Review Summary: God is a poopoo head.
Does anybody else feel the palpable, almost unbearable irony surrounding Bring Me the Horizon these days? In categorical terms, they’ve always been the lepers of metal; nomads who never gave up on themselves, spending years and years crawling through the trenches with nothing but sheer will and a shade of hubris in their own abilities to come out of it as one of the biggest metal acts in the game today. BMTH are the Rocky story – a certifiable example of an underdog becoming the champion – and without all of those years of torment and literal and verbal sh-t being thrown their way, they probably wouldn’t have gotten to where they are now. As a matter of fact, if Sykes and co. are still holding salt for how they were treated over the course of their career, I can empathise with that, but without those hardships it wouldn’t have made them the luminary figureheads they are today. Of course, it’s not like their accolades haven’t been earned and acknowledged; whether you care to accept it or not, their capricious writing methods have changed the face of metal on numerous occasions – experimentation that has morphed their sound from deathcore right through to electro-pop-metal with an unflinching conviction. And with all of that superlative exploration comes a new chapter in BMTH’s career:
Post Human: Survival Horror, a collection of songs that corelate a lot of the band’s history into one project for one succinct purpose.
In recent years, Linkin Park have become an increasingly obvious influence. Their prominence is unequivocally felt on this project and the top and bottom of it is, it’s going to make them a gateway band for a younger demographic because of it. It’s also somewhat bizarre to think that both of these bands, despite going about it in different ways, have gone through similar artistic processes caused by internal reflection. Like Linkin Park, BMTH have done their damnedest to shake their old image this past five-or-so years, making music that breaks away from stigmas and pigeonholes, but ultimately doing so to try and prove their legitimacy as artists. Unlike Linkin Park however, Jordan Fish seems to have talked Oli around into embracing his past, and the results have formed a sound that embraces some of their roots whilst merging it with present day ambitions. In essence,
Post Human: Survival Horror sticks more to the band’s old metal sound than the electronic heavy
Music to Listen to..., or the weird alt-rock/electronic style of
Amo, however, the zeitgeist of both of those projects can still be felt as well.
It’s important to emphasise that
Post Human: Survival Horror is aiming at a younger audience. That's not to say I'm giving this record’s shortcomings a pass, but I do understand that its limitations should be acknowledged in that context. Basically, what I’m trying to articulate is, while the lyrics are an outright abomination to a thirty-something-year-old, I can imagine a young teenager finding something meaningful from them. The same goes for the typically average music that’s on offer here. For the most part this record centres itself around bombastic choruses which have been set up by elemental alt-metal verses. After listening to this a number of times, there’s nothing particularly stand out or well-executed about it, but I can’t argue that it’s a little bit fun to listen to. That’s why it’s impossible to overlook the “gateway” gambit at play here. For some young kid who’s never listened to metal music before, it’s hard to fault the way these tracks have been composed. Each track is bustling with melody and succinct song structure, but has just the right amount of metal’s extremities to warrant it being a great introduction for newcomers. Its diversity is calculated with airtight precision; journey through the Amy Lee guested ballad “One Day the Only Butterflies Left Will Be in Your Chest as You March Towards Your Death”, the drum and bass instrumental “Itch for the Cure (When Will We Be Free?)” and the NU-metal voyage “Teardrops”, and you’ll discover a boat load of different moods present which are sure to please people who aren’t well-versed in these kinds of genres.
It should also be noted that despite the fact Oli has an abhorrence for his guttural screams these days, they are still begrudgingly present on the likes of “Kingslayer”, albeit banished to the back of the sonic playground under scuttling electronics, chuggy guitar riffs, and Su-metal's guest vocals, but they are present to some extent nevertheless. And that’s the biggest surprise here, yeah, the screams are treated like a black sheep but the harsh vocal work is still quite a dominant fixture in spite of that. If there’s only one credit to give to
Post Human: Survival Horror it’s that it does, for the first time in years, embrace the band’s past with some semblance of welcoming. Maybe going forward we’ll hear more of the past being implemented with their modern-day sensibilities. In regards to
Post Human: Survival Horror itself, it’s not an awful record. If you aren’t twelve years old, there are elements of enjoyment that can be taken from this, assuming your soul hasn’t completely rotted away. Yes, the lyrics are horribly, horribly written, but Limp Bizkit were never one for making meaningful statements either. This is the kind of sound that relies on the primal part of your brain, and if you’re willing to accept the majority of
Post Human: Survival Horror’s lowbrow traits, there’s a fun little spin waiting for you.
Post Human: Survival Horror doesn’t break any moulds, it’s the sonic equivalent to fast food, by which you’ll consume it, enjoy it, and forget about it right after you’ve finished it, but it’s fun while it lasts.
FORMAT//EDITIONS:
DIGITAL////VINYL(VARIOUS)//CD//CASSETTE//BUNDLES
UNBOXING VIDEO:
N/A
SPECIAL EDITION BONUSES:
N/A
ALBUM STREAM//PURCHASE:
https://www.bmthofficial.com/
