Image: Bring Me The Horizon [Official Press Image]
Bring Me The Horizon are giants in the scene of Rock and Metalcore these days, yet they continue to surprise with their experimental albums. We delve into their complete band history, their convictions, and the influences that shaped today's BMTH!
Active since 2004, Bring Me The Horizon have had a remarkably steep career. How this came about, despite initial band ideas formed without any instrument-playing skills, is explained here from the beginning until today.
How it all began…
Sheffield, March 2004. The first members of Bring Me The Horizon came together, though the band name didn’t exist from the start. Oli Sykes as the singer, Matt Kean as the bassist, Matt Nicholls as the drummer, Lee Malia as the lead guitarist, and Curtis Ward as the second guitarist - most of their lineup remains to this day. They had been active in other Metal and Rock bands before, but this project became serious. Matt Nicholls and Oli Sykes had known each other for a long time, attending Punk shows together in their area, but they initially had no idea how to play instruments. Sykes had previously been in a pseudo-hip-hop band called “Womb 2 Da Tomb” and the Metal band "Purple Curto" with Nicholls and his brother. During this time, his pseudonym Olisaurus emerged, under which solo projects would later be released. Malia had more interest in Thrash and Death Metal bands and originally played in a Metallica tribute band. They were all between 15 and 17 years old.
Their first recordings were a demo album: Bedroom Sessions. They were the first band ever signed to the indie label Thirty Days of Night Records from England. Their first EP, This Is What The Edge Of Your Seat Was Made For, was released in their founding year - created at just two weekends at Pristine Studios. They then switched to Visible Noise Records, who re-released the EP, helping them reach #41 in the official UK charts. Their first album Count Your Blessings was released in 2006. Three demo songs were re-recorded for it, although the entire production involved endless drinking tours.
"We were out every night, just being regular 18-year-olds"
The debut reached #93 in the official UK charts and was released in the USA the following year. Like many early 2000s bands, they polarized strongly with their sound and look. First tours with bands like Killswitch Engage (whose fans didn't like this) and I Killed the Prom Queen followed, with shows in the UK, North America, and Australia.
From Suicide Season
New music was already in the works in 2008, this time produced in Sweden with Fredrik Nordström (Arch Enemy, Dimmu Borgir, etc.). More appearances on I Killed The Prom Queen's farewell tour followed, and then the second studio album Suicide Season finally appeared. Headliner shows in the USA and popular festivals like the Vans Warped Tour showed that the band was on the right track in the Core scene. However, a lineup change occurred in 2009 when Curtis Ward’s journey with BMTH ended. He had contributed little to the album productions, lacked motivation for live shows, and developed a distance from the members during the Taste of Chaos tour.
"He just didn't have any input."
- Matt Nicholls
Jona Weinhofen (formerly of Bleeding Through) became BMTH’s guitarist and was involved in the remix edition of Suicide Season. What started as an idea for a single song turned into an entire album called Suicide Season: Cut Up!, with remixes featuring significant creativity from musicians like Skrillex and Shawn Crahan from Slipknot!
Through Epitaph Records, releases in the USA were possible, giving Bring Me The Horizon even more reach. In 2010, the next album came out: There Is a Hell Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven Let's Keep It a Secret. It reached #13 in the UK album charts and won the Kerrang! Award for “Best Album,” leading to several tours. However, the real breakthrough came with their 2013 album Sempiternal, released by Sony Music Entertainment and RCA Records, earning gold records in several countries. It reached #3 in their homeland, and also ranked high in the USA and Germany. Additionally, Sempiternal won the Alternative Press Music Award for Album of the Year. The extensive work on this album definitely paid off.
However, Jona Weinhofen left the band early that year, shortly after Jordan Fish was announced as a new member. Oli Sykes explained to Impericon:
"A build-up of different conflicting things. I mean, like, he just had different views to us and we felt like he had some strong opinions and views which we felt he was pushing on our fans and stuff and maybe alienating a few, which we'd asked him to stop and he wouldn't. [...] His band I Killed The Prom Queen was getting increasingly popular and it was kinda taking up into time of Horizon [...] there was not really bad blood"
Jordan Fish took over keyboards and backing vocals, playing a significant role in the band's songwriting and production process. He also played a part in Oli Skyes' improvement of his singing. After Sempiternal, BMTH performed at various major festivals in Germany, like Rock am Ring and Rock im Park, and several concerts and tours with bands like A Day To Remember, Motionless In White, and Of Mice & Men.
The That’s The Spirit era continued. The album, released in 2015, sold even more than its predecessor, earning gold records in Germany and the USA, and platinum in the UK, where it stayed on the charts for 51 weeks, peaking at #2.
The band’s sound became more experimental with each album, confirmed by Amo in 2019. However, the album with the wonderful title Music to Listen to~Dance to~Blaze to~Pray to~Feed to~Sleep to~Talk to~Grind to~Trip to~Breathe to~Help to~Hurt to~Scroll to~Roll to~Love to~Hate to~Learn Too~Plot to~Play to~Be to~Feel to~Breed to~Sweat to~Dream to~Hide to~Live to~Die to~Go To, released in December 2019, was a series of remixes featuring artists like Halsey.
After this surprising album, Bring Me The Horizon announced a multi-part album project called “Post Human” in 2020, with the first release coming out in October. POST HUMAN: Survival Horror was then complemented by POST HUMAN: NeX GEn in 2024.
Sound Experiments: The Band's Opinion
With Count Your Blessings, Bring Me The Horizon had a decidedly Deathcore sound, but their music has since evolved through many phases into a mix of various genre influences. Initially moving towards Metalcore, their music now incorporates Alternative Rock, Metal, and Electro-Pop. The band cites Linkin Park as an inspiration. Of course, this constant change has attracted new fans but also displeased old ones. However, experimenting is essential for Oli Sykes and his bandmates. In an interview, he said:
“I think we’d rather make mistakes and experiment and do stuff that’s never heard before and take that risks than just play it safe and go ‘yeah well, this is going to be successful’”
Especially since “Post Human,” more Metalcore elements have been found in the songs again, a clear sign that BMTH haven't forgotten their roots and still celebrate heavy music.
Regarding the band's songwriting process, Oli and Lee usually write the initial ideas for melodies and riffs, which are then recorded with the DAW, mostly Pro Tools. Jordan Fish's next part includes drums and synths, after which the whole thing is left until the next day. Upon the next listen, weaker spots can be sorted out, and new parts recorded. This process continues with fine-tuning until the song sounds good to the band. Later on, Oli Sykes said that Jordan Fish and him did most of the Songwriting together, while the other members were less involved.
The Idea For The Band Name
When Bring Me The Horizon had no proper band name, they wrote a song lyric that included a quote from the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. The quote goes:
“And bring me that Horizon”
The slightly altered version became the band name, although the band members aren’t necessarily huge fans of the movie, as Matt Nicholls explained in an interview with Impericon in 2023.
"For some reason it just stood out to us and we were like, we should probably call our band that, so we ended up doing that. [...] I think it just meant like, it was just a kind of mood we were in when we were young. We wanted to just travel the world and go about, go and do things and go and see things and I think it kinda encaptured how we were feeling about being young and being in a band and wanting to make more of you life [...]"
The Band Logo
The hexagram, often found on Bring Me The Horizon merch, has been used by the band since their single “Antivist” from the album Sempiternal. Matt Nicholls, responsible for the band’s merch, is very fond of the symbol as a design option.
Image: BMTH Hexagram Logo
Attitude Towards Older Songs In Their Discography
One of the most frequently asked questions regarding Bring Me The Horizon is why they no longer play their old songs. The answer is quite simple: the band just doesn't like their older albums that much. Of course, there is a lot of nostalgia attached to releases before Sempiternal, especially for fans from the early days. But the chance of hearing these tracks live again is pretty slim. When asked directly if old songs would be played, Matt Nicholls answered in an interview with Impericon:
"Not if we can help it."
That’s clear. But he elaborates:
"I mean, we've moved on, we've come a long way from playing those songs. It's not really what the band's about anymore. Like, we've got better songs, you know? People always ask us to play these old songs and they wanna hear the worst songs, but we've got better songs."
Convictions Of The Band Members
Oli Sykes decided to become a vegetarian at the age of 16.
"It was when I went to one of my first hardcore punk shows at a pub. There was a girl with a PETA stand handing out flyers, and as soon as I looked at one it just clicked. I had never really thought about the fact of what I was doing, — as someone who perceived themselves to be an animal lover — was eating animals. I decided to go vegetarian on the spot."
He took the step to a vegan diet 15 years later, which he found difficult at times due to touring with Bring Me The Horizon. The solution was often just fries. However, it became easier over time. And Sykes truly lives his convictions. There have often been collaborations with PETA, and his self-founded fashion label Drop Dead Clothing had designs with the slogan “Meat Sucks.” In 2018, he also opened a restaurant with a completely vegan menu called Church - Temple Of Fun in Sheffield. But he’s not the only one in the band, as Matt Kean is also on a vegan diet.
In 2017, Oli Sykes and Jordan Fish climbed Mount Kilimanjaro together for a good cause. The donations collected were given to a special clinic for children, where Jordan Fish’s son was in the intensive care unit.
