The album was recorded in London and produced by Mark Crew and the band's lead singer Dan Smith.

An extended version of the album, All This Bad Blood, was released on 25 November 2013, and featured the single "Of the Night".

In late 2012 they released Other People's Heartache Pt 2, and had finished recording their debut album, but were deciding on the track list.

[7] In an interview with Digital Spy in March 2013, "Laura Palmer" was revealed to be the fifth single to be released from the album, by lead vocalist, Dan Smith.

[8] It was released on 3 June 2013, and an accompanying video for the track premiered through the band's official VEVO page on 12 April 2013.

[9] The group joined English rock band Muse as a supporting act on their The 2nd Law Tour in May 2013 and did so again in June 2013.

[11] On 24 August 2013, "Things We Lost in the Fire" was released as sixth and the last single from the band's debut album.

[18] An accompanying music video for the single, directed by Dave Ma and starring James Russo,[16] was released on 9 October 2013.

They performed a remixed version of "Pompeii" with Rudimental and their song "Waiting All Night" at the ceremony, which was released digitally and charted at number 21 in the UK.

Two hours after their appearance, sales of Bad Blood were up by 132% and "Pompeii" had climbed 29 places in the singles chart.

All This Bad Blood was released as a limited edition 2LP for Record Store Day 2020, for the first time on 29 August 2020.

"[30] Brice Ezell of PopMatters compared the band to the sound of Coldplay in a positive review and wrote, "booming male choirs, string effects, echoey pianos, allusions to Greek mythology and the Bible – Bastille brings out all the artillery on Bad Blood, and the result is nothing less than earth-shattering."

"[36] BBC's Matthew Horton wrote that "Smith and Bastille really deliver, ranging earworm choruses across the album.

"[38] In a less positive review, Jamie Fullerton of NME magazine wrote that "Bastille want everyone to like them," attributing different songs from the album to various "target markets" the group seemed to be aiming at, such as fans of Arcade Fire, Coldplay or Ed Sheeran.

"[33] Michael Hann of The Guardian gave the album two out of five stars and wrote, "By bolting on the merest hint of dance beats to his [Dan Smith's] absolutely conventional, mildly melancholic piano ballads (descending chord sequences, the internationally recognised signifier of mild melancholy, abound), he has spruced up the formula that has dominated mainstream pop-rock for more than a decade.