Bring Me the Horizon

Bring Me the Horizon released their first record in 2006 playing deathcore, the most closed-off extreme of metal, and twenty years later they are headlining festivals of a hundred thousand people. The comfortable account says the change happened all at once in 2013, with Sempiternal. It did not: the turn began five years earlier and was made in four steps, each with its own record and its own date. Along the way they were joined by a keyboard player whom the summaries almost never name and who is materially responsible for the electronic sound they are known for today. And in July 2026, when they could have disowned the beginning, they re-recorded that first record in full with the screams of the time. Slipknot and Korn took heaviness to the stadiums without changing genre; this lot changed four times and came back to the starting point.

Sheffield, 2004, and a deathcore record

The band was formed in 2004 in Sheffield, in the north of England, with Oli Sykes on vocals. Their first album, Count Your Blessings, came out in 2006 and was pure deathcore: speed, blast beats, entirely guttural vocals and no melodic concessions. It was niche music within a niche.

Mid-2000s deathcore had no radio ambition and was not looking for one. It was played in small rooms, for an audience that measured a band's credibility by how little it gave up. Nothing on that record announced a group capable of headlining European festivals two decades later, and it is worth saying so because it explains why the rest of the story came as such a surprise.

The 2008 step, not the 2013 one

The turning point has a date, and it is not 2013. On 29 September 2008 they released their second record on the Visible Noise label, titled Suicide Season, and that is where the leap from deathcore to metalcore took place. The specialist press points to that record, and not the later ones, as the place where the transformation begins: more open structures, recognisable choruses, production with air in it.

The second step arrived on 4 October 2010 with There Is a Hell…, a metalcore and post-hardcore record that brought in synthesisers and clean vocals. The electronic component that would later define the band was already there, two and a half years before the album usually given the credit.

Only the fourth step is Sempiternal, from 2013, and what it did was consolidate what the two previous records had opened up: "Can You Feel My Heart" and "Sleepwalking" are the finished version of a process that came from 2008. Calling Sempiternal the turning point is the dating error most repeated in profiles of this band, and it takes the credit away from the records that made it possible. Before recording it, Sykes spent a month in rehabilitation for ketamine use, something he spoke about in 2014 on receiving an Alternative Press Music Award.

The keyboard player who carried out the turn

Jordan Fish joined in 2012, stayed until December 2023 and is the missing piece in almost every account of this transformation. Keyboards, percussion and co-production: the electronic component of Sempiternal and of everything that came after is his in material terms. An article whose thesis is a change of sound cannot skip the person who carried it out.

With Fish inside, the band became an odd object: heavy by origin and radio-friendly in fact. "Drown" appeared as a standalone single in October 2014 and was added later to That's the Spirit, from 2015, the record with "Throne" on it. Then came amo, in 2019, with the electronics already in the foreground, and the Post Human series, begun in 2020. By then they were the way into heavy rock for a whole generation that would never have come in through the deathcore door, the same cohort that listened to Pierce the Veil and company.

Fish's departure was announced on 22 December 2023. His last record with the band is Post Human: Nex Gen, released on 24 May 2024. Eleven years of work that do not appear in the group's name but do appear in every bar of their best-known period.

Twenty years later, the scream back again

On 10 July 2026 Bring Me the Horizon released a complete re-recording of Count Your Blessings for the record's twentieth anniversary, with Oli Sykes returning to the guttural scream he had left behind in 2008. He told it himself without any solemnity: "It took me a while to get some of this shit back out". The anniversary comes with a concert at the B.E.C. Arena in Manchester, within the Outbreak festival.

What is interesting is the context in which it happens. In 2026 the band headlined Sziget, in Budapest, in August, as well as Rock for People, Nova Rock, Tons of Rock and Sick New World, and closed their North American tour — from 28 April to 16 May — at Sonic Temple in Columbus. A band that fills a stage that size does not need to go back to its most uncomfortable record. They went back anyway.

What to remember

The curve of Bring Me the Horizon is almost always told badly. They are not two periods with a hinge in 2013, but four steps with verifiable dates: deathcore in 2006, metalcore in September 2008, synthesisers and clean vocals in October 2010, consolidation in 2013. And it is not the work of one man alone: Jordan Fish was inside for eleven years and is the one who put the electronics where they are.

The closing fact is the one that puts everything before it in order. Twenty years after starting at the extreme, with the career settled and the festivals won, they went back to record the album they could have hidden. The journey does not end far from the starting point: it ends right there. Two matters run through this story and today, in Chile, have a number to call: for drug or alcohol use, SENDA's Fono Drogas y Alcohol, 1412; and in the event of a crisis or suicidal ideation, the Ministry of Health's *4141 suicide prevention line, available 24 hours a day.

---

Sources

Bring Me the Horizon is a British band formed in 2004 in Sheffield, England, with Oli Sykes as vocalist. Their first album, "Count Your Blessings" (2006), belongs to deathcore. Their second album, "Suicide Season", was released on 29 September 2008 on the Visible Noise label and marks their move from deathcore to metalcore, identified by the specialist press as the start of their change of sound. "There Is a Hell…" was released on 4 October 2010 and brought in synthesisers and clean vocals within a metalcore and post-hardcore framework. "Sempiternal" (2013) consolidated that process and included "Can You Feel My Heart" and "Sleepwalking". Jordan Fish (keyboards, percussion and co-production) was a member of the band from 2012 until December 2023; his departure was announced on 22 December 2023 and his last record with the group is "Post Human: Nex Gen", released on 24 May 2024. He is considered the main person responsible for the group's electronic component since "Sempiternal". The single "Drown" was released separately in October 2014 and was later added to the album "That's the Spirit" (2015), which contains "Throne". "amo" (2019) and the "Post Human" series, begun in 2020, followed. Oli Sykes stated in 2014, on receiving an Alternative Press Music Award, that he had spent a month in rehabilitation for ketamine use before the recording of "Sempiternal". On 10 July 2026 the band released a complete re-recording of "Count Your Blessings" for the album's twentieth anniversary, with Sykes taking up the guttural voice again; the celebration includes a concert at the B.E.C. Arena in Manchester within the Outbreak festival. In 2026 they were headliners at Sziget (Budapest, August), Rock for People, Nova Rock, Tons of Rock and Sick New World, and undertook a North American tour between 28 April and 16 May 2026 that closed at Sonic Temple in Columbus, Ohio. Profile compiled for Rebobinados with fact-checking; interpretations of the meaning of the work are offered as the author's reading. No song lyrics are reproduced, for copyright reasons. Information drawn from Wikipedia, Kerrang!, Alternative Press and other press coverage.