Bring Me The Horizon
are a reliable bunch, never straying too far from their well-defined
aesthetic. Since bursting into emergence with 2006’s Count Your Blessings,
the British quintet have shifted between invective deathcore and the
kind of melodic hardcore best exemplified on career highlight - 2010’s
verbosely titled ARIA #1 - There Is A Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is A Heaven, Let's Keep It A Secret. Now onto album number four, Sempiternal
sees frontman Oli Sykes and his thick Sheffield grit harnessing past
influences while recklessly taking on new ones. If you thought There Is A Hell… was risk-splattered and genre-crossing, then nothing will prepare you for this.
Sempiternal is BMTH’s first on a
major label, but RCA Records (flagship of Sony Music) have been
gracious in their takeover from Visible Noise; the back-step in creative
control has been left to a faint whisper on tracks like video game
salute Shadow Moses and the nihilistic Anti-vist. Elsewhere, second single Sleepwalking
sounds like major label placation, it’s brilliant but also their most
accessible. The sounds and piano-driven rhythms are beguiling enough to
be satisfying in their own right, the addition of vocals and precursory
monologues (Hospital For Souls) only build on what is already a cascading soundtrack to your favourite art house film.
The record may have been produced
by Terry Date (Deftones, Limp Bizkit, Pantera), but the renewed sound is
stamped with the fingerprints of keyboardist and ambience mastermind
Jordan Fish (formerly of the band Worship). BMTH gave a cutting farewell
to Australian member Jona Weinhofen last year before re-recording his
guitar parts and announcing Fish as a permanent member. His addition,
and the different approach to recording – predecessors were helmed in
isolated locations while Sempiternal was predominantly written on Syke’s laptop and recorded at Angelic
Studio in Oxfordshire – stepped the band further into electro
territory. BMTH deserve plaudits for taking as many risks as they have.
Lyrically, it’s Sykes most apologetic yet, Sempiternal brims
with the stabbing pang of regret and self-reflection, understanding,
and a promise to make good, all set to some of his most persuasive aural
collages.
The fact this record leaked online forcing the band to
stream it and bring forward the release date is not only a testament to
their worth, but proof this band could very well stand at the pointy end
of the charts once more. The metalcore underground’s loss is
mainstream’s gain.
Sempiternal is out March 29 through Sony Music Entertainment
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