While a lot of at the moment’s rock nestles within the cozy nostalgia of the ‘90s and early 2000s, Bring Me The Horizon insists on pushing onward. The UK band emerged from the era of early MySpace, jockeying for attention in a metalcore/deathcore scene intent on breaking all the rules of music and pissing off as many traditionalists as possible. In that, they succeeded. Initial albums like 2006’s Count Your Blessings and 2008’s Suicide Season had been completely hated by older metalheads… and nearly everybody who wasn’t a scene child.
But 20 years later Bring Me The Horizon are certainly one of rock’s most commercially profitable bands and one of many style’s largest innovators. Over the previous 5 years, they’ve headlined large festivals like Reading and Leeds, earned two Grammy nominations, and continued so as to add to their lifetime worldwide gross sales of over 4 million albums. They’ve shuffled from metalcore to area rock to pop and again once more, with pit stops at dubstep, ambient, and drum and bass music alongside the way in which. They’ve additionally collaborated with singers of scene bands like Architects and You Me at Six, in addition to Halsey and Grimes.
It’s no shock the outer reaches of their catalog include some fascinating misplaced tracks: heavy stuff from the nice outdated days, covers their contemporaries may by no means pull off, remixes that one way or the other sound impossibly dated and uncannily on-trend on the similar time.
Here we rounded up Bring Me The Horizon’s deep cuts and rarities.
Read extra: Every Bring Me The Horizon album ranked
“Who Wants Flowers When They’re Dead? Nobody” (authentic demo)
Before they had been rockstars, Bring Me The Horizon had been 5 youngsters kicking round Sheffield, doing their greatest impressions of American metalcore stalwarts like Norma Jean whereas adorning their first MySpace profiles. This burner seems on the band’s 2004 EP This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For – their first official launch – however it first popped up on their earliest surviving recording, the so-called Bedroom Sessions EP. It’s brutal, it’s uncooked,however wanting again on all they’ve accomplished, it’s a visit to listen to Oli Sykes’ screams, Lee Malia’s shredding, and the remainder of the band letting free of their earliest type.
“Eyeless” (Slipknot cowl)
In the yr 2023, Bring Me The Horizon masking Slipknot might need you pondering, “Oh, of course.” But again in 2006, when BMTH slapped this cowl onto a bonus version of Count Your Blessings, it’s exhausting to emphasize how deeply uncool nu metallic bands from the late ‘90s felt to most teenage scene kids (spending $200 on vintage Slipknot merch was very much not a thing in 2006). But this is of many cases of BMTH being way ahead of the curve. Their deathcore take on “Eyeless” is faithful enough to the 1999 original to show some good-natured admiration, and innovative enough to make it interesting.
“The Sadness Will Never End” (Skrillex remix)
Here’s one other case of Bring Me Horizon predicting the longer term: in 2009, Sonny Moore was solely two years faraway from screaming within the post-hardcore band From First to Last. He’d barely launched any music as Skrillex, and dubstep was nonetheless underground – hardly anybody moreover digital music heads knew what the style was. Yet BMTH unleashed Skrillex on their Suicide Season remix album, and the outcomes are the whole lot you’d hope for: a killer beat drop, and surge after surge of catchy digital chaos.
“Chelsea Smile” (KC Blitz remix)
While we’re nonetheless reveling in 2009, right here’s “Chelsea Smile,” the signature tune of aughts-era Bring Me The Horizon, remixed for optimum nostalgic response at each emo evening and your subsequent indie sleaze get together
“Deathbeds”
2013’s Sempiternal marked the height of Bring Me The Horizon’s reputation throughout their heavy days earlier than absolutely transferring into area rock territory. Sparse and brooding like a lonely early morning drive, this Sempiternal B-side looks like a voyage out of an period.
“Join the Club”
Another misplaced observe from Sempiternal, “Join the Club” is far more in Bring Me The Horizon’s early 2010s candy spot: gnarly and aggressive, with a penchant for dramatics (Sykes quotes each Alkaline Trio and Fifty Shades of Grey). Malia’s guitarwork and drummer Matt Nicholls reply the decision, and Bring Me The Horizon sounds prepared for much larger levels than Warped Tour.
“Don’t Look Down” ft. Orifice Vulgatron
Truly a misplaced artifact, “Don’t Look Down” surfaced in 2014, in between Bring Me The Horizon album cycles, as a part of a rescored soundtrack for the Ryan Gosling thriller Drive. It at present doesn’t seem on the band’s official streaming channels, and sparked a polarizing sufficient response upon launch to encourage a paragraph-long explainer from the band (“We appreciate the level of passion both good and bad…”) As marketed, it’s fairly attention-grabbing. BMTH crafted the tune alongside Orifice Vulgatron, vocalist of the London dubstep/hip-hop group Foreign Beggars, giving it a skittering, digital underbelly beneath the band’s regular screaming and crushing guitars. If you’ve loved BMTH’s previous decade of style experimentalism, there’s probability you’ll discover one thing to dig into right here.
“Drone Bomb Me” (Anohni cowl)
Here’s a second the place Bring Me The Horizon actually proved the depth of their musical consciousness. Visiting New York’s Spotify Studios in 2019, BMTH recorded a canopy of Anohni’s “Drone Bomb Me,” an experimental pop tune with a radical message, from an artist fully exterior their realm (Anohni, a transgender artist, has been critically acclaimed because the early ‘00s for her work in chamber pop, orchestral music, and disco; “Drone Bomb Me” is sung from the perspective of a young Middle Eastern girl who has lost her parents to an American attack.) Rather than just cranking out a cover of some current Top 40 song and calling it a day, Bring Me The Horizon presented Anohni’s music and message to a totally new viewers.
“When the Party’s Over” (Billie Eilish cowl)
When Bring Me The Horizon does tackle a tune from an enormous Top 40 artist, they completely make it rely. Synchronized singing! Those five-part harmonies! Your favourite 2000s post-hardcore band may by no means. One of the perfect cowl performances of current years, full cease.
“Mood” (24kGoldn ft. iann dior cowl)
Just as a result of Bring Me The Horizon hasn’t carried out “Chelsea Smile” in years doesn’t imply they nonetheless don’t have a bit of metalcore in them, even in the case of masking pop songs in fancy studios. The breakdown written into the “Mood” finale is a giant ol’ nod to anybody who’s been following the band because the early days. When Sykes growls, “I won’t be your victim!” It’s a piercing reminder of the brutality deep in Bring Me The Horizon’s DNA
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