Review Summary: Bring Me The Horizon's new album is an intense roller coaster ride, full of energy and highly dynamic.
Until recently, the music of Bring Me The Horizon was unknown to me. I've simply never given them a chance, having heard about their trendy looks, their popularity among teenagers and their allegedly generic metalcore. Shame on me. Fortunately, the guys from
Benea Reach, who I regard highly when it comes to taste in music, claimed that Bring Me The Horizon's "There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven, Let's Keep It A Secret" was the album of the year, so I decided to check it out after all, despite of the ridiculously long title.
When a band is labeled as 'metalcore', I always fear for generically recycled Gothenburg riffs with a mix of harsh and boring clean vocals, but Bring Me The Horizon prove me wrong right from the start. This band is truly energetic, dynamic and willing to experiment. Right from the intense opener "Crucify Me", the band manages to impress with heavy riffs, a rather epic atmosphere and the vocals of Oliver Sykes, who sounds like he's having a continuous panic attack throughout the album. The first song alone is quite a roller coaster ride already, combining the aggression of metal and hardcore with electronic elements and female vocals, while never losing any of its intensity. You could even call it a blueprint for the rest of the album, as Bring Me The Horizon takes the expression 'never a dull moment' very seriously. The downside of this approach is that the album sounds incoherent at times, like the band had too many ideas and didn't know which ones to drop. Next time, they should really make an effort to structure their album better, so it doesn't sound like random (good) ideas put together in an illogical order.
Nevertheless, "There Is A Hell..." really is an excellent album with some fantastic songs, like the melodic and extremely catchy single "It Never Ends", the steam waltz called "Blacklist" and the instant live hits "Anthem" and "F*ck". You can hardly get your music any more energetic than this. Only "Home Sweet Hole" is below par, with its generic chorus and generally boring riffs. I can imagine that Bring Me The Horizon isn't everyone's cup of tea, but if you have an open mind and don't mind metalcore too much, you might just find something of your liking here.
