Blood on the Dance Floor (band)

• 1. Introduction

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  Blood on the Dance Floor took its name from a Michael Jackson song, a piece of pop royalty repurposed for something far darker. The group formed in Orlando, Florida in 2006, built a devoted following in the scene subculture, and at the height of their reach had merchandise in Hot Topic stores and a recurring slot on the Vans Warped Tour. They even wrote the theme song for a Smosh cartoon. But running beneath all of it, from almost the very beginning, was a pattern of sexual abuse allegations that would eventually cost the band its place on every major streaming platform. How did a joke project from Central Florida become a fixture of youth culture? And what did that proximity to young audiences mean when the allegations began to stack up?

• 2. A Joke That Became a Band

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  Jesus David Torres, going by "Dahvie the Elite Hair God" on Myspace, had already cycled through several local Orlando acts by 2006 before pulling together a group with friends Matty Malaret, Christopher Mongillo, and Rebecca Fugate. They called themselves Love the Fashion at first, and nobody took it seriously. By the summer of 2007, that changed when the project was renamed Blood on the Dance Floor. Malaret left before the year was out, and in April 2008 the remaining members self-released their first album, Let's Start a Riot. Mongillo and Fugate followed Malaret out the door, citing their inability to tour, and Torres pressed on without them.

  The second album, It's Hard to Be a Diamond in a Rhinestone World, brought in a producer: Rusty Wilmot, who picked up the band during recording. It also introduced Garrett Marshal McLaughlin, performing as Garrett Ecstasy, who came on to handle backup vocals and screaming. The CD was self-released in October 2008 with a print run of only 300 copies. Small as that was, it put two people in the same room who would shape the band's next chapter, and it set the terms of a pattern: collaborators entering, then leaving under troubling circumstances.

• 3. The Monroe Years

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  Garrett Ecstasy left the band in 2009 after rape allegations surfaced against Torres. His replacement was Jayy Von Monroe, who had been a fan of the group before Torres asked him to join. The lineup of Torres and Monroe would become the band's most recognizable, lasting from 2009 through 2016. Songs originally recorded with Ecstasy were re-recorded with Monroe's vocals, and the album that had been titled OMFG was retooled and released as Epic in 2010. That October, Epic charted at number five on the Dance/Electronic Billboard chart.

  Jeffree Star collaborated on three tracks for Epic, but the partnership fell apart. Star had also accused Torres of being a pedophile and a predator, claiming to have witnessed questionable behavior. Star later walked back his accusations, saying he felt the band was being victimized, and he was eventually featured on their 2014 single "Poison Apple." The original Star recordings were replaced with Monroe's vocals before the final album was released.

  All the Rage!!, released in 2011 while the band was on Warped Tour, peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Top Electronic Albums chart. Its best-known track, "Bewitched," featured Nicole "Lady" Nogrady, who later stated she was disrespected throughout production and had to confront the band personally to get her name properly credited. The song was later re-recorded with a different vocalist for the 2013 acoustic album Blood Unplugged.

  Evolution followed in June 2012 and reached the Billboard 200. It featured collaborations with Haley Rose, Amelia Arsenic, Shawn Brandon, Deuce, and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte. The band also performed the theme song for the Oishi High School Battle cartoon series on the Shut Up! Cartoons channel, created by Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox of Smosh, and both Torres and Monroe made cameo appearances in the intro sequence.

• 4. The Allegations

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  Since 2009, at least 21 women have made sexual assault, child sexual abuse, and rape allegations against Torres. One of those allegations led to his arrest in 2009, the same year Ecstasy left the band. A central figure in the broader public reckoning is Damien Leonhardt, formerly known online as Jessi Slaughter, whose father's "you done goofed" video went viral in 2010 and turned Leonhardt into a target of mass cyberbullying. Torres and Monroe responded not with silence but by releasing a parody of Leonhardt's video, with Monroe playing Leonhardt and Torres playing Leonhardt's father. They also released a song titled "You Done Goofed" from the album Epic, with lyrics that included "We watched as the world watched you cry" and "My name and reputation won't be the target of a slut." Torres deliberately released the song on Leonhardt's 12th birthday. Leonhardt later attempted suicide by overdose.

  Years later, Leonhardt publicly stated that the harassment had been rooted in truth: Torres had begun grooming and sexually abusing them in 2009, when Leonhardt was 10 years old. Those claims, alongside dozens of others, prompted investigative reporting by outlets including HuffPost and MetalSucks. Television journalist Chris Hansen conducted interviews with Leonhardt and several other accusers. Monroe, speaking to Hansen, also accused Torres of abuse, stating that Torres forced him to tour without his HIV medication, bringing him close to developing AIDS. Monroe said he made a full recovery after leaving the band in 2016.

  Jeffree Star and New Years Day members Ash Costello and Nikki Misery stated that they personally witnessed Torres engage in questionable or illegal sexual behavior, both during Vans Warped Tour appearances and during the All the Rage Tour 2012. Torres responded to the allegations repeatedly with denial, threats, or evasion. As of 2025, no criminal charges had been brought.

• 5. Industry Consequences

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  Combichrist removed Blood on the Dance Floor from their tour in 2014, an early sign that the industry was paying attention. Merchandising platform Big Cartel removed the band's products in 2018. Then in April 2019, Spotify and Google Play both removed the band's music for violating their guidelines on prohibited content. The Smosh channel pulled all episodes of Oishi High School Battle after Torres's abuse was publicly exposed. In early 2020, Hansen announced a formal investigation, and the FBI confirmed it was also investigating the allegations at that time.

  Von Monroe, who left the band in 2016, has continued performing as a drag queen under the name "The Dahli." Garrett Ecstasy, the first member to leave over the allegations, has also publicly described Torres as a sexual predator. The removal from streaming platforms meant that a catalog spanning multiple Billboard-charting albums became substantially harder to access through mainstream channels, and the reach that Hot Topic placement and Warped Tour had given the band was effectively reversed by institutional pressure.

• 6. After the Breakup

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  After Monroe's departure in 2016, Torres briefly ran the band under the name Blood on the Dance Floor with his girlfriend Fallon Vendetta, announcing her arrival in May 2017. Together they released a series of singles and the album Kawaii Monster on the 31st of October 2017. Pre-orders for that release included a remastered edition of Let's Start a Riot as a second disc. A relationship breakup ended Vendetta's involvement shortly after, leaving Torres as the sole member.

  On the 5th of September 2019, Torres released Hollywood Death Star as Blood on the Dance Floor, featuring singles including "Sweet Like Popsicles" and "Sex Rx." After that album, Torres shifted his public presence toward solo projects: Kawaii Monster, The Most Vivid Nightmares, and a merchandise line called Dark Arts Official. In spring 2025, Torres teased a final Blood on the Dance Floor record on his Dark Arts Official Instagram page. Two singles arrived on the 13th of June 2025, and the full album, titled Epidemic, was released on the 31st of October 2025. That final-album framing was later revealed to be a marketing stunt; a further album, titled Ripe With Decay, was announced for 2026.