Blessthefall have pulled their ‘Bless the Slice’ shirt after learning the design used AI without their awareness.
Blessthefall have responded to fans who raised concerns that one of the band’s recent merch designs appeared to use AI-generated artwork by pulling it from their store. The shirt, titled ‘Bless the Slice,’ was inspired by the pizza delivery character from the group’s ‘Mallxcore’ music video and was added to their online store after fans requested it.
Shortly after it went on sale, listeners began pointing out that the imagery appeared to be created by AI rather than being an original, human-made artwork. That feedback prompted the band to look into how the design was actually produced.
In a statement posted to social media, blessthefall acknowledged that they hadn’t scrutinised the creation process closely enough before approving the shirt. “We’ve seen the concerns about the shirt design and want to address it directly,” they wrote. “The artwork came from the asset our director made for the ‘Mallxcore’ music video. It was originally just something fun for the video — we never planned to turn it into merch. We only made the shirt because people asked for it.”
The band further clarified that it was meant to throw back to one of their earliest Hot Topic designs, explaining: “The design was supposed to be a nod to our first Hot Topic shirt ‘Cat Barf,’ and we didn’t realise the new version involved AI. Using AI like that is lame and we get why people are frustrated. There was never any intention to cut artists out or be shady. We just didn’t look closely enough at how the design was created and we’ll be pulling it from our online store. Thanks to everyone who pointed it out. We hear you, and we’ll do better moving forward.”
You can check out blessthefall’s full statement, as well as the music video the shirt artwork was from, below:
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