Released: 24 May
Sony Music
Bring Me The Horizon‘s second instalment in the POST HUMAN series pushes the limits in their interpretation of the metal-core world. ‘NeX GEn‘ incorporates 16 tracks of pure imagination and shows how far BMTH can push boundaries. The previous album in the POST HUMAN project, was a narration of a post-covid world and tackled the struggles and hardships a pandemic can cause the world. The first part of the POST HUMAN Series, Survival Horror was recorded during the first COVID lockdowns, almost entirely remotely, and leaned into the band’s heavy side to express feelings of anger, fear, emptiness and despair.
Of NeX GEn, singer Oli Sykes says that it’s searching for something more hopeful, if not entirely positive in and of itself. Fittingly, the music this time – already previewed in huge singles ‘Kool Aid’, ‘DiE4u’, ‘AmEN!’, and ‘DArkSide’ Oli adds the album took “ages to write”. Partly, this is down to the band thinking that lockdown would last much longer than it did. When it lifted, they quickly found their schedules full with touring the world and headlining festivals such as Reading & Leeds (where they were joined by Ed Sheeran for their collaborative hit ‘Bad Habits‘), hosting and headlining NEX FEST in Japan, Download Festival in the UK, Good Things in Australia and When We Were Young and Sick New World in Las Vegas.
“It’s a real concept album, with a full narrative that connects to the first record, but the concept is hidden and buried. Some people aren’t going to be interested, but for some people, it could be like a self-help book. There’s a lot of things in there, some of it’s quite clear, but a lot of it cryptic and hidden. People are gonna have to work it out.”
– Oli Sykes
NeX GEn starts with a brief introduction to the second part in the POST HUMAN series, with an interlude ‘[ost] dreamseeker’ which features footsteps, a heartbeat, and the vocals “Let’s Begin”, which paves the way into the first song of the album ‘YOUtopia‘. Bringing the best of BMTH‘s pop nature, soft breakdowns and Oli’s beautiful cleans, the little stepping stones add up to something bigger. Over crunching guitars and cascading drums: “There’s a place I wanna take you, but I’m not quite there myself yet, I’m getting better, but there’s still days, where I wish that I was someone else.”
‘Kool-aid‘ is a track we already had a taste of, being performed live on their recent headline Australian tour supported by Sleep Token. ‘Kool-aid‘ is the first track on this album where we get a full taste of Bring Me the Horizon and Oli’s fluctuating vocals, throwing in a heavy breakdown closer to the end of the track which scratches an ever-heavy need from adoring fans and newcomers alike.
‘Top 10 staTues tHat CriEd bloOd‘ comes as a faster-paced ‘new’ hyper-pop style of BMTH, the same sort of style we’ve seen previously in tasters like ‘DiE4u‘. This has to be the punchiest and catchiest chorus of the whole album: “Cos no one’s going to come and rescue me, I’m drowning in my sleep.” This chorus will be screamed at parties and during festivals for years to come, with the track already in heavy rotations and playlists.
Following ‘Top 10 staTues tHat CriEd bloOd‘s slow outro we’re introduced to ‘liMOusIne‘ featuring AURORA, which is my personal favourite from the album. The band have taken a page out of Deftone’s playbook, featuring their iconic drowning vocals in the verses, the same as what Chino Moreno features in ††† (Crosses) and Deftones. Featuring AURORA brings the track to a whole new level, backing Oli’s vocals with a soft melody, seen in vocals within the chorus and second verse which gives listeners a blend of 90s grunge and a new sound for BMTH, which I am 100% here for!
The next few tracks on the lineup ‘DArkSide‘, and ‘a bulleT w- my namE On’ featuring Underoath sounds more like the iconic New Generation that Bring Me have been achieving the past couple of years. Its heavier breakdowns thanks to Underoath‘s support boosts this track, but I feel like it would have been a lost track had it not been for the feature.
‘[ost] (spi)ritual‘ feels like a wasted space on the album, interluding a repeated trap beat, reminiscing on the 2019 release Music to Listen To... Understandably they need the interludes to change the vibe inbetween their usual sound and their new ‘hyper-pop’ fixation, which leads way into ‘n/A‘.
‘LosT’,’sTraNgeRs‘, and ‘DiE4u‘, the trio of singles we have already had a taste of when they were previously released make their way onto this record. Overall I will say out of the trio of singles they’ve released since 2021, ‘LosT‘ is the overall better out of the trio, lyrically covering lead singer Oli Sykes‘ focus on his own mental health and self-image.
‘Rip (duskCOre Remix)‘ is a trappy remix that feels a little lost on the album. It ties in well with the interludes in between the clusters, but I feel the whole ‘trap’ BMTH sound was well and over with Music to Listen To... A similar track ‘AmeN!‘, features some of the heavier elements the band is known for alongside features from Lil Uzi Vert and Darl Palumbo. This track shows its departure from the alt-rock tracks previously seen earlier.
‘[ost] puss-e‘ is a repetitive hyper-electronic trap interlude before the single, bringing the sounds from the previously mentioned Music to Listen To... The album closes out with the track ‘DIg It‘, which has a weird vibe. The slow, soft melodic intro winds us down from the heaviness seen within the album, closing the track out with minutes of silence, which is not needed, almost like they had a time quota that they had to reach before publishing it.
NeX GEn is the work of a band unafraid to challenge both themselves and the musical world in which they have become leaders. From the strong tracks such as ‘liMOusIne’, ‘YOUtopia‘, and ‘Top 10 staTues tHat CriEd bloOd‘ to the previously released trio of singles of ‘LosT’,’sTraNgeRs‘, and ‘DiE4u‘. In all its highs and lows this album will be a stepping stone for future BMTH releases.
Ratiing: 7/10
Review by Connor Lane
Bring Me the Horizon – POST HUMAN: NeX GEn tracklisting:
01. [ost] dreamseeker
02. YOUtopia
03. Kool-Aid
04. Top 10 staTues tHat CriEd bloOd
05. liMOusIne ft AURORA
06. DArkSide
07. a bulleT w/my namE On ft Underoath
08. [ost] (spi)ritual
09. n/A
10. LosT
11. sTraNgeRs
12. R.i.p (duskCOre RemIx)
13. AmEN! (feat. Lil Uzi Vert & Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw)
14. [ost] puss-e
15. DiE4u
16. DIg It
