t talk about music?
Richardson: Can I say music business? I manage the band as well, so I’d probably be into that side of things. Trying to find that connection with people, I enjoy that. I think a lot of people overlook the fact that it’s called the music business for a reason and people get chewed up and spit out by it. It very nearly happened to us. We really had to have our wits about it to go through what we did and get out of it to where we are now. I would try to advise people as best as I possibly could on the pitfalls of the music industry.
Dead Rhetoric: What are your plans for the rest of 2025?
Richardson: We have are coming to the US on the 17th of April supporting Bullet for my Valentine and Trivium as part of their twenty year anniversary tour. We love America and it’s been so kind to us. We only toured there for the first time in 2023, so it feels like we have a lot of making up to do. We are excited for that, then we have some European festivals. That’s a circuit that we have been doing for such a long time and chipping away at it. It’s amazing to get the chance to get on the bigger stages and play in front of more people. Then we have a headline tour in UK and Europe at some venues we have been playing at for the last 15 years. After that, I can’t discuss yet, but it will take us to another part of the world we haven’t been. Then in 2026 it’s more of the same. We keep writing, touring, and just don’t give up.
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