The expectation that manifested itself in writing a review of Avenged Sevenfold’s Nightmare (which I should be reviewing in this segment here) proved itself too great for me; the context of the album’s production, the tragic passing of Jimmy ‘The Rev’ Sullivan, ensures that the album weeps poignancy and depth that has previously remained undiscovered in A7X’s former efforts. Consequently I spent the summer listening to this album over and over without any loss of its intensity; Nightmare is unforgiving in that it is a constant reminder of the heartbreak surrounding the sudden death of the band’s drummer. It may seem disjointed at points but that, more than anything, stands as a testament to the band’s stoic determination to complete an album that remains a fitting epitaph to their close friend. In short, buy it, steal it, borrow it, order it off grandma’s Amazon account while she’s doped up on Percocet…whatever. Just obtain it because if it resonates with you as much as it did with me, then it’s certainly worth a listen.
So instead this post is dedicated to Bring Me The Horizon and their new release There is a Hell Believe Me I’ve Seen It There is a Heaven Let’s Keep It a Secret. Get past the retardedly long album title and you’ll find a record that runs a lot deeper in terms of musicianship than the ejaculate-flinging sceptics would want to acknowledge; the reason I say this is because, unless you’ve been holed up in the Hitler’s secret bunker in Berlin with a horny Eva Braun trying to hump your skeletal brains out for the last sixty-odd years, you should know that BMTH attracts irrational hatred like Liverpudlians attract irrationally large women.
However forgetting their previous albums or any preconceptions you may have about them, this is a dark record that throttles and chokes. I don’t care if they look like McFly who happened to find the face-paint section at the Early Learning Centre and decided to go to town on each other, BMTH have made so much more than just a heavy record. Album opener Crucify Me, for example, after a brief clean intro suddenly pounds into the crash of the verse and the distinctive and relentless lyrics of Oli Sykes, breaking down to intermittently throw in some female vocals produced like a Prodigy track. It feels new and weird to start with and in some ways the album makes me hate myself; I found myself actually liking the keyboard supplemented riffs and the fucking string orchestra sections. It’s a crazily intense record as well; at the end of the ground splitting Anthem, an indiscernible female says ‘I feel like my heart has been touched by Christ’ before the new single, It Never Ends, smashes into you like a freight-train, splintering bone-fragments and destroying any conception of sensibility that might have existed prior to you listening to this album.
There is a Hell… is also so much more than just a masturbatory aid for headbangers. Periods of respite are offered in what do feel like genuine attempts at tenderness, and the addition of female vocals, offered by the musician ‘Lights’, work as an incredible compliment to the devastation that remains throughout the rest of the album; Don’t Go is notably melancholic and filled to the brim with lost love and unrequited passion.
Bring Me The Horizon deserve to stand as victors over many a critic in 2010 for the creation of this record; it is intense and exciting and most of all, it is different. Songs of note include Crucify Me, It Never Ends and Blacklist, yet, in truth, there is very little to find that disappoints here. Maintain any negative preconceptions about the band and you will deprive yourself of one of the best albums of the year. Ignore me at your peril.
Always looking in,
The Outsider
Rating: 9.1/10
