Bring Me the Horizon:
The Band That Has Done It All
Joshua Galer
Music 103: Music Appreciation (B03)
Professor Thomas Goddard
Bring Me the Horizon, when someone says those words around a music fans a couple
different things come to mind. Whenever it’s the deathcore band who produced “Count Your
Blessings” or “Suicide Season” or the hard for old fans to accept more electronic and alternative
sound in “Amo” or the “Music to listen to EP” there’s a lot to Bring Me the Horizon.
I’m going to start this presentation with what this band means to me personally. I was
introduced to this band when they released the album “That’s The Spirit”. This was a good
starting point for me as I had never listened to heavy metal, outside of Metallica of course. The
mix and sound of “That’s the Spirit” was a perfect gateway into the band as songs like
“Wonderful Life” and “Happy Song” resonated with me as I completed my time in high school.
As I grew so did the band and they released other albums that made me question if I was
listening to the same band or not. The most bizarre release would have had to have been the
“Music to EP” which if I read the full title of that album I would run out of time. This album was
100% electronic and alternative music which is not the hard rock/metal that I was used to from
“That’s the Spirit”. But before the “Music to EP” I listened to “Amo” which is arguably the
bands most hated album. The reason for this is because the band completely changed their sound.
I have personally grown to like that album more and more as time goes on but we’ll get into that
later.
EARLY DAYS
So, what does this band sound like you may ask. Well that is a very hard question to
answer, so to do it properly I am going to go through this band’s discography album by album.
Like I said previously this band started out as a deathcore band which means a lot of “dirty”
vocals and very heavy music with a very high BPM. The average BPM of the album is 130
BPM, the fastest being 199 BPM (Getsongbpm). This album, count your blessings was released
in 2006, but was not the first release of the band. Count your Blessings was the band’s first
success, but it was much better than their first release. The first release of the band was an EP
labeled “This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For” which was released on the 2nd of
October 2004 [ CITATION Met22 \l 1033 ]. This first release was kind of a mess with very low
productions values and sounds like everything was recorded with a radio shack mixer and Shure
SM58s. There are absolutely no clear high frequencies to mention. BPM remains relatively
consistent since the songs for the most part sound similar. “Sykes immediately stood out, not just
for his robust goblin-style screams, but for his iconic mid-2000s style” [ CITATION Mad22 \l
1033 ]. This was Myspace era deathcore music and sounded as such. Oli states that their early
purpose was to “create and perform the heaviest party music they could: music to mosh to, to
smash the living sh*t out of someone to” [ CITATION Mad22 \l 1033 ]. The band grew with both
style and sound and while their 2008 album “Suicide Season” still maintained the same heavy
sound as their first EP and “ Count Your Blessings” it is much more listen to-able. The melodies
of the album are actually present and enjoyable to hear. Such as in Chelsea smile (insert sample
here) which is in the key of A#/Bb at a tempo of 100 BPM, the vocals are still distorted and
baritone in range. Key changes and rhythm changes are present throughout the song and (finally)
the album. The album ranges from 76 to 126 BPM (getsongbpm) and the vocals are
understandable by the listener. There is actually a clean lyrical section in a few of the songs –
notably in the song “Football season is over” (insert song clip). There is one more album in the
band’s old sound – that album is called “There is a Hell Believe Me I’ve Seen It, There Is A
Heaven Let’s Keep It A Secret”. This album is a turning point for the band, I would say a
transitional period from “Count your Blessings” and “Suicide Season” to the rest of this bands
discography. “There is a Hell” is loosely based on their experience from Reading, where they
found “our style was so polarizing, and people clearly thought we were the type of band that
you’d want to beat the s*** out of” [ CITATION Wil22 \l 1033 ]. Musically this album is unique
compared to previous albums. Like this part in “Crucify Me” (Insert song clip). “It Never Ends”
shows the bands transitional period as well (Insert song clip). Showing Oli’s clean singing style,
there is some baritone, but during the clean parts the vocals go up to Tenor. This song has a BPM
of 105 and was written in Ab Major. “It Never Ends” has a “hopeful” sounding rhythm and some
really cool “drop out” parts where the lead instruments drop out and reveal a keyboard and
synthesizer. One more song I’d like to point out is “Anthem” (insert song clip). The bpm is 110,
and the song is written in C Minor, but the point I would like to draw attention to is when the
music goes half time – with beats on every half note which is different from the rest of the song.
The vocals in this track are also distorted.
TRANSITION PERIOD
Next, and arguably the band’s best album, sempiternal. I could find something positive to
say about every song on this album, but since I don’t have time for that let’s talk about the best.
First off, a song that really differentiates this band from the past “And The Snakes Start To Sing”
(Insert song clip). This is the slowest song in the band’s discography (so far) at only 82 BPM.
This song is written in C# Major. The song features mostly clean singing and shows off Oli
Sykes vocal range from Baritone to Tenor. I am not the only one who believes that Sempiternal
was a breakthrough album – NME clains “They (bring me the horizon) delivered one of the
decade’s most accomplished metal albums with 2013’s ‘Sempiternal’” [ CITATION Wil22 \l
1033 ]. Shadow Moses was number 1 on BBC and received regular mainstream airplay (insert
song clip).
Next up we have That’s The Spirit “released two years later, went even further by achieving
Platinum status” [ CITATION Wil22 \l 1033 ]. That’s the Spirit went even further with refining
Bring Me The Horizon’s sound. Sounds like Happy Song (insert song clip) are completely clean
vocally with Oli singing in a Baritone to Tenor vocal range. There’s a layering technique which
is used during the chorus and gives it an interesting sound. Songs like Avalanche show where the
band is heading (insert song clip) with the band using pads and synthesizers a lot more
prominently than previously. This sound, while not appealing to the older Bring Me The Horizon
fans, brought a whole new group of people to the band. Rolling Stones describes the album as
having an “anthemic pop-rock” [ CITATION Ewe22 \l 1033 ] sound rather than the deathcore the
band had previously.
Amo was the band’s most divisive album to date and the last album of the transition
period. Amo changed the band’s sound entirely and showed that this band was capable of more
than just guitar lead heavy metal. Fish (a band member) claims he made this album since “We’re
too creative to be a straight-up arena rock band,” reflects Fish. ““Oli’s got too much creativity to
be in that band. So Amo felt like a bit of a reset to break that trajectory”” [ CITATION Ewe22 \l
1033 ]. The album starts off with “I Apologize if You Feel Something” (insert song clip) not a
single guitar sound to be heard. We also hear that Oli has quite the vocal range. The vocals in this
song range from Tenor to Alto and its crazy considering Oli never sang this high in the entire
band’s history. Wonderful life shows the band’s rock side is still prevalent which one nice
sounding guitar section (insert song clip). Oli sings in his typical baritone to tenor and the song is
electric guitar lead as we are used to hearing. Amo had a mixed reception with fans – since many
long time fans were used to listening to the deathcore or heavy metal side of the band. This pop-
rock and electronic section was completely new. Oli addresses this in the song “Heavy Metal”
where he claims that he is more than a genre (insert song clip). Heavy Metal is a drum lead song
which incorporates an electric guitar but also a tone of electronic sounds and a synthesized bass
line.
We can’t finish the transition period without mentioning the “Music To” EP. This EP
didn’t have a single song that was guitar lead. The whole album relied on beats and incorporated
a lot of artists one wouldn’t see a typical metal band playing with such as Halsey and Bexey.
This album even tries its luck with rap with “Underground Big” (insert song clip). Straight up
electronic is also prevalent in songs like inverted question mark ft. Halsey (insert song clip)
singing in an Alto to Mezzo-Soprano range.
Latest Albums
This leads us to the bands latest “EP” and singles. The latest EP the band released is
called “Post Human: Survival Horror”. Songs like Dear Diary (insert song clip) show the band
going back to their roots with 118 BPM and played in a key of G. Oli has a mix of clean and
distorted vocals. Overall, this song is high energy and brings the listener back to the earlier days
of the band. Oli does incorporate other artists throughout such as “Obey” (insert song clip) which
features YOUNGBLUD and KingSlayer (insert song clip) which features the Asian group BABY
METAL.
Singles:
Bring me the Horizon also released two singles since their latest EP which show the
band’s growth. Stranger (insert song clip) is one of these. Strangers is an uplifting pop-rock song
with a BPM of 92 and played in the key of F. They also released DiE4u which is an electronic
pop-rock song that while being guitar lead incorporates other elements as well (insert song clip).
References
n.d.
Bring Me The Horizon . Crucify Me. Comp. Oliver Sykes . 2010.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1I6YPGSSHU.
Bring Me The Horizon. (Inverted Question) ft. Halsey. Comp. Oliver Sykes. 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEupjmuEx8g.
Bring Me The Horizon. And The Snakes Start to Sing. Comp. Oliver Sykes. 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEWUxeTKCjc.
Bring Me The Horizon. Chelsea Smile. Comp. Oliver Sykes. 2006
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJHlnrRqUg0.
Bring Me The Horizon. Dear Diary. Comp. Oliver Sykes. 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcGKVnEbi8E.
Bring Me The Horizon. DiE4u. Comp. Oliver Sykes. 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ZO43M2wqMTU.
Bring Me The Horizon. Football Season Is Over. Comp. Oliver Sykes. 2008
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJHlnrRqUg0.
Bring Me The Horizon. For Traitors Never Play Hangman. Cond.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=WdysbbbLUVo&list=PLcjj7tOszpD2wue1G5m0n8JRDNyvyi5qG. Comp. Oliver
Sykes. 2004.
Bring Me The Horizon. Happy Song. Comp. Oliver Sykes. 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8AHLD_KWGE.
Bring Me The Horizon. Heavy Metal. Comp. Oliver Sykes. 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bvBC1mcyB0.
Bring Me The Horizon. I Apologize if you Feel Something . Comp. Oliver Sykes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0eOaXc9H4s.
Bring Me The Horizon. It Never Ends . Comp. Oliver Sykes. 2010.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEWUxeTKCjc.
Bring me the Horizon is one of those bands that you cannot label. They have explored all
different types of music and have excelled at every single one of them. I am a fan of them until
this day and I hope that this will allow some of you to check them out as well.
Bring Me The Horizon. Obey. Comp. Oliver Sykes. 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=1DtZq8O1X-E.
Bring Me The Horizon. Shadow Moses. Comp. Oliver Sykes. 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8AHLD_KWGE.
Bring Me The Horizon. Underground Big. Comp. Oliver Sykes. 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wmg-rE0ry8.
Bring Me The Horizon. Wonderful Life. Comp. Oliver Sykes. 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hoDwVy6IQ4. .
Ewens, Hannah. How Bring Me The Horizon saved British rock. January 27, 2022.
https://www.rollingstone.co.uk/music/features/how-bring-me-the-horizon-saved-british-
rock-oli-sykes-rolling-stone-uk-cover-10225/.
Madden, Emma. Bring Me The Horizon's Oli Sykes on Hard-Fought Sobriety, Reinvigorating
Metal on Daring New EP. April 4, 2022. https://www.revolvermag.com/magazine/bring-
me-horizons-oli-sykes-hard-fought-sobriety-reinvigorating-metal-daring-new-ep.
MetalStorm . Bring Me The Horizon - Biography. October 21, 2022.
https://metalstorm.net/bands/biography.php?
band_id=6420&bandname=Bring+Me+The+Horizon.
Williams , Sophie. Bring Me The Horizon: “Headlining Reading & Leeds is amazing. It’s been a
crazy journey”. September 2, 2022. https://www.nme.com/big-reads/bring-me-the-
horizon-cover-interview-2022-us-tour-3302655 (accessed February 9, 2023).
