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POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR is the 10th album to come from Sheffield Alt Metal band, Bring Me The Horizon.
Since the bands emergence in 2004 they have explored numerous avenues, styles and genres. This album is continuing that pattern with juxtaposed sounds and modern topics as well as revisiting their original noise.
The album begins with punch-packing track, ‘Dear Diary’, in which frontman Oli Sykes describes an apocalyptic scenario whilst ‘going brain dead, isolated’ along with feeling ‘itchy like there’s bugs under my skin’ – the irritating feeling you get when you’re anxious and stuck in one place (probably hinting towards the current Coronavirus pandemic and how it feels like doomsday is upon us).
Following the last line of the chorus; ‘Traumatized for breakfast, I can’t stomach any, you won’t survive the horror’ comes a gnarly guitar riff similar to those you’d hear in a power metal tune.
The track ends with the following play on words; ‘Kinda sad my whole entire existence been a waste, Ah, nevermind, it’s not the end of the world, oh, wait’ before flowing into Parasite Eve – a track with a rather peculiar music video that has been well received with over 15,000,000 plays on YouTube since its initial release four months ago.
The record features collaborations with artists from different genres and eras including Japanese Kawaii Metal band; BABYMETAL on track ‘Kingslayer’, rock duo; Nova Twins on ‘1x1’, Evanescence’s Amy Lee on ‘One Day the Only Butterflies Left Will Be in Your Chest as You Mark Towards Your Death’ and fellow Yorkshire legend; YUNGBLUD on pre-released track ‘Obey’.
On ‘Kingslayer’, BABYMETAL bring dance arcade vibes to the album. Paired with contrasting brutal vocals and breakdowns from Bring Me The Horizon, this track is an explosion of sounds that work so well together you’ll find yourself dancing and headbanging along.
Preliminary track; ‘Itch for the Cure (When Will I Be Free?)’ is a 1:30 mashup track of industrial computerised sounds and includes Oli talking about ‘something coming unplugged’ before transitioning into a rave-like drum & bass instrumental section, later accompanied by vocals from Su-Metal (BABYMETAL) exclaiming ‘I wanna be a Kingslayer!’. With a very similar title to that of Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory era song; ‘Cure for the Itch’, maybe there was some inspiration behind the making of this track.
POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR concludes with an epically emotional song from Oli and Amy Lee; ‘One Day the Only Butterflies Left Will Be in Your Chest…’.
The song begins with the powerful and recognisable vocals of Evanescence’s Amy Lee saying ‘On the verge of no return, why’d you keep fucking it up? Don’t wanna have to bury you, but nothing seems to get through your skull’ before seeping into a hauntingly atmospheric chorus.
The equally emotional second verse comes from Oli Sykes; ‘Past the point of rescuing, why’d I keep pushing my luck? The hole I wore into your soul has got too big to overlook’.
They then both collide into the second chorus with ‘So tell me, how’s it going to feel without my arms wrapped around, wrapped around you? Bet it feels pretty real when your skin starts to peel from the bone’.
This final track is four minutes of raw emotion and has an incredible depth to it that keeps you hanging on until the very last second – an unusual contrasting end to a metal album, yet perfectly placed and ties the narrative of each song together beautifully.
In a year that has been full of uncertainty and confusion, one thing that we are certain of is that this album is a certified hit.
Article By Harley Young
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