Bring Me The Horizon: That's The Spirit


Bring Me The Horizon have come a long way from the shaky days of their first EP, released 10 years ago. With a trio of stellar records (Suicide Season, There Is A Hell…, Sempiternal), they changed the metalcore game, blending unorthodox elements like orchestras and electronics with a signature rawness and personality that was all their own.  Their fifth album, That’s The Spirit is an even further step away from that field, being closer to the 1975 than their former counterparts Architects or Parkway Drive. So does it succeed?
Following in the footsteps of Sempiternal, That’s The Spirit is a rather diverse album, stepping out in a number of different directions. Opening track Doomed is a slow burner, a largely electronic number with more of the angelic clean singing frontman  Oli developed on the last album. Happy Song and Throne both dip their toes in the nu metal waters with thick drop tuned riffs and massive sing along choruses. Tracks like Follow You and Oh No however push the electronics to the forefront, sounding unlike anything the band have ever recorded before. Avalanche’s combination of the rough orchestral metal of Sempiternal and the new found softer touches here work to make it the strongest track on the album. Oli’s cleans here are stronger than ever, the atmospheric textures work wonderfully. As a rock album with heavier touches, it works wonderfully.
However the album is still deeply flawed in a number of aspects. The self-produced nature of the album has resulted in the guitars sounding rather flaccid. While this may be a deliberate choice, it does rob the impact from a number of songs. The pacing of the album remains firmly in the middle range, causing it to be a drag at times. The lyrics have gotten more simplistic and in the case of True Friends, rather clumsy. While Oli was never the greatest lyricist, his lyrics had an individuality and an honesty to them. Here they merely seem like simpler, more tumblr edit friendly ways of expressing topics covered with a much more interesting soundtrack before.  The overall vibe from the album is that of a band becoming more accessible by stripping away the more challenging aspects of their sound. While they have succeeded in becoming more accessible, in penning catchier tunes and reinventing their sound, they have lost the grit that made them something special. The sophisticated yet raw dynamic is what they thrived on in the past along with energy, here both of those things have been sacrificed.

Final verdict? That’s The Spirit is an easy album to like, but a hard album to love. It is very much a calculated affair, that may very well attract more fans than those alienated by it. It’s an enjoyable album for what it is, however it is far from the quality fans and critics have come to expect from Bring Me The Horizon.
6/10
Standout Tracks: Drown, Avalanche, Throne.

For Fans Of: The 1975, Linkin Park, Deftones

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