Review Summary: The Return of the King (of the Scene)
Over their now-near-20-year career, Bring Me the Horizon has taken influence from almost every genre imaginable, whether it be metalcore, pop, EDM, or even symphonic music, and created genre salads never far from the domain of bands like Linkin Park for metalcore bands to follow in the coming years. Reinventing themselves once again in the next generation of their musical journey, the band puts out an amalgamation of emo, post-hardcore, hyperpop, nu metal, and their trademark metalcore breakdowns, with their core songwriting sensibilities shining through the discordant elements inherent from creating new genre blends.
After joining before the release of Sempiternal, Jordan Fish has easily played the second most important role in the band, reigning in the wild ideas Oli Sykes throws out into complete and melodic songs. Losing him means Bring Me the Horizon loses some of the cohesion of their earlier work, replaced by wacky electronic elements scattered throughout. The best example of this can be seen the closing track DIg It, where electronic glitches dominate the soundscape as the song reaches its climactic screaming section. While the wild electronics do help enhance the emotions of despair and despondency the lyrics in that song seek to address, they at times take the listener out of the song due to their start-stop nature, and Jordan Fish's restraint is slightly lacking in a few sections. The sharp, almost dissonant-at-times mix throughout definitely calls back to the hyperpop influence so clearly on display in songs like DiE4u.
Even without Jordan Fish, one thing Oli Sykes never forgets to do is write a catchy chorus: every song contains earworm melodies to which the listener will be singing along in no time. The "Rescue Me" line in Top 10 staTues tHat CriEd bloOd immediately catches one's attention in harkening back to mid '00s emo, and by the second chorus one can already find themself singing along to that melody. Rip contains a groovy chorus rife with electronic influence in the same vein as amo's Nihilist Blues, even if it can't match the atmospheric ambiance of that song. The largest and most cinematic choruses, however, were already released as singles prior; AmEN!, Kool-Aid, and DArkSide are all fit for headlining an arena concert. Considering the nu metal influence on those three tracks, one might be slightly blindsided by the lack of such a presence in the rest of the album. Besides the Deftones worship of liMOusine, the nu metal of Survival Horror is thrown out the window and replaced with myspace emo.
In interviews over the past few years, Oli Sykes emphasized this album's emo focus, and the band absolutely delivers on that promise. For some reason, the three singles released in the past calendar year diverged from that sound, but almost all of the new songs return the spotlight to emo in one way or another. Those wishing for the disgusting metalcore breakdowns of yore will be slightly disappointed in the previously-unreleased songs, as the only true metalcore breakdown in those appears at the end of liMOusine. AmEN! is by far the most brutal song on the record, with crunching guitar riffs and wild drum tempo changes that help facilitate the raw heaviness of Oli Sykes' screamed vocals. One can't help but wish for just a few more of those moments sprinkled throughout the record, even if Oli Sykes does throw in a few screams in a good chunk of the songs.
The uniqueness of this album once again floors everything else in the scene. Oli Sykes' ability to effortlessly draw from all of the aforementioned genres to create these relatively short, melodic songs demonstrates his immense songwriting ability. Despite Jordan Fish's departure, the band has not lost this ability to blend genres in such a way, despite my qualms with some of the crazier electronic techniques employed. a bulleT w- my namE On seamlessly combines electronics, '00s post-hardcore, emo, and even the slight metalcore elements provided by the Underoath feature into arguably the most cohesive song on the album outside of DArkSide. The ichika-esque guitar in the bridge of Top 10 staTues tHat CriEd bloOd and the increased pace of the drumming at the end of YOUtopia are just more examples of the band switching things up ever-so-slightly for the betterment of their overall output. For better or for worse, nothing else quite sounds like Bring Me the Horizon, especially given Oli Sykes' varying vocal delivery throughout.
Over the years, Bring Me the Horizon seems to have been pushing more and more into songs with the same runtime. Of course, no one can emulate the shear number of unique sections in Ice Nine Kills' Your Number's Up in a 3 minute song, but with songs like Kool-Aid, a bulleT w- my namE On, and AmEN!, Bring Me the Horizon embrace their tendency to combine a million sections into the same song in the vein of previous songs such as Obey and Kingslayer. Losing Jordan Fish's emphasis on cohesion a few of these songs a bit messy, but each section does blend together well enough to work regardless. Thankfully, YOUtopia, liMOusine, and DIg It (at least for the first 3 minutes) stand out in replacing this with more eurythmic and natural movements between sections, similar to the band's output on amo and prior albums. When Bring Me the Horizon eschews the schizophrenic approach, their songwriting ability shines through even better.
Sempiternal ushered in a whole new era of copycat metalcore bands trying to emulate the sing-screamed choruses of Sleepwalking and Crooked Young, while That's the Spirit inspired many metalcore acts to follow suit in turning to a more radio-friendly arena rock sound, so Bring Me the Horizon has usually been at the forefront of new movements in the scene. However, bands like SeeYouSpaceCowboy..., If I Die First, and Static Dress have already been reviving the myspace post-hardcore/screamo sound for years. Of course, Bring Me the Horizon opts to take a more melodic approach and adds hyperpop into the mix, but for a second, one can't help but question if all of the delays has caused the band to fall slightly behind in influencing the reinvention of metalcore stalwarts old and new. Will Bullet for My Valentine try to emulate NEx GeN in the same way Gravity emulated That's the Spirit? That is unlikely, especially considering they moved back into melodic metalcore territory with their self-titled album. This, though, does beg the question of whether Bring Me the Horizon still has the same pull on the genre. Time can only tell whether or not we will see metalcore bands gravitate towards hyperpop and emo influence and pull off full-on Bring Me the Horizon worship as Bad Omens did on their debut album. However, considering bands like Windwaker already are pulling from this influence, Bring Me the Horizon may not be late to the game after all and might have just started another revolution in the metalcore genre. Bring Me the Horizon is back with another masterpiece, and even in this transitional period continues to serve as the quintessential scene band to be loved by some, reviled by a few, and as divisive as ever.
