Good review, good point about how bands like Periphery feel like they are restraining how poppy they are. I would totally be up for them becoming pop on the same level as Amaranthe, still having the punchy kickass Misha guitars but no longer metalcore.

I agree that as a pop album That's The Spirit really really isn't too bad, but my problem with this album is that it does not feel genuine. A few people were screaming "sellout" at Sempiternal but it was an album with genuine emotion and urgency, like it was an album they really really wanted to make. Here, there isn't very much of that. It just feels like they are trying to emulate a style instead of making exactly what they want. Even their least original album, There Is A Hell, still felt like that they made it because they had changed from their Chelsea Smile days and wanted something darker and more emotional.

I have no problem with a band getting lighter and leaving metal. I enjoyed Trivium's latest release even if it's one of their weaker albums due to reasons irrelevant to the lack of heaviness. And I was actually cautiously optimistic about this album. I liked all of the singles released (except that godawful "True Friends") because "Drown" was a good individual song to have in the album, "Throne" was hugely epic and climatic and felt very Sempiternal-like (even if a bit derivative), and "Happy Song" fit the moody rock feel that they nailed with their previous album. The problem is that every song ended up being like "Drown". Hell, as my original comments suggested, I was really into it at a first listen simply because it has such a good three-song opener. If they kept that momentum going and trimmed the happy pop fat off (which really doesn't suit them and feels overly cheesy) then I would have rated it on the same level as their other albums.

I just wish the album were more Bring Me The Horizon-like. Don't get me wrong, the Suicide Season days are long long gone, but the only thing that feels BMTH-like are Oli's semi-screams that he adopted in Sempiternal. That's it. Otherwise I wouldn't even know it's them outside of a few songs like "Happy Song" and "True Friends".

We can definitely agree that "True Friends" is the weakest track, I find I enjoy everything else more when I skip it. I should probably mention, for full disclosure, that this is also my very first Bring Me The Horizon album. I've had a couple of their albums on my list to check out but when I previewed this one it really struck a good cord. I'm intrigued by how the other albums are if this one sounds a bit forced to you, I may have to move those to the front of the line.

Written by WayTooManyCDs on 10.06.2016 at 04:12

We can definitely agree that "True Friends" is the weakest track, I find I enjoy everything else more when I skip it. I should probably mention, for full disclosure, that this is also my very first Bring Me The Horizon album. I've had a couple of their albums on my list to check out but when I previewed this one it really struck a good cord. I'm intrigued by how the other albums are if this one sounds a bit forced to you, I may have to move those to the front of the line.

Bring Me The Horizon is the one band that I will defend to the death because they are one of the most hated -core bands out there despite their music being leagues ahead of similar bands. Don't get me wrong, the band members are known for being huge assholes, and the fanbase is awful, but a lot of the hate comes from the image, type of music, and peer pressure more than the music itself. It took me a while to admit that the band is good, and even longer to add them to my favorite bands list, simply because I was always told to hate the band and what they are doing to our precious metal. I've grown out of similar bands and find them nearly unlistenable, but I actually love BMTH more than before over time.

Sempiternal is very widely considered their best album, the one where the average anti-BMTH critic suddenly went "whoa, this is actually pretty good." It's a lot closer to the sound on this album, but instead it's a post-rock influenced post-hardcore album that sounds like Linkin Park and Deftones combined. I very, very highly recommend giving it a listen, tracks like "Doomed" and "Happy Song", and even the screamed parts of "True Friends" feel like a direct continuation of Sempiternal. They actually promised that That's The Spirit would be a darker version of Sempiternal (which they delivered right up until I WOULDN'T HOLD MY BREATH IF I WAS YOU).

There Is A Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is A Heaven, Let's Keep It A Secret is some really really genuinely dark and anguished metalcore that can be a bit inconsistent with song quality but was a massive jump in maturity and is my personal favorite. The sheer emotion in Oli's voice is nearly overwhelming. I'm tempted to write a review for it just to do the album the justice that it deserves, it's by far their most overlooked album despite being on par with Sempiternal.

Count Your Blessings and Suicide Season are some fun deathcore and metalcore albums respectively, but they're only for fans of each genre. Seriously, the difference in maturity between those two and There Is A Hell is staggering. Oli said in an interview that he finds their debut album to be awful, and although they are proud of Suicide Season, he really didn't have anything personal to write about, and it really shows. The big problem of Suicide Season is how overly melodramatic it sounds. Compare "The Sadness Will Never End" to "Don't Go" and it's obvious that one was written trying to be sad and the other was Oli actually letting out his genuine torment. While There Is A Hell was being written, Oli was deep into a Ketamine addiction and had chronic night terrors combined with sleep paralysis. I still really like their first two albums, I find myself listening to both a lot simply because it really really is FUN, but don't expect the same emotion or maturity as their newer stuff.

Thanks so much for the overview, I'll definitely start with There Is A Hell and Sempiternal from here as they sound like they'll have a lot more of what made me love this one. I'm not a huge fan of "core" albums that are mostly screaming (unless it is really, REALLY well done and has a strong message...see: Century - Faith and Failure, lyrics like "We owe ourselves an apology but that's one debt that won't be paid" are so intense). I like that Bring Me The Horizon have a tone that is more fun to listen to though, it's a stark contrast to most metal bands, and one that comes off surprisingly well. I also came across I See Stars recently, who is a similar style, and they're awesome too!

Suicide Season is where this band peaked for me, however I find this release to be a refreshing and welcomed change and shows a maturity in song writing they've not demonstrated before.

Also, confused on the reviewer suggesting people listen to BMTH's earlier work when they've not heard it themselves - reminds me of a travel agent telling me how good a place is when they haven't been their themselves.

How is Throne more metal than True Friends? That's the one part of the review that confuses. Oh, and new Periphery is way better than old Periphery.