BMTH’s New Album Makes Listeners Beg For More Metal

More metal please? Or “turn that noise down!?”

Is that what many of you say when listening to today’s metal music?

For those of you who bask in the chaos of screaming vocals, heavy riffing and machine-gunning drums, then you should be familiar with the band, Bring Me the Horizon.

From their first album, This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For, released back in October 2004, to Suicide Season released in October 2008, Bring Me the Horizon has offered a broad demonstration of heavy metal music and has been a trendsetter.

The group hopes to build on that foundation with their latest album, There Is a Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is a Heaven, Let’s Keep It a Secret, released in October.

The album prompts a different sound than the groups previous albums. After making a line-up change and picking up guitarist Jona Weinhofen—formerly of I Killed the Prom Queen—the BMTH sound has progressed into something of their own.

Vocalist Oli Sykes has a particular vocal style with constant tempo changes—going from high to slow throughout. There are many segments that you can’t help but shout along with him, making a majority of the songs appeasing in a sing-along type of way.

The overall tone is very “in your face” and the vocals piled with the assault of drums and guitar offers an endless amount of rage felt throughout. The occasional off timing of the vocals with the rest of the band brings everything together, making their sound monstrous and unpredictable— which is key if you’re making this kind of music. However, there were a few things I didn’t like.

The sporadic interludes with ambient-like noise and synthesized keyboards in between Sykes vocals and boisterous guitar riffs, simply felt foreign and completely random to their style of music.

Another minus to Bring Me the Horizon’s new album is the singing. Where did this come from?Suicide Season offered a softer side to Sykes’ vocals, but definitely wasn’t anything close to singing. I never would have expected it to be a part of their musical composition.

One thing you may also notice, is that some of the lyrics seem a bit recycled.

Granted, this album was a follow-up to Suicide Season, but it doesn’t mean some of their old verses needed to be repeated.

Besides the random mess of noise peppering some of their tracks and the deviance in some of their vocals—and maybe becoming a bit more “poppy”—I give the album two thumbs up.

My top track picks are: Anthem; It Never Ends; Fox and the Wolf and Visions. They are fastpaced and full of catchy verses— who doesn’t like a good line?

Every song on the album has something positive.

It’s nice to see a band that has been around for so long, still produce original, authentic, music.

Their ability and chemistry will keep the band in the game for a long time. These guys are keeping it metal and doing it well.