Review Summary: Coming full circle
I’ll be the first to admit I normally voice my distaste for this kind of release; I’ll also be the first to admit I have a tendency to contradict my previous statement, out of morbid curiosity, if the conditions are right. It’s all relative of course, but generally speaking this kind of release has to come from a place where there’s artistic justification for going back to it, and not simply for avaricious motivations. In
Count Your Blessings: Repented’s case, I know the original album has a staunch fanbase but for me, while I always thought there were solid songs on it, the production always let the songwriting down and never quite gelled with me like their other works did. So when the news broke that Bring Me the Horizon were going to re-record
Count Your Blessings from the ground up, I was completely onboard with the idea, assuming it was being approached with some kind of reverence for the source material.
Despite not really liking the direction they’ve gone in with their
Post Human stuff, I’ve always admired their lateral thinking. At this point the band are heralded as torch-bearing headliners, set to take the mantle from the likes of Metallica and the rest of the legends that have sat at the top for so many decades now. So what you can’t say here is that they are doing this with rapacious machinations, or they are backed into a creatively bankrupt corner, clawing desperately at Member Berries, because they stand to gain nothing from going back to their heaviest, most inaccessible album to date. The band could have continued down their current path of pop-adjacent-metal and got even bigger, but like the impulsive sonic shift of
Amo, or the capricious shift into pop-metal with the
Post Human stuff, there’s an unpredictable itch with BMTH that is commendable. But here’s the thing; while I’m very cautious of these kinds of releases,
Count Your Blessings: Repented is clearly being made for the right reasons as, A) It’s not like there is mass appeal for a release like this, given its uncompromising deathcore style, and B) The band appear to be as unhappy with the production and all-round inexperience of the original release as me and felt it needed a redux of sorts. Of course, I understand the initial scepticism of the announcement as there was a scenario where liberties could be made to bring a more “modern” edge to its sound, but fear not purists as that is certainly not the case here.
Count Your Blessings: Repented is a textbook case on how to do a release like this properly, with respect for the source material being the central focus here. From a songwriting perspective things remain unchanged, with only minor flourishes from Nicholls adding some insane double kicks in places to add further brutality to these twenty-year-old compositions (of course, the mix on the original is that bad I could be mistaken with this and they were always there). Nevertheless, the gambit here, and rightfully so, is to bring the original compositions to life using modern production techniques and the band’s two decades of experience to bring the most tightly performed and best sounding experience possible, and in this regard the execution is consummate.
Repented is an unrelentingly brutal experience that sounds phenomenal. There is layering, a complexity, and a vigour that comes from these songs that takes your breath away when you compare it to the original sound, and I thoroughly enjoyed going through this capricious, schizophrenic journey from start to finish. Of course, the caveat for anyone who loves the original version: this new makeover does sanitise the unique energy the OG had in making these “improvements”. I suppose it would be like if Darkthrone or Burzum remade one of their earlier albums. While the album sounds objectively better, with tighter musicianship and an all-round focus on lancing the warts and smoothing out the blemishes, it’s ultimately losing something that can’t be replicated again. Of course, that’s par for the course with this sort of thing.
Taking in everything that’s been said so far –
Repented is a faithful recreation that merely sets out to improve on the 2006 version’s rough sound. Leading up to this, as someone who didn’t really vibe with the original all that much, my main interest lied in whether I’d enjoy the tracks more because of the quality-of-life improvements. I can say that I have a new found appreciation for these songs, but my longstanding opinion on them largely remains.
Count Your Blessings always sounded homogenous and samey to me, which, before this, I did chalk down to its flat production. However, even with this overhaul in sound, the compositions themselves are irrefutably limited and rely on a lot of the same tricks. Breakdowns and chugging riffs feel copy and paste a lot of the time, and the overall pacing is meandering. Couple that with some pretty wild transitions and there are times when you wonder where one song starts and another ends. Still, there are some absolutely brilliant moments sprinkled throughout the record, moments that foreshadow their potential in the future. “Black and Blue” is the perfect balance of ideas on here – a brutally unpredictable, high-energy banger that keeps you on your toes – while “Tell Slater Not to Wash His Dick”’s “move!” and “(I Used to Make Out With) Medusa”’s “psyche!” breakdowns will turn any meek, civilised office worker into a barbarous savage when they slam into action.
Count Your Blessings has always been a weird little anomaly; moments of sheer brilliance nestled in the heart of this inconsistent album.
Repented doesn’t change that, but this new coat of paint definitely brings out its charm and idiosyncratic disposition.
If nothing else, as I stated earlier, I have to commend the band for going back to this album and giving it a thorough once-over. I’ve recently been chuckling over the
‘Cause a kid on the 'gram in a Black Dahlia tank says it ain't heavy metal’ line from “Heavy Metal”, on 2019’s
Amo, and thinking how far we’ve come since then. The band’s desire to wash their hands of their metal roots, and the struggle they were having with their fanbase back then. I guess the ‘gram kids can’t complain with this one as they wholeheartedly get what they asked for here. Couple that with “Dehumanized”, a brand-new deathcore track accompanying this reflective release, and it’s safe to say the band shatter the usual rumours “Oli can’t do this type of music anymore”. More than that, and with a sense of irony I might add, the band have come full circle with this release. That wall they put up has finally come crumbling down, with the potential to reincorporate this level of heaviness into their music with future releases. And after listening to this, I’m here for it.
