Originally posted on Kerrang:
“As part of our extensive tribute to Chester Bennington in this week’s issue of the magazine, we spoke to Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon. We thought it’d be cool to share what he said here. Without further ado:
“I...

Originally posted on Kerrang:

As part of our extensive tribute to Chester Bennington in this week’s issue of the magazine, we spoke to Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon. We thought it’d be cool to share what he said here. Without further ado:
“I first met Chester in 2014 in America. It was for a Kerrang! cover shoot, and I was really nervous about it. I was excited too, but I didn’t know whether to play it cool or just gush at him. I went with the latter option, and he was so cool and really nice to me.
“We asked each other questions about a bunch of stuff. We were on Warped Tour at the time and he was asking me about how I did it, playing shows every day for six to eight weeks without losing my voice. I told him Linkin Park were the first band I ever saw live and the reason I wanted to be in one. He seemed really taken aback about it all when I said how much he influenced me. He seemed to really appreciate it and be humbled by it. He was really nice, really genuine, really calm. Like a lot of things in my life, if I could go back to tell 14-year-old me that was going to happen, I wouldn’t have believed it.
“I remember an issue of Kerrang! back in the day where my eyeball and a bit of my head was in the background of a photo from the Linkin Park gig I went to. When I got home and I saw myself in the magazine, I cried my eyes out because I thought it was so amazing. If someone had taken hold of me then and said, ‘One day you’re going to be on the front cover of Kerrang! with Chester,’ I would have had my mind blown. It’s one of those moments that makes you stop to look back at everything you’ve done and appreciate how much you’ve achieved.
“I must have been about 13 when I first heard Linkin Park and, to be honest, music had never played that much of a part in my life to that point. Then I saw a Linkin Park video on Kerrang! TV and it made me think, ‘Fucking hell, this is really cool!’ I felt like the music was speaking to me, the lyrics really resonated, and they were the band that really got me heavily into the scene. From there I got into hardcore and metalcore, but I’d always check out their new albums.
“Chester’s voice was a huge inspiration, too. He was someone I looked up to. He was the benchmark, because I don’t think anyone sounds like him. He was such an iconic and unique singer. I don’t think anyone sounded like him before, and I don’t think anyone will ever again. That mix of melody, catchiness and aggression is something I wanted to aim for myself.
“When I heard the news he had died I was in Los Angeles, not too far away from where it happened. At first I didn’t believe it, to be honest. When it was clear it was real, I felt weird. I know we’ve lost a lot of great artists over the years, but no-one had the impact and influence on my life that he did. Him as a vocalist and his band are genuinely responsible for the path I chose in life. Losing someone that you don’t actually know – obviously I met him, but I couldn’t call him a friend – is such a strange feeling. I feel like I miss his presence, even though I didn’t really know him. I think it’s important that you grieve and appreciate what you and we’ve all lost.”
Go pick up a copy of this week’s mag here. 26p from each issue sold in the UK and online through Newsstand.co.uk goes straight to the One More Light fund, established in Chester’s memory by Music For Relief, the charity he co-founded.

BMTH have been added to the lineup for Woodstock in Poland! [x]

A gateway drug for a new rock generation, That’s The Spirit finds BMTH shaping up to be the sort of band that won’t just conquer the world (again), but will change it too. Where do you go next, when you’re on top of the world? For Bring Me The Horizon, the answer is simple: wherever they damn well please…

Read the article here.

An article from NME:

Bring Me The Horizon On Tour – 24 Hours With The UK’s Biggest Metal Band

Britain’s fastest-rising heavy rockers Bring Me The Horizon are about to embark on a nine-date UK tour in support of fifth album ‘That’s The Spirit’, where they’ll play to 30,000 fans, trucking about 75,000 kilos of equipment with their 38 crew. NME spent 24 hours in their company, witnessing their vegan catering, crying fans and enormous ‘entertainment cage’.

Read the full feature here.

Bring Me The Horizon is the NXT: LOUD band for TakeOver: Respect

An article from WWE.

NXT: LOUD is a program that brings together the future of music and The Superstars of Tomorrow. Both of TakerOver: Respect’s themes are featured on their latest album, “That’s The Spirit,” which is available now and is currently No. 2 on the Billboard charts.
“BMTH is beyond stoked to be a part of NXT: LOUD,” said Matt Nicholls, the band’s drummer. “We believe our music fits the intense, raw & energetic attitude of NXT perfectly, and as fans of wrestling, this is something we are more than proud to be a part of.”
“They’re a musical version of everything NXT is trying to be in the sports-entertainment world,” Corey Graves said. “Plus, the chorus of ‘Throne’ says, ‘Every scar will build my throne.’ That’s representative of our business. We take our lumps just trying to build something. It’s not going to be easy, but eventually, it will pay off.”
Bring Me The Horizon can count Graves and several other Superstars among their massive fanbase, including WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins.
“They’re an incredible awesome band that makes real awesome music. I’m stoked that they’re a part of the WWE family and NXT: LOUD. They really embody the whole “future is now” spirit that NXT runs with. It’s a perfect partnership.”
“Throne” and “Happy Song” will be heard on NXT programming over the next several weeks, leading up to TakeOver: Respect – live and only on WWE Network, Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 8/7 C. Click here to get “That’s The Spirit” on iTunes now!

Bring Me The Horizon: Not Quite A UK No. 1… But A Global Success Story

@olobersyko: This really puts stuff in perspective… Thankyou to everyone around the world who bought #ThatsTheSpirit ! http://t.co/wrFECoRzrd

An article from Music Business Worldwide.

Bring Me The Horizon might have lost out on the UK album chart crown by the narrowest of margins on Friday – but, globally speaking, their status as a heavyweight rock act is now confirmed.
The Sheffield band’s fifth studio album, That’s The Spirit, was released by Sony Music labels worldwide on Friday, September 11. It was the band’s first released on a major label in the US, via Columbia, and was issued on RCA in other global territories including the UK.
The album sold 62,000 (equivalent) units in the US market – with 55,000 ‘real’ sales – to reach No.2 on the Billboard 200. Those ‘real’ sales were enough to carry That’s The Spirit to No.1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales Chart, which omits streaming numbers.
The US performance towered above That’s The Spirit’s predecessor, Sempiternal, which reached No.11 on the Billboard 200 when it was released via indie Epitaph in April 2013. With just 27,522 first week sales in the US, Sempiternal shifted around half of That’s The Spirit’s numbers in its opening seven days.

Continue reading here.

Review: Bring Me The Horizon - That’s The Spirit

Alternative Press: If you’re going to reinvent yourself, you may as well go all in. When Bring Me The Horizon added keyboard player and studio whiz Jordan Fish to their ranks in 2012, they abandoned deathcore for a more immediate, synth-based sound on 2013’s Sempiternal. It was the first step in a process that has culminated in the breathtaking That’s The Spirit. Ambitious, grand, emotional and complex, it’s a record that demands the band be seen in a new light.
Written in the dreary winter of the band’s hometown of Sheffield, U.K., and recorded in the bright Mediterranean summer paradise of Santorini in Greece (with Fish handling production), it’s an LP that blends pessimism with optimism. While singer Oli Sykes broods, rages and sighs–his lyrics touching on his former addictions (“Oh No”), disloyalty (“True Friends”), and the perilous state of the world–he does so over music equal parts heavy and hopeful. The ambient, dubby squelches of “Doomed” create nervous tension, with Sykes’ vocals cycling uneasily. Then, quite from nowhere, he finds a gorgeous melody, hitting a sweet-spot falsetto that tingles the spine. It’s such a poignant moment that it takes a while to realize he’s telling us we’re all fucked. The track tees up an album hinging on that counterpoint between despair and belief. “Let’s all sing along a little goddamn louder to a happy song and pretend it’s all okay,” Sykes sings on the brilliant “Happy Song,” with guitars exploding all around, only making the suggestion more appealing.
There are moments when BMTH reach for the mainstream so easily it’s hard to remember their metalcore roots. “Throne” is reminiscent of Linkin Park, a dubstep update on Meteora with Sykes in defiant Chester Bennington mode. “Follow You” is an emotional ballad littered with skittering electronics; “What You Need” is an out-and-out rock song that frees them from genre niches, while “Run” is another standout in the Linkin Park vein, its chorus riding a wave of wistful ecstasy. “Avalanche” is melancholy, epic and uplifting all at once: “I feel like suicide,” Sykes sings, but the swelling synths behind him seem to say, “Oh, cheer up.” In fact, that’s the message of the whole album: Everything’s screwed, but what are you going to do about it?
While Fish’s keyboards shape the sound, the guitars are still vital. Lee Malia is less technical yet more integral than ever before, finding roiling riffs that fuel the album’s engine. He underpins Sykes’ anger while Fish’s synths offer a euphoric contrast. It’s in this blend of opposing forces that That’s The Spirit finds its emotional depth, making it both immediately accessible and addictively complex. It deserves to be the making of the band.

“We didn’t want to compromise anything this time…” - Bring Me The Horizon open up about the making of That’s The Spirit

Originally posted on hmv.com

When Bring Me The Horizon formed back in 2003 as five scrappy Sheffield metal fans, no one, not least themselves, would expect that 12 years they’d be about to release their fifth studio album That’s The Spirit (which you can preview and purchase on the right-hand side of the page) with a UK arena tour booked and expectations that the album will trouble the top end of the charts next Friday. We sat down with frontman Oli Sykes and keyboardist Jordan Fish to find out all about producing the album themselves, why they feel like they’re leaving heavy music and the scene that spawned them behind and taking inspiration from Disclosure for their live shows…
That’s The Spirit is out today, how long have you had it ready for?
Oli: “We finished it July, the first week of July, so in terms of turning a record around it’s been really quick.”
Last time out you’d just gone through a line-up change (Guitarist Jona Weinhofen had left while Fish, formerly of electro-rockers Worship, had joined) and you had a new label to contend with, whereas this time it sounds like recording went very smoothly…
Jordan: “It’s been a painless process. I think we’ve all really enjoyed making the album.”
Oli: “We had a lot of control over it and the authority to do what we want. Things went on around the making of Sempiternal that convinced us to do things our way.”
Jordan: “Especially the leak, it leaked so early.”
Oli: “We wanted to have full control and we got it. The label have trusted us and I think everyone is just really excited about this record.”
It felt like after your headline show at Wembley Arena that not only did you go out on a high, but also with a clear plan…
Jordan: “I think that was what got us writing so quickly. We were buzzing after that show and we didn’t feel exhausted or strung out. We had four weeks off and then we all just said let’s get started.”

Continue reading here.

An article from Alternativ News.

(Translated from English to French (by Laurie at AN) and back to English, sorry if some bits are incorrect)

Bring Me The Horizon are preparing to release a new album this Friday, September 11, 2015. That’s The Spirit is a new step for the group, which decided to lower all barriers of genres and venturing on land unknown. With their previous album, Sempiternal, Bring Me The Horizon had first made a place in prime time on radio. Since then the band has matured, gained confidence, and wanted to transform this test. This satisfaction is reflected in That’s The Spirit, which marks a sort of “renaissance” of the musicians of Sheffield. Big changes are expected; we discussed this new stage with Matt Kean, bassist.

Alternativ News: There are only a few days before the release of That’s The Spirit … How do you feel when approaching the big day?
Matt Kean: I am very nervous, and we’re all super excited that everyone can listen now, because our side it’s a moment that is happening in the loop!
“Drown” is the first single from the album to have been released, there are almost a year. Did you wrote that song before knowing exactly which direction you were going to take with this new album?
Yes ! Basically, we had written “Drown” independently, without imagining it part of an album. Then when we started writingThat’s The Spirit and selecting the pieces, it was found that “Drown” corresponded to the rest of the disc, both in music than words. So we decided to record it again to integrate the album.

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‘Zlatan Ibrahimovic could be a rock star - he just doesn’t give a s**t!’

Matt Nicholls interview with talkSPORT

Each week, a leading band or musician takes the talkSPORT Starting XI. Ladies and gentlemen… Matt Nicholls from Bring Me The Horizon…
Who would be the most rock ‘n’ roll signing your club could make?
I don’t know if Rotherham could afford many! It would just be nice to have someone who can put the ball in net.
If your club was a song or a lyric, what would it be?
“Don’t Let Me Drown” (Drown by Bring Me The Horizon)
Which football stadium would you most like to play a gig at (that’s not your club’s home ground)?
I’m sorry, but it would have to be Rotherham’s New York Stadium. I’ve been trying to make it happen for ages!
Which footballer has the most potential to be a rock star?
Zlatan Ibrahimovic – he just doesn’t give a s**t at the end of the day.
Brit award or Premier League trophy?
Premier League

Continue reading here.

An article from Music Feeds.

Sit down, I’m going to give it to you straight. If you’re a Bring Me The Horizon purist, then chances are you’re going to hate this album so much that you’ll wish it had a face, just so you could punch it.
Because the veteran British act’s fifth record, That’s The Spirit, signals their sudden and drastic metamorphosis from metalcore to mainstream.
Many of its 11 tracks probably have more in common with One Direction than Asking Alexandria. To begin with, the guitars are relegated to a largely supportive role, enabling frontman Oli Sykes to explore a strange new world of range-changing melodies and cleanskin vocal tones.
Stylistically, the disc treads across an odyssey of musical terrain, from the Linkin Park-ish nu metal leanings of its official first single, Throne, to the bass-driven alt-rock vibes of What You Need, to the bordering-dangerously-on-emo True Friends (which also happens to be the most ‘core song on the record), to the random Santana-esque Lee Malia blues guitar solo that cuts into Blasphemy, to the saxophone licks of Oh No, to the hip-hop beats and wondersoft pop-rock stylings of Follow You. Legit, if it wasn’t for a tiny glimpse of Sykes’ trademark vocal grit in the chorus, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was a song by The Script. Or The Fray. Or Maroon 5.

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