Bring Me The Horizon – Post Human: NeX GEn
Release Date 24th May 2024
Bring Me The Horizon are undoubtedly one of the biggest names in alternative music, and now on their eighth full length album, the band is more unpredictable with their sound and style than ever before. Over the years we all came to know them as innovators in metalcore, tastemakers in rock, but with this new album Post Human: NeX GEn, we enter the weird and unusual electronic/post-hardcore/rock blend of sounds coming from the mind of Oli Sykes.
The album starts with the first of three OST tracks which act as world and atmosphere building for the sonic journey that follows. This is something reminiscent of their 2019 release, Music To… To, but seemingly with more purpose. Following this we are thrown straight into ‘YOUtopia’, an anthemic number riddled with immense vocal production, innovative synth sounds, a blast beat (for some reason), and the sing along vocal melodies we’ve come to know from Sykes. Definitely a strong way to open the album and followed without pause by the last single prior to the album’s release, ‘Kool-Aid’. Just about everyone in alternative music is familiar with this song by this point and its hypnotic chorus.
After this we are treated to some of the weirder sounds on the album with ‘Top 10 staTues tHat CriEd bloOd’, which honestly could be considered a hyperpop track at points with its almost obnoxiously upbeat synth sounds. It’s clear here that Bring Me are pushing things to the extreme here at any possible opportunity. Yet following this the pacing slows down with ‘liMOusIne’ featuring AURORA. This song is a personal highlight from the album, sounding almost like a Deftones number and boasting some ‘in your face’ low tuned guitars.
This album has a lot to take in, including some big names from the post-hardcore world such as Underoath and Glassjaw. Whilst post-hardcore is typically pretty far removed from the electronic rock that we’ve come to be familiar with from Bring Me, these sounds are blended together as though they were made for one another. Pushing into the second half of this 16 track gargantuan album, we are treated to another personal favourite track, ‘n/A’. This song is a favourite as it again slows the pace, brings the focus to an acoustic guitar and puts the listener in the setting of a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. This feels to be the most personal track lyrically, delving into the struggles of addiction but also this may be personal for the listener as the second verse features crowd vocals that the band recorded on their arena UK run with Bad Omens at the start of 2024. A fun moment that anyone in attendance now gets to relive listening to this song.
The remaining tracks of the album are made up primarily of the singles that many of us have heard hundreds of times; from the bouncy hyperpop inspired ’LosT’, to the unusually aggressive ‘AmEN!’. This is where personal interest in the songs starts to taper off in the track list as despite the clever ebbs and flows of the album, one can only hear so many arena choruses before they start to feel a bit stale. Then finally, to finish this obscure, eccentric and outlandish listening experience, we have ‘DIg It’, opening with more scene setting in the intro, followed swiftly by a very sombre set off passages which move into an unashamedly heavy segment and the final thoughts of the album, being “the world is a scary place”.
Bring Me The Horizon has had an insane evolution and it’s often hard to imagine these same people being the ones that wrote ‘Pray For Plagues’ nearly two decades ago. With each album they have pushed boundaries, delivered the unexpected, and carved out entirely new territory for themselves alone to occupy. Whilst fans will all have their favourite albums and eras from this band, no one can deny this is another jewel in the crown for one of the biggest alternative bands in the world.
Recommended tracks liMOusIne, n/A
Overall rating 6/10