‘…across the 16 tracks of this record, the band produce some incredibly fun pop-punk tinged bangers, along with some of their most polished heavy material to date…’
Let’s rewind time all the way back to 2019 for a moment. Trust me.
Bring Me The Horizon are the biggest heavy band in the UK at that moment, following the release of their genre-bending pop-metal record, ‘amo‘. It’s clear that they have transcended the limitations of their own roots, and have morphed into a musical entity for which it seems like there are no limits. 2020 rolls around, and the band announce that they are working on their next record, which will come in the form of an EP, and will mark the start of a period in which they release four or five EPs in the space of approximately a year; the ‘POST HUMAN‘ project.
‘POST HUMAN: Survival Horror‘ releases on the 30th of October 2020, and with an unexpected nine tracks, it’s already clear that this project has evolved into something which even the band hadn’t originally anticipated. The mini-album is a smash success however, appealing to both new fans and even some of the older fans whom had long since ditched the band, wanting a return to a heavier sound. Now, to be fair, the world did suffer a global pandemic, so delays to music is to be expected, and with the release of ‘DiE4u‘ in 2021, it seemed like Bring Me The Horizon had gotten back on track, and looked to be releasing ‘POST HUMAN: Club Hellhole‘ very soon.
Evidently, from both the time of writing this and the title of this review, that did not happen. Instead, we got four mixed quality collaborative singles with a variety of artists, a track for the Gran Turismo movie, a couple of singles that once again showcased a wide range in quality, the cancellation of a September 15th 2023 release date, the band’s largest and most impressive tour to date in the name of a record that then didn’t even have a release date, and the departure of one of the metal’s most influential creators Jordan Fish.
Then, on the 23rd of May 2024, the band announced the album would be surprise dropping at midnight, 1302 days after the ‘POST HUMAN‘ project officially commenced.
Why is any of this important?
The biggest reason is hype. ‘POST HUMAN: NeX GEn‘ has been one of the most hotly anticipated follow-ups for four years now. Bring Me The Horizon have never been bigger, with a fanbase that sees both hardcore alternative music listeners and mainstream pop fans alike coming together to enjoy them. Certainly, the band drip feeding people new singles has kept fans satiated, even if some of them were kind of terrible (looking at you, ‘Fallout‘). However, this has lead to a record that struggles to live up to its own mythos, dwarfed by a stunning visual experience in the form of their tour that has built it up to feel truly special.
This is certainly not to say that the music is bad. Far from it, in fact; across the 16 tracks of this record, the band produce some incredibly fun pop-punk tinged bangers, along with some of their most polished heavy material to date. ‘YOUtopia‘ has some particularly gorgeous vocal work by Oli Sykes, along with lyricism that embraces both melancholy and optimism. ‘Kool-Aid‘ is a ferocious yet deceptively catchy number with huge choruses, whilst ‘AMeN!‘ is a tornado of baffling ideas that somehow manage to work, culminating in an apocalyptic sonic experience with features from Lil Uzi Vert and Daryl Polumbo.
‘LosT’ and ‘DiE4u‘ remain as two guilty pleasures of the track-list. Their emo pop melodies ensure that they remain stuck in your head, with ‘LosT‘ in particular featuring choruses that are so catchy yet overblown that they would make My Chemical Romance jealous. Certainly, the lyricism here is questionable, whether it’s ‘Watching Evangelion with a big fat slug of ketamine‘ or ‘you could slit my wrists/And I’d write your name in a heart with the hemorrhage‘, but the cheesy edginess is thankfully offset by just how catchy and well-performed the tracks are; you can just about imagine Sykes singing the lyrics with a knowing wink.
However, Bring Me The Horizon have long been known as innovators. Since ‘Sempiternal‘, when the band quite simply defined metalcore, they have been at the very forefront of popular heavy music, leaving the rest of the scene in a rush to catch-up with what they have been crafting. ‘NeX GEn‘, however, feels like the first time in a long time that Bring Me The Horizon are the ones playing catch-up, utilising the pop-punk and emo revival sounds that came to dominate the heavy scene at the start of this decade.
Perhaps this is because of how long ‘NeX GEn‘ has taken to come to fruition; with tracks like ‘sTraNgeRs‘ and ‘DiE4u‘, the album already feels somewhat dated by virtue of having tracks that were born from this emo boom, with ‘sTraNgeRs‘ in particular having felt dated on arrival, with its clumsy lyricism and uninspired instrumentation. Furthermore, it doesn’t help when Bring Me The Horizon are clearly taking influence from other bands that have already perfected a sound; ‘liMOusIne‘ is a direct riff on material produced by Moodring, but done so in a manner that is boring and messy, even with the decent vocal feature from AURORA. You don’t expect Bring Me The Horizon, the arena juggernauts, to be copying other artists, and it’s more than a little disappointing to hear.
On top of that, the concept of this record is confusing. From musical interludes and voiced-over outros, it’s clear that Bring Me The Horizon have intended for there to be something of a technological apocalypse feeling to this record, picking up from the story that they wove through their live shows which featured a rouge AI named E.V.E, a call-back to ‘Parasite Eve‘ on their previous record. This is particularly evident in the dying moments of the record, with the narrative focused outro of ‘DIg It‘, which culminates in a conversation with a personal service robot.
The music, however, does not reflect this at all, with perhaps the exceptions of ‘Kool-Aid‘ and ‘AmEN!‘. Certainly, the themes of suicidal ideation, depression, and drug abuse make for a listen that, when Sykes gets on top of his lyricism, is emotionally charged and deeply compelling. However, throwing in these strange little interludes, alongside the quirky typography of the record, leaves it feeling overall jarring, like the band have attempted to force together ideas from the record’s inception, with ideas that came about towards the record’s completion.
An overabundance of ambition, however, is always better than a lack of it, and it is clear that Bring Me The Horizon have attempted to make this record a cinematic thrill-ride. Even when they miss the mark, it is almost always evident that they have attempted to do something that competes with the rest of their discography.
So, this leaves the record in a very strange place. Certainly, compared to ‘amo‘ and ‘That’s The Spirit‘, ‘NeX GEn‘ is a far weaker, far more cluttered affair, strewn with ideas that don’t work as one cohesive album, pulling influences from other artists as opposed to setting the bar for modern heavy music. However, it’s impossible to deny that it doesn’t have plenty of thoroughly enjoyable moments; it’s heavy metal junk food, packed with plenty of tasty items, but definitely not as good of a quality as something that is carefully cooked to precision.
Does ‘POST HUMAN: NeX GEn‘ live up to the hype? Maybe, maybe not. But as long as Bring Me The Horizon remain on top of the metal scene, I suspect they won’t really care what you think. And frankly, I probably wouldn’t either.
RATING: 78/100 – Mostly Very Good
For Fans Of: Bad Omens, My Chemical Romance, Moodring, Northlane, Holding Absence
Physical copies of the album are available to purchase here.
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