Miami’s Bleeth release their three-songer Lázara EP on May 29. The mini-collection follows the trio’s 2025 sophomore full-length, Marionette, and continues their path of brash and atmospheric, crunch-laden heavy/noisy sludge rock. And much as that album explored themes of intersecting identity fluidities, how to be multitudes and still a single person, meeting oppressive trauma with strength and a sonic blend that’s snarling and crushing but still emotionally resonant, well, is not like things suddenly got easier this year. Lázara runs all of eight minutes and the first song is a cover, so that would be a lot to ask of this little EP to stand up to in terms of concept and whole-work realizations, but Bleeth hit it hard on this subsequent studio visit, taking on Hole‘s “Pretty on the Inside,” which is almost sadly relevant 35 years later, and two originals “Bent” and “Porcelain,” with guitarist/vocalist Lauren Palma, bassist/vocalist Ryan Rivas and drummer Hector Mojena fostering a sound that, even to my uninitiated ears (because, to be clear, this is my first exposure to the band; late to all parties), comes across as immediately and pointedly individual.

You might hear Fugazi or Jesus Lizard or Melvins or something else ’90s and harrowing in “Bent” or “Porcelain,” and Bleeth‘s take on “Pretty on the Inside” is a pummeler through and through, certainly more than it would’ve been outside the confines of extreme metal circa ’91, and Palma‘s voice answers respectfully the cryout of Courtney Love and the volatility that made the original feel so fresh and anti-bullshit at the time. In Bleeth‘s care, the song is revitalized and modernized, heavier and more forceful for times that are the same, and no less of a shove, and while it’s in “Bent” that the point of view is most plainly laid out in the lyrics — “You’re not the type of person they built this world for” is a hell of an opening line — “Pretty on the Inside” says something similar in its own way. And while the chug in “Porcelain” is less of a forward shove than the bassy boogie of the cut before, the way it opens into the chorus is enough to remind you of Miami’s sludge lineage, bands like Cavity and Floor, and the family trees thereof still spreading their branches. Bleeth commune with this regional influence but aren’t held to it anymore than they’re held to being ‘metal’ or ‘punk.’

This aesthetic dwelling-in-a-place-between is mirrored in the overarching themes of Marionette and Lázara — the latter was recorded at the end of last year, so not the same sessions, but not far removed in sound or style either — and on a meta level, the band itself becomes an answer to the question of what happens when you’ve been told your whole life that there’s an ideal (in this case a straight, cisgendered, white supremacist one) and you’re not it. Palma and Rivas trade lead vocal duties on “Porcelain,” and in addition to feeling like a showcase of what the band can do, the change is a reminder of how powerful expression can become when we push outside imaginary limits. The closer — also the longest inclusion at 3:46 — moves from chug to lurch to roll to push before it’s done, and if it feels restless at any and all points, I have to think that’s intentional on the band’s part. Unsettled, maybe. That becomes part of the appeal, and Bleeth‘s exploration of sound is a reminder that life, for anyone who isn’t a total asshole, largely works the same way. We found out who we are as we go.

Bleeth have been at it for over a decade, so I’ve got a little homework to do. While I’m at it, enjoy “Pretty on the Inside” below. Copious narrative follows the player, courtesy of the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Drive around any neighborhood in Miami, and you’ll see it. The statue of a single saint dotting the many manicured lawns of southwest Dade — San Lázaro.

Often, you see him standing alone out in the sun or encased within a glass enclosure full of fronds and flowers. Always positioned somewhere eerily between life and death, the divine and the mundane.

For Miami-based queer sludge noise band Bleeth, the origin of their latest release, Lazara, traces back to one of those statues in particular. While writing in a cramped side room of guitarist Lauren Palma’s home, a human-sized figure of San Lázaro would stare back at the members of Bleeth.

At first, it was all just a joke. A funny — and creepy — visitor gazing in on their sessions. But eventually, the image of Lazarus himself became a sort of talisman — a quiet presence that worked its way into the fabric of their latest EP, Lázara.

That shift didn’t happen in a vacuum.

The stretch between their 2021 EP Harbinger and their most recent full-length Marionette (Seeing Red Records, 2025) tested the band in ways that would have sidelined most. Label disputes. Job losses. The departure of their original drummer just ahead of a planned 2023 tour.

And it wasn’t just these personal trials that weighed on the members either.

In a world where the rights of LGBTQIAAP+ people are more precarious than ever, the songwriting sessions became an outlet to channel their collective rage at the ills of the Trump administration and the far-right grandstanding gaining mass acceptance in the world. A way to process anger, uncertainty, and everything building beneath the surface.

Somewhere in that mix, the figure of Lazarus took on new meaning. Not just as a religious symbol, but something refracted through a queer lens — a figure marked, cast aside, and brought back to life.

That tension — between collapse and renewal, death and resurrection — runs through Lázara.

And that’s really what this whole new set is about. A new start after a period of turbulence that might’ve destroyed any other band — wrapped up in some of the most eclectic, heaviest, and left-of-center songs Bleeth have ever recorded.

Recorded quickly with Ryan Haft in the winter of 2025, the new material is also their most focused — a lean, three-song statement that wastes no space.

From a visceral reworking of Hole’s “Pretty On The Inside” to the churning, slow burn of “Porcelain” and “Bent,” Lázara is a fresh restart that shows this 10-year strong Miami institution is still hungry for blood.

Recorded and mixed by Ryan Haft at Sunburn Sound

Mastered by Adam Matza at Magic Ears mastering

Tracklist:
1. Pretty On The Inside (Hole cover) (2:44)
2. Bent (2:15)
3. Porcelain (3:46)

Bleeth is:
Lauren Palma – Guitar, Vocal
Ryan Rivas – Bass, Vocal
Hector Mojena – Drums

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