Review Summary: An album without any spirit.
Bring Me the Horizon plays things decidedly safe off of "That's the Spirit". What niche role in music they were finally begin to carve themselves in they have immediately revoked off this record. While hardly being genre-breaker or real risk takers, their was at least a sense of honesty and passion in everything they wrote, which gave them the power to make rather hackneyed cliches still sound like a real confession of emotion. Off "That's the Spirit" Bring Me the Horizon have gone from "Can You Feel My Heart" to "I can't feel anything" frighteningly fast.
Musically, the album is insipid. Ollie Sykes once gritty yet still poppy, catchy voice has now become so incredibly flat that it just has nothing distinguishable, which in some ways is actually more disappointing then having outright horrendous vocals. In some ways, it's better to absolutely hate an album then it is to be bored and callous to it, because at least it invoked a reaction. Ollie Sykes invokes no emotion, because quite frankly here he has none. Gone are the passionate (albeit slightly angsty) anthems of the past. Ollie sounds incredibly bored with what he is writing, as if the only thing keeping him driven are fans that will go stark-raving mad if he doesn't put out another album.
One could hope that the instruments at least bring some level of interest into the mix. On a small number of occasions, they do. A perfect example would be the track "Throne" which ends in some really cathartic, vigorous drumming. For better or worse, that track contains more emotion in the last 30 seconds then this album does as a whole. Otherwise, the music is composed basically of average to moderately enjoyable electronic beats. At their best, their catchy, upbeat and bring a slight sense of lightheartedness to the album (ironic for an album called "That's the Spirit"). At their worst, you have the incredibly awkward intro to "Doomed", which involves a rather exasperated man running out of breath going "ahh" as part of the beat. It truly is as bad as it sounds. Otherwise, the music is completely sterile in its sound, so much so it simply can't sound offensively bad.
Probably one of the most make or break aspects of this album is just how full blown pop it has gone. It may still be a step down from the most auto-tuned generic pop, but considering how little presence the guitars have on the album and just how fake Ollie's vocals have become here, you would be in a complete and utter stupor trying to comprehend that this was the same band off of "Count Your Blessings". The band has simply lost any of the thrill, of the youthful energy they have displayed off of previous albums. This album is only recommended if your version of fun is watching wet cement dry. This album, whether out of fear of failure, a legitimate change in sound or the need to rake in money, simply does not have the spirit.
