Genre: metalcore, hard rock, nu metal
The title of the British ex-metalcore group's Bring Me the Horizon's new album, "That's The Spirit", almost suggests some sort of cheeriness. Since, as I mentioned, they used to be pretty heavy metalcore (the remnants of that are still apparent, but they've definitely softened up since 2013's "Sempiternal", which itself was less heavy than their previous works), "cheeriness" is not a word you'd expect to hear in connection with their music. And, indeed, the title is misleading, as in the title of single "Happy Song", which is most definitely not a happy song, being a conglomerate of horribly depressing thoughts that can be willed away by singing "a little fucking louder to a happy song". This is all backed by a drop tuned headbanging riff that slams home every time it hits.
The three lead singles are packed together back to back to back, with "Happy Song" immediately followed by "Throne", and then "True Friends". The first two of these are two of the best songs on the album, a curious phenomenom that often leads to a very mediocre album. Not so here, since the rest of the album lives up to those two tracks excellently. "Throne" is reminiscent of "Sempiternal" opener "Can You Feel My Heart", with an electronica influenced riff and innate hugeness in the already massive hook. "True Friends" has a rather grating melody, absolutely terrible lyrics, and a riff that's pretty similar to "Happy Song", though there's a lot of emotion in it, and the riff is pretty great. It also contains some screaming, as does "Happy Song" and a few others, so they haven't totally abandoned metalcore, just moved away a little. People on metalcore forums like to say they've gone "full pop", which is absolutely ridiculous, because maybe 1 or 2 of the songs on this album would be considered anything resembling pop by 99.99% of the general population. It's still a very heavy record, just not bone-crushingly brütal.
"Follow You" is a powerful ballad, the poppiest track on the record, and one of the best. Lots of emotion to be had here as Oli Sykes tells an unknown person "you can drag me through Hell, if it meant I could hold your hand". "What You Need" marches on with a rumbling, rolling bassline, and continues the larger than life, awe inspiring choruses that can be found all throughout the album. "Avalanche" invokes an avalanche in its slamming synths and drums. A rerecording of year old single "Drown", retitled "Drown (New)" is mostly the same as the old version, with the same power. "Blasphemy" has one of the hardest rocking choruses on the album, and "Oh No" closes out the album with a pulsating synth bassline and a sax solo, bringing it all to an oddly dance-y flawless landing.
Overall the album is very, very, strong, despite its panning by the metalcore community. While it may not be metalcore, if taken as it is, it's a really damn good hard rock record, and I think "That's the Spirit" deserves more credit for what it is, which it's actually getting in most critical reviews outside of very small sectors. I know I've had it on repeat many times since it came out, and I'll continue that.
Two tracks with spirit: "Throne", "Blasphemy"
Overall score: 82/100
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