The last show we attended during our six-day trip to the United Kingdom was also the largest one, and it consisted of Bring Me The Horizon tearing up the O2 Arena on the last night of their Post Human Tour.
I have spoken about Bring Me The Horizon on several occasions in the past, and they were one of my very first dips into the pool of metalcore, over a decade ago. I remember them being one of the bands that were simply too heavy for me, at first. I played Chelsea Smile on YouTube, liked the guitar, but did not understand why there was any need for screaming. I waited it out a bit, more or less gracefully, and I saw someone share their song It Never Ends on Tumblr when it first came out. I clicked on it because I had a spare four minutes, and that was it. I understood. Ten years down the line, they have become unbelievably special to me as something I share with my older brother, who loves them and has travelled to see them with me several times. Watching them again after over two years was going to be special, I knew it.
Caught off guard by how early doors were and how long the queues of the standing area tend to be at the O2 Arena, we missed Nova Twins and only made it in ten minutes before You Me At Six were due to play. However, it was surprisingly easy to get to the front of the crowd.
Ah, You Me At Six.
I know I have spoken about them before, and most conversations led by me revolve around my deep and endless love for their earlier material, particularly their sophomore album Hold Me Down, which remains one of my all-time favourite records. Though I am not the girl who used to don their merch constantly and listen to their music every day on the way to university anymore, I still keep a close eye on what they do and keep up with their every release. Their music is like an old friend to me, the kind you don't always see or talk to every day, but when you do, it's like no time at all has passed.
Back in January, the Brits released their seventh full-length effort, SUCKAPUNCH. I have to admit some of it did not click with me as much as some of their older stuff, but when they are on stage in front of me, it doesn't matter. Who cares how many times I have listened to these songs, and who cares if they tug at my heartstrings or give me special feelings? I don't. Because the performance delivered by You Me At Six outshines everything else. See, when I first started listening to them, when I first saw them, when I saw them play large shows, I could tell how special they were, but damn- that O2 Arena set was beyond words. Music-wise and, undoubtedly, fandom-wise, they are light years away from Bring Me The Horizon, but they command the room with the kind of ease that forces admiration. It could be down to years of practice, years of cutting their teeth on the road and building their reputation as one of the finest rock bands in the UK. But it could also be due to natural talent and charisma, and I like to think it's a little bit of both.
The setlist is largely composed of tracks extracted from SUCKAPUNCH, and they all sound incredible in a live setting. Some older songs, such as Underdog, the band's timeless classic, or Take On The World, get an outing and an enthusiastic reception from the growing audience. 2014's Lived A Lie gets me crowdsurfing, even though I claimed I wouldn't and did not even dress appropriately for the adventure- proof that "I want to see as many crowdsurfers as possible" is my kryptonite through and through. They also play Bite My Tongue, which originally features Bring Me The Horizon's frontman Oli Sykes, who makes an appearance on stage for the first time on the tour. And, believe it or not, it's the moment that got me crying like an idiot.
At the end of a set concluded by the excellent Beautiful Way, frontman Josh Franceschi announces ten-year-anniversary shows for the band's third album, Sinners Never Sleep, which are then revealed to take place in June 2022, just before Slam Dunk Festival. If we're being honest, I am unbelievably excited, as the record holds a more than special place in my heart, but I am also terrified of hearing When We Were Younger live again, so I might need a little emotional support come June.
Recently, on a magazine's application page, I read the question: "Who is the most exciting band in the world right now, and why?" I thought of many options, many artists who social media is raving about, but the one true answer stood in front of me for an hour and a half on the 26th of September, 2021, and their name is Bring Me The Horizon. Who else could it be? What the Sheffield-natives do, no one else does it, but everyone draws inspiration from it in some way. They are the textbook definition of trendsetters, of trailblazers. The face of metalcore would not have been the way it has been if it wasn't for their music, charisma, anthemic lyrics, and style, and the face of rock music in the 2020s is going to be heavily influenced by their artistry. Mark my words.
I often speak about how unique it is to watch a band you once saw in smaller rooms play huge arenas, complete with pyro, screens, and a bigger budget, but I never really had that experience when Bring Me The Horizon is concerned, even though I have followed them for over a decade. The only time I saw them play an intimate venue was in May 2019, a few days before All Points East Festival, as a belated part of the Brit Awards shows. The one thing I can see, though, is a change of atmosphere. The first time I saw them play was at the first-ever Warped Tour UK, in Alexandra Palace, a strange day in my life to say the least, and the most vivid memory I have from their afternoon set was Oli Sykes asking people to open up a wall of death during Shadow Moses, which was getting its first-ever live outing, and do the Gangnam Style dance in it.
I could say it's pretty crazy to me that the band who did this is, ten years later, leading the pack of rock music in the United Kingdom, whatever anyone has to say about it, but there was unabashed confidence in asking that from an audience, and they wouldn't be where they are today without such self-belief.
I would like to say that, now, Bring Me The Horizon has the resources to fulfil their ambitions, but it would not do justice to their vision. Because you do not get where they are without a clear vision of what you want to be.
All throughout the years, there has been complete fearlessness in everything they have done. After the critically acclaimed Sempiternal, which many regard as the best metal record of its decade, they shifted their sound in That's The Spirit, going slightly softer, and even more dramatically with amo, which saw them explore poppier sounds and collaborate with people such as Grimes. In 2020, when POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR came out, it sounded like a love letter to the heavier music of their humble beginnings and almost a way of telling people that "actually, we can still do music that's heavy as fuck, and probably better than you think we can." And this fearlessness, this confidence, is, undoubtedly, what propels them to offer the live shows they do.
They do not have elaborate stage sets à la Iron Maiden, pyrotechnics, or complicated tricks. (Not that there's anything wrong with those. You all know me enough to know I love a bit of pyro.) They only have screens as props, behind them as well as a case of them around the stage, going up and down as the narrative demands. These screens are not here for an easy cop-out. They are here to tell a story, paint a picture, plant an atmosphere. Every song gets its own scenario, some we have seen before (Medicine comes to mind), some brand new, for the songs that haven't been played live yet. At various points during the show, dancers join them on stage, making the show feel like an all-encompassing experience. This demands every part of your brain. Yes, you are required to listen to the music, but also use your eyes and take in everything that's in front of you. This isn't just a live performance. This is the real definition of a show.
The setlist is a clever mixture of their biggest hits (Shadow Moses, Throne, Drown) and of songs released in the past two years, of course from POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR, but various singles as well, such as the poppy Ludens, the heavier Parasite Eve, Obey, which sees Yungblud's appearance on stage for an energetic feature, and their most recent track, DiE4u. This is a welcome reminder that they are one hell of a hardworking band, first, and that they will never go where anyone expects them. They are always surprising the audience. It's almost as if they are beyond traditional albums and EPs. They just release music in whatever form they want.
I don't know when I stopped to think it was all special beyond words, but it was definitely down to spotting audience reactions. From the right side of the standing area, I was constantly being pushed back in by security when crossing over the safety line, as moshpits were getting much too large. The lower end of the seating was right next to me, and there was a family right above me, parents and a kid who looked about twelve. The father was having a grand old time, and the child, in their Sempiternal era shirt, looked transfixed by what was happening on stage during Kingslayer. (I can't blame him. Kingslayer has exploded its way into my absolute favourite Bring Me The Horizon tracks, and watching it live was face-melting.) Maybe it was because I can always, always count on Can You Feel My Heart to rip my heart out and, considering the teary-eyed man next to me, it seems I am not the only one.
And that's when I saw it. The universality lying in Bring Me The Horizon's music.
They started as this deathcore band in Sheffield, and there is still heavy music to love and mosh to for the diehard fans. There is enough of a wow factor to transfix little kids who have probably never seen or heard anything like Kingslayer before. There's enough emotion and relatable words to tug at everyone's heartstrings, not only mine. I don't think I count anyway, I cry to everything. Yes, they are anthem-makers extraordinaire, but they can truly do it all. They can do breakdowns, a live show that feel like a pop star's, complete with dancers and matching outfits, clean and pretty much flawless performances. They can do everything and make it seem so easy and effortless that it's almost infuriating.
Maybe it's a reminder that we could all start jumping through life with the unabashed self-belief of a band who once asked a bunch of emo teenagers with fringes to do the Gangnam Style dance in the middle of a moshpit at five in the afternoon, and who, from there, have lifted themselves to the top of the pile, never mind the genre.
Remember the screens, the dancers, the outfits, the sounds, the music. Remember everything.
You'll be seeing them everywhere in the future.