Classics Revisited: Bring Me The Horizon - 'Sempiternal'

The fourth studio album by the UK metal titans, Bring Me The Horizon, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Widely regarded as the peak of Bring Me The Horizon, Sempiternal topped the rock charts within the UK upon its release with over 9,000 copies sold within its first week of release. So how did such an album redefine a band and the metalcore genre itself? Kerenza Hudson explores.

The entire album screams ambition from the start, with strong themes of Oli Syke’s interpersonal struggles intertwined throughout. Despite Sempiternal being their debut large-label release from RCA, it remained in keeping with their rebellious style and didn’t switch to a more radio-friendly sound. Sempiternal kicks off with what is still regarded as the band’s most famous and biggest hit, Can You Feel My Heart – a track that samples the core sound found throughout Sempiternal. The electric undertone of the record defines it as a BMTH album, with the sound developing from their previous record There is a Hell…. It brings a softer pop sound blended well with emotional choruses and heart-gripping guitars. House of Wolves and Antivist bring the abrasive and heavy side to the record, with a more riff-driven focus which helps balance out the album overall. Its beefy down-tune riffs and bends satisfy those with a taste for the heavier side of BMTH.

Sleepwalking breaks through with its gut-wrenching lyrics “Your eyes are swallowing me / Mirrors start to whisper / shadows start to sing” - a bleak and downtrodden outlook which contradicts other tracks on the album such as And the Snakes Start to Sing that has a harsher and resentful tone - “Don’t say I’m better off dead, ‘cause Heaven’s full and Hell won’t have me”. As well as the thrashing and powerful Shadow Moses; a song with crashing verses and chantable choruses, such as “This is Sempiternal”. It’s an anthem of resilience.

"Negative emotions constantly fight each other to take control, with wolves clawing at gates, singing shadows and leeches crawling out from the dirt - all metaphors for different negativities."

These contradictions drive home the idea of an internal emotional war and the effects on the subject’s surroundings. Negative emotions constantly fight each other to take control, with wolves clawing at gates, singing shadows and leeches crawling out from the dirt - all metaphors for different negativities. The variety of light and darker tracks throughout this album set it apart and create a well-rounded and balanced experience and atmosphere, allowing for the experimentation of the band to be showcased.

The blend from soft synth sounds and strings to the hefty 90’s nu-metal-esque riffs transcends the limits of the traditional metalcore genre for its time and quickly becomes a signature for the band. The vocals of Oli Sykes shine through strongly with a huge improvement in his vocal works from previous releases. The introduction of Jordan Fish and his electronic keyboard and programming work brings the variety that keeps new and traditional metalcore fans happy and satisfied.

Sempiternal showed the heavy music world that metalcore doesn’t have to be downbeat and bland, it has the potential to be complex. Despite the death of the genre fast approaching at the time, Bring Me The Horizon granted it a second life with spark.

Kerenza Hudson

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Edited by Roxann Yus

Cover image courtesy of Bring Me The Horizon via Facebook. In-article image courtesy of @circusxhead via Instagram.