Bring Me The Horizon Music Analysis

On September 11, 2015, British band, Bring Me The Horizon, released their fifth, most audacious, studio album: That's the Spirit.

Each album, BMTH has had this progression of making their music less and less aggressive and loud, but in this new album, they have completely left the metalcore genre their previous three were, for a much more arena rock, pop, electronic and indie like album. This is immediately proven with their first track "Doomed," which is very layered at the beginning, but then goes into this vibe that is meant seem to confuse the listener. This is all executed perfectly, with Oli Sykes (the lead singer) adding such beautiful vocals to the song. The only downfall of the song is that his hook is rather annoying with it being sung so many times, over and over.

But that isn't the last time Oli sings the hook so many times.

Now there are times where the hook is actually rather great ("Happy Song"), but with songs like in "True Friends," it really isn't needed to be over sung. This overuse of hooks rather holds the songs back a little, as they could add either more lyrics or maybe even more rifts or breakdowns. Still, some songs actually start off with this tiresome hooks, only to actually put in one that not only fits, but rather sounds better than the other three or four times sang.

For example, in the song "Avalanche," the hook is overplayed for at least three fourths of the song. What would've been best for this particular song would've been to get rid of all the hooks, but keeping the last one.

Probably the highlight of the whole album is the well-polished and very organized production of songs. Like in "Happy Song," they are able to switch from this rather grungy like sound, to a much more heavier rock and metal sound to this quick electronic sound before finishing with probably their most aggressive and hard hitting musical sound on the whole

album.

Another key example would probably be from one of my favorite songs on the whole album "Oh No." This song is different from the others due to the atmospheric and very beautiful production that also sounds like a typical pop song you would hear from a Top 40 band like Maroon 5 or something.

What's so good about this newly structured album is how songs are layered so well that you sometimes forget about Oli singing himself. Furthermore, the music itself just sounds like something that will be amazing to listen to live in concert.

But to me, what makes this album so enjoyable is Oli himself. Unlike his previous albums, which lyrical themes typically dealt with heartbreak and anti-religious beliefs, this album is much more personal. The album mainly deals with the downsides of life, with songs ranging from past relationships ("True Friends") to loneliness ("Drown") to addiction and moving on from it ("Avalanche"). Still, he is able to make romantic songs ("Follow You") to songs that sound like he is ready to move on ("Oh No"). The other great thing is the fact that he sings in either his usual screamed vocals (though not as incomprehensible as before) to this melodic singing to this moaning that reminds me a bit like Kurt Cobain.

Another note is the fact that he is able to sing such great lyrics with great metaphors, (like "My hearts a hieroglyph, it talks in tongues"). Although sometimes, I feel like the metaphors can be a bit too childish, ("I need a cure for me cause a square doesn't fit the circle").

All in all, I enjoyed the album from start to finish. Yes the hooks can get annoying after being sang so many times, but the actual lyrical content, theme and music makes up for this in so many ways. This album is nothing like their previous work where they had this very aggressive tone and the loud, incomprehensible screaming and growling vocals. Instead, this album comes out more with a pop and rock tone mixed in with much more clearer screams and melodic singing. Instead of dwelling in the past and doing the same thing over and over, BMTH succeeds in this new experimenting and mature album.