Album Review: Bring Me The Horizon, Sempiternal

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