What on earth is still left for Bring Me The Horizon to achieve? Two Number One albums under their belt. Their first BRIT Award arrived earlier this year. They’ve headlined Reading & Leeds, Download and continuously sold out arena tours. How about breaking the internet? Social media was sent into a frenzy when BMTH confirmed, on twelve hours’ notice, that their long-anticipated new album – and that’s being generous – would finally be with us, stealing a sizeable chunk of Twenty One Pilots’ release day thunder in the process.
Initially promised for release in late 2020, eventually confirmed for September 2023 and then delayed into the void for what felt like aeons, ‘Post Human: Nex Gen’ is the second instalment in their futuristic ‘Post Human’ series, following on from 2020’s cyber-punk behemoth ‘Survival Horror’.
With it comes the weight of their first project since the sudden departure of producer-slash-keyboardist Jordan Fish last December. Heralded as the figure who helped encouraged their evolution from scrawny deathcore teens into pop-metal titans, this album comes with a mild drift of uncertainty (though he has songwriting credits on seven of the 16 tracks). Their most laborious project to date – where tensions presumably reached boiling point upon Fish’s exit – had kept fans waiting patiently for such an eternity; a level of anticipation that eclipsed any of their previous releases. Could Oli Sykes and co. live up to the task?
Clocking in just over 55 minutes, this meaty body of work is remarkable from top to bottom, letting its frenetic energy take centre stage. At times, it’s chaos, but nonetheless structurally sound in a manner that only Bring Me can execute. It’s almost like they bottled the unhinged approach to 2019’s five-star LP ‘amo’, but pumped it full of steroids this time around.
Kicking things off properly with ‘Youtopia’, BMTH hit us with what’s admittedly a rare dose of happiness. Idealising paradise through a love song of sorts, Sykes keeps his dreams grounded from the get-go: “There’s a place I wanna take you / But I’m not quite there myself”, he admits, over a glorious yet murky riff that recalls Deftones’ 1998 hit ‘Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)’.
Setting the lyrical tone for the album, ‘Post Human: Nex Gen’ is far more introspective than the ‘lockdown metal’ that runs through its predecessor. Essentially his own self-help memoir, Sykes tackles addiction, self-doubt and pays a visit to therapy over the course of the album, delivered through the ‘future emo’ lens that he promised. “No one’s gonna coma and rescue me / I’m drowning in my sleep”, he cries on ‘Top 10 Statues That Cried Blood’, while ‘Darkside’ is equally stark: “Six feet in the dirt still breathing / Don’t give a fuck if my heart stops beating.”
Perhaps the closest he’s come to recapturing the stadium hook of 2014’s ‘Drown’, future emo rings truer than ever on ‘Top 10 Statues…’. Complete with glitchy sounds and math-rock interludes, the bridge proceeds to light-speed. Sludgy post-hardcore number ‘Limousine’ pays homage to Deftones once again and welcomes Norwegian pop innovator AURORA – not Billie Eilish, which was a red herring – to lend her mysterious vocals to the moody second verse. “I hope you wrote all your songs for me”, Sykes groans, perhaps labouring his point to those gatekeeping metal fans who continue to recoil at poppier elements. They’d be glad, however, to hear some ear-piercing Slipknot-esque noises closing out this song.
Sykes takes us to therapy on the stripped-back cut ‘N/A’ (“My name’s Oli and I’m an addict”), which features gang vocals recorded live on their January arena tour – thousands of people screaming “Hello Oli, you fucking knobhead.” Searching for a way out of the rut, he admits “My ego is not my amigo” on ‘Lost’: self-aware and honest in the thick of the emotions.
Littered with snippets and samples, the album’s finest joins sassy emo-core anthem ‘R.I.P. (Duskcore Remix)’ up with ‘Amen!’, introducing a funeral eulogy from Sykes – who proceeds to hilariously condemn his dear friend to rot in hell: “Suck a dick, heretic!” Things only get weirder. ‘P.u.s.s.-e’, seemingly a transition number, abruptly descends into heavy jungle.
The classic BMTH lyrics about graves, being six feet under and pushing daisies are all upstaged by the haunting top line of the album closer, ‘Dig It’: “Life is a grave / And I dig it.” Dragging a breathless album to its conclusion, the song closes out on a frankly ridiculous four-peat: guttural breakdown, piano, a minute’s silence and the momentary introduction of a new AI character, ‘M8’ – who is then abruptly cut off. The end.
Few modern rock bands have made an album that is such a bombardment of sound and colour. Post-Jordan Fish, they continue to be what they’ve always been: a creative force that transcends the personalities of its individuals. It entirely justifies the four-year wait, which already feels like ancient history. Buckle up – because this is still BMTH’s world, and we’ll be living in it for quite some time yet.
Details
- Release date: May 24, 2024
- Record label: Sony
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