POST HUMAN: NeX GEn by Bring Me The Horizon
A longer wait than hoped for came to a sudden end and BMTH’s new record is one to savour
For Bring Me The Horizon fans, the wait for the band’s latest album crept into an unexpected fifth year. POST HUMAN: NeX GEn was due for release in September 2023 but in August, the band announced that this would be pushed back to 2024 for it to be completed to the standard they’d be happy with.
Fast forward to May 23 2024 and out of seemingly nowhere, frontman Ollie Sykes shared on social media as did the official band account that the album would be out at midnight. A surprise to be sure, but a good one at that.
The delay in album release hasn’t meant a total hiatus on new songs, with no fewer than six songs being released as singles. ‘Kool-Aid’ and ‘Darkside’ are the two most recent, with BMTH on either side of Christmas 2023.
This album is a further example of BMTH forging their way through an increasingly exciting music scene. ‘YOUtopia’ is the pulsating opening track this record deserves, with some quick-fire tempo changes setting up the tracklist in some style.
As with most albums created by these Sheffield boys, POST HUMAN: NeX GEn is brimming with energy and adrenaline. ‘Top 10 Statues That Cried Blood’ is a blur of some heavier tones and Sykes can let his voice take the lead, with a chorus that blends between modern, lighter stuff and has a hint of the bloodthirsty early days of BMTH.
Always a band keen on having artists feature on songs, BMTH have multiple on POST HUMAN: NeX GEn. One is Aurora, the Norwegian singer-songwriter who features on the track Limousine, and it’s one that seems to work so well within the context of this record.
For anyone who attended one of the BMTH arena shows at the start of the year, ‘N/A’ has some significance. During the shows, Ollie asked the crowd to sing ‘Hello Oli, you f*****g knobhead- Did you think you had us fooled?’ which the frontman said would be part of a track on the album. Within this song, the sounds of thousands of fans belting back Ollie’s request to him appear within the soundwaves.
Wrapping up with a seven-minute tune ‘Dig It’, the tempo is taken back down and a hypnotic beat takes over. Ollie sings ‘I’m sorry that I’ve let you down,’ which is fitting in terms of the wait for the album, although it could well be (and probably is) a complete coincidence.
16 tracks and nearly an hour of material, BMTH have delivered what many fans old and new always had faith in them bringing after a long wait for new music- an album that has been more than worth the wait and one that shows just why they are a staple of the metal rock scene in 2024.
It’s been a teasing and at times convoluted wait for an album, with almost two years between the first single and the full record coming out. Was it worth the wait? Almost certainly, but any longer would have only added to frustrations, not that fans could stay mad at Ollie and the gang for too long.
