Formation, debut EP and debut album (2004–2007)
Bring Me the Horizon was formed in March 2004 after all the founding members, who had all been a part of several local and separately defunct bands were noticed by Thirty Days of Night Records and formed the band while signing them, being the first band ever signed to the label.[1][5] In the months following their formation Bring Me the Horizon created a demo album, titled Bedroom Sessions, featuring two songs that would be re-recorded for their debut release. The demo featured three tracks: Shed Light / Metal Song, Who Want's Flowers When You're Dead? Nobody. and an instrumental version of Rawwwrr![5]The group released their first EP, This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For on 2 October 2004. The EP was recorded in Nottingham over the course of two weekends, recording the drums and bass guitar in the first weekend and then guitars and vocals in the second weekend in the studio.[6] It was re-released on 20 January 2005 through Visible Noise.[1] The re-release of the EP gained the band a significant amount of attention, peaking at 41 on the UK album charts.[7]
In 2006 Bring Me the Horizon was awarded Best British Newcomer at the 2006 Kerrang! Awards ceremony.[5] They released their debut, full-length album Count Your Blessings in October 2006 in the United Kingdom and in August 2007 in the United States. Across late November and December 2006 Bring Me the Horizon accompanied Lostprophets and The Blackout in a UK tour.[8] In January 2007 Bring Me the Horizon replaced Bury Your Dead on Killswitch Engage's European headline tour. The slot as a support was offered as Bury Your Dead withdrew from the tour because of their vocalist, Mat Bruso, leaving the band.[9]
Suicide Season and Ward's departure (2008–2009)
In 2009 Bring Me the Horizon attended the 2009 Kerrang! Tour alongside Black Tide, Dir En Grey, In Case of Fire and Mindless Self Indulgence.[13] They also joined Thursday, Cancer Bats, Four Year Strong and Pierce the Veil on the North American leg of Taste of Chaos 2009 across February to April. In March 2009 during the Taste of Chaos tour, guitarist Curtis Ward left the band.[4] The band's guitar technician, Dean Rowbotham substituted for Ward on the remaining dates of Taste of Chaos, followed by Australian guitarist Jona Weinhofen, formerly of Bleeding Through and I Killed the Prom Queen, before being asked to join the group on a permanent basis.[14]
In November 2009 Bring Me the Horizon released a remixed version of Suicide Season, titled Suicide Season: Cut Up! Musicians and producers featured on the album include Ben Weinman, Sony "Skrillex" Moore, L’Amour La Morgue, Utah Saints and Shawn Crahan of the band Slipknot.[15] Musically, the album crosses in with many different genres; including electronica, drum and bass, hip-hop and dubstep. The dubstep style of the record has been acknowledged in tracks from Tek-one another illuminati band[16] and Skrillex while the hip-hop elements are found in Travis McCoy's remix of Chelsea Smile. The Dillinger Escape Plan member, Benjamin Weinman's version of "No Need for Introductions I've Read About Girls Like You on the Backs of Toilet Doors" is considerably the most unique with its incorporation of industrial music.[17] Later on, Sykes guested on the Admiral's Arms song "Dawn of the New Age", which appeared on the EP Stories Are Told, released on the same month as Suicide Season: Cut Up!
There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven, Let's Keep It a Secret. (2010–2011)
The band's third album and first with their new rhythm guitarist Jona Weinhofen, titled There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven, Let's Keep It a Secret., was released 4 October 2010 and debuted at number 17 on the Billboard 200 in the US,[18] number 13 on the UK Album Chart,[19] and number 1 on the Australian Albums Chart,[20] the UK Rock Chart[21] and the UK Indie Chart.[22]
Despite reaching number 1 in Australia, the album's sales were the
lowest for a number 1 album in the history of the ARIA charts.[23]In December 2010 Bring Me the Horizon joined Bullet for My Valentine as the main support band, along side Atreyu, in a short five date arena tour around the United Kingdom.[25] To cope with high demand Live Nation released extra standing tickets to all dates.[26] Rumours circled as to why Bring Me the Horizon sets were cut short at arenas, cited mainly to do with the shows becoming more violent and less controllable. When asked about the shows, Matt Nicholls said that the band was told that they couldn't climb on any of the stage equipment or set or interact with the crowd. The band opposed these rules by initiating walls of death.[6]
In April 2011 Bring Me the Horizon embarked on a European tour, starting in the United Kingdom. They toured with Parkway Drive and Architects as main support bands, with The Devil Wears Prada as the opening support for the UK and dubstep group Tek-one opening for the remainder of continental Europe. The tour gained much publicity and was considered their biggest headline tour ever[27] and even is stated as the "tour of the year" by Rock Sound.[28] The tour, however, was not without its hindrances. On 28 April Matt Nicholls broke his arm whilst playing football with members of Bring Me the Horizon, Parkway Drive and Architecs, and instead of canceling the tour Architects' drummer Dan Searle filled in as the drummer, this meant that Bring Me the Horizon's setlist was halved in length.[27] An also on 28 April at the Bristol O2 Academy, there was a power cut before Parkway Drive's set.[29] Bring Me the Horizon as a reaction to the power cut decided to do a short 4 track acoustic set featuring: "The Sadness Will Never End", "It Never Ends", "Suicide Season" and "Chelsea Smile".[30] The tour was extended with a North American leg from 31 August to 4 October maintaing Parkway Drive and Architects and including Deez Nuts onto the line up.[31] On 23 August they released the fourth music video and single, "Visions".[32] On 31 October, Halloween, the next music video for the song "Alligator Blood" was released.
On 13 October 2011 it was announced that Bring Me the Horizon was nominated for three Independent Music Awards. In the three categories Best Live Act, Independent Breakthrough of Year and Hardest Working Band or Artist.[33] In December 2011 Machine Head completed an arena tour across Europe with Bring Me the Horizon as the main support band as well as DevilDriver and Darkest Hour as supports. Oliver Sykes has stated that these will be the last European dates they'll do before they start the writing and the recording of their fourth album.[34] Bring Me the Horizon's presence on the tour was met with mixed reception from fans, Dave Bowes of The Fly with a live review of their performance at SECC in Glasgow as "simply in the wrong place at the wrong time but they choose to be the better men..."[35]
2011 concluded with an announcement by the band on 29 December of a new extended play titled The Chill Out Sessions, a collaborative effort with British DJ "Draper".[36] Draper first released a "officially sanctioned" remix of the song "Blessed with a Curse" in May 2011.[37] The EP was originally supposed to be released in time for New Year's Day and to be made available for download and purchase though Bring Me the Horizon's website. However, the EP's release was canceled because of the band's "current management and label situation".[38][39]
Sempiternal (2012–present)
After the intense touring schedule, Bring Me the Horizon finally completed the promotion of their third album at the end of 2011. They returned to the United Kingdom for an extended break and eventually starting work on their next album.[40] Much like their previous two album, they wrote their fourth album in seclusion and isolation in order to stay focused. This time, they retreated to a house in the lake district. In July the band started to publish images of themselves recording at a ‘Top Secret Studio Location’[41] and it was revealed that they are working with producer Terry Date for the recording and the production of the album.[42] On July, 30, the band announced they had left their label and signed with RCA, through which their fourth album will be released in 2013.[43]In April, after a few months of writing, Kerrang! announced that Bring Me The Horizon are the first announced headline act for Warped Tour 2012 on November, 10 at the Alexandra Palace in London[44]. This was believed to be the only date in all of 2012 that they are performing, however, the band also appeared at BBC Radio 1's Radio 1 Rocks[45] on October 22, playing a six song set supporting Bullet For My Valentine. The band was confirmed to be a part of the 2013 Australian Soundwave festival in their second announcement. They will perform at all 5 dates in: Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.[46] Canadian songstress Lights has hinted that she was in the studio with the band again following their successful collaborations on There Is A Hell...[47]
On October 24th it was announced that the new album will be called Sempiternal and that it's almost complete[48].
Controversy
Nottingham incident
While on tour in the UK, allegations were made that vocalist Oliver Sykes urinated on a female fan after a gig at Nottingham Rock City. He was subsequently charged,[49] but all charges were later dropped due to lack of evidence.[50] Online music zine Drowned in Sound claimed that Bring Me the Horizon were banned from Nottingham Rock City,[51] a claim that turned out to be false when the band subsequently played Nottingham Rock City on 1 December 2007.[52]YouTube video with Architects
During a tour, Bring Me the Horizon and Architects filmed a video showing a staged fight between Oliver Sykes and Architects' lead singer Sam Carter. The video was uploaded to YouTube and resulted in outraging many Bring Me the Horizon fans, believing it was real. This caused many to send hate mail towards Carter, whom later made it clear in an interview with Kerrang! that the whole thing was a joke, as did Sykes.[53]Musical style and Influences
The band has been said to be influenced diversely by grindcore, death metal and emo[2] and cites American metalcore bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan, Every Time I Die, Norma Jean and Poison the Well as influences on their earlier music.[6][54] But as their sound developed they took influence from heavy metal bands like At The Gates, Pantera and Orange Goblin, progressive rock bands like Pink Floyd and Dire Straits and from dubstep and other modern electronic music.[54][55] Bring Me the Horizon has been recognized by critics as playing mainly within the genres metalcore[56][57][58] and deathcore[2][59][60] and have been referred to as post-hardcore,[61] hardcore punk, and technical metal[62] Common traits of Bring Me The Horizon's music is their use of technical guitar riffs, strong, dark or violent lyrics, heavy breakdowns and gang vocals or screamed vocals.[63]The band's first album Count Your Blessings, was mainly regarded as a deathcore album upon its release. Deathcore is a fusion of influences from metalcore and death metal.[64] The bands own personal European melodic death metal influence and the use of black metal-styled vocals, "slow-and-heavy" breakdowns and blast beats define this album.[65][66]
The band started to adopt a more eclectic style with their second studio album Suicide Season.[64] Creating a sound which has been described as being closer to mainstream rock than their debut album.[60] Oliver Sykes described the album as "100% different to Count Your Blessings" and that the album sounds "more rock than metal".[67]
As the band's sound has developed further away from their death metal and deathcore style.[61] With the bands third album There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven, Let's Keep It a Secret. They developed their sound with the preference for more ambitious production feats,[63] by incorporating electronica, classical music and pop sounds into their metalcore style.[61][68] They did this with the use of a full choir and a synthesised orchestra. They incorporated glitched out vocals and breakdowns and toned down the use of breakdowns in their style, favouring quiet atmospheric passages in song breaks.[62]
Bring Me the Horizon pooled more diverse influences in preparation for the writing of their fourth studio album. Jona Weinhofen spoke out about how both he and Lee Malia developed affection for post-rock bands such as Explosions in the Sky and This Will Destroy You. Weinhofen also once commented on how he would like to combine the heaviness of Bring Me the Horizon's typical work with the laid-back atmospherics of post-rock.[69]
Sykes' lyrics has a strong feeling of catharsis for him, he mainly draws from personal experience and has likened the band's live performances to being theraputic.[68]
Songwriting and recording process
In all the band's album notes all of Bring Me The Horizon's lyrics are said to be written by lead vocalist Oliver Sykes while all five members—as a band—were credited with writing the music. One thing the band has always done since the release of Count Your Blessings is favour a secluded area to write albums in order not to break their concentration.[63] The members of the band have stated how the debut album was written in inner-city areas of Birmingham while being pressured to write and record songs in the deadlines given.[6] This led to the band being unimpressed with the final product. However, for the writing process of Suicide Season the band realised that they much preferred picking areas with less human contact in order to focus on the music, they wrote their second album in the Swedish countryside.[59] During the writing of Suicide season former and founding guitarist Curtis Ward wrote very little of his rhythm parts of the album mostly relying on Lee Malia to write all of the Guitar sections of the album.[6]Lead Guitarist Lee Malia has stated that the typical writing process involves Oliver Sykes writing the main structure of the songs and then Malia would individually write the main riff. From this they would collaborate with each other to structure their work better and then to later include the rest of the band in writing the rest of the song.[63] Rhythm guitarist Jona Weinhofen has said the band listens to electronica, ambient and classic rock music and applies the aesthetics and the song structures to Bring Me The Horizon's style.[55]
