Bring Me the Horizon
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| Bring Me the Horizon | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Sheffield, England[1] |
| Genres | Metalcore[2] Deathcore[3] (early) |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Labels | Visible Noise (Europe, UK) Epitaph Records (U.S.) Earache Records (U.S.) Thirty Days of Night Records (UK) Shock Records (Australia) |
| Associated acts | I Killed the Prom Queen, Bleeding Through |
| Website | www.bringmethehorizon.co.uk |
| Members | |
| Oliver Sykes Lee Malia Matt Kean Matt Nicholls Jona Weinhofen | |
| Former members | |
| Curtis Ward[1] | |
Bring Me the Horizon are an English metalcore band from Sheffield, Yorkshire, who formed in 2004. They played a style of music that fuses death metal and metalcore, known as deathcore on their first album — but they have taken on a more eclectic style with their latest album.[4]
Contents[hide] |
History
Early years and Count Your Blessings (2004–2007)
Bring Me the Horizon began in 2004 with members of many defunct bands from around their local area.[5][6] They acquired their name based on a line taken from the film Pirates of the Caribbean, in which Captain Jack Sparrow shouts "Now... Bring me that horizon."[3] After slightly altering the original line, by simply changing 'that' to 'the', Bring Me the Horizon then became the official name of the band.
They are currently signed to Visible Noise Records, but were originally signed to Thirty Days of Night Records and were the first band to be signed to that label. The band are also signed to Epitaph Records in the US and to Shock Records in Australia. They released their debut album Count Your Blessings in October 2006 in the UK and in August 2007 in the United States. They have toured in the past with bands such as Lostprophets, The Blackout[7]; Killswitch Engage and The Haunted[8]. They performed a headlining tour of the UK during March and April 2007 with the now defunct metalcore band I Killed the Prom Queen. They played Download Festival 2007 in June also with Iron Maiden, Slayer, and others.[9]
They also played the North American leg of the tour, including a guest appearance Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes on 6 August in Calgary. He joined Oli in chanting the start of their song "Diamonds Aren't Forever".
In November 2007 they toured on the Australian leg of Gigantour, playing three dates. They returned to Australia in May-June 2008, appearing on I Killed The Prom Queen's final ever tour.
Suicide Season and line-up change (2008–2009)
Bring Me the Horizon had been writing and recording a second studio album over the beginning of 2008. They had been in Sweden recording the album throughout April and May with Fredrik Nordström, who has worked with bands such as At The Gates, Arch Enemy, I Killed The Prom Queen and Dimmu Borgir. The album was released on 29 September 2008. Suicide Season is completely different to previous album Count Your Blessings, having a more metalcore vibe to it, similar to the debut EP release, This Is What The Edge Of Your Seat Was Made For.[citation needed]
The band recently embarked on their first headline tour of the US, as well as appearing in the 2008 Warped Tour. Bring Me the Horizon are also joined Mindless Self Indulgence, In Case Of Fire, Black Tide and Dir en grey on the Kerrang! and Relentless 2009 UK tour.[citation needed] They are also set to join Thursday, Cancer Bats, Four Year Strong and Pierce the Veil on the Taste of Chaos 2009 North American tour.
It was announced on 27 August 2009 that Bring Me the Horizon will be releasing a remixed version of Suicide Season, titled Suicide Season: Cut Up, in the UK on 2 November 2009.[10] In an interview with Rock Sound, Oliver Sykes stated that the idea came about after asking a friend to remix one of their songs, and after being very pleased with the end result the band decided to take it a step further and get the whole of Suicide Season remixed. Musicians and producers featured on the album includes Tek-One, Robot Sonic, Ben Weinman from The Dillinger Escape Plan, Outcry Collective, L’Amour La Morgue (Ian Watkins from Lostprophets), Utah Saints and Shawn Crahan from Slipknot. Sykes also stated that “There’s not a song on there that really sounds like the original. What’s great though is the diversity of each song. There’s dub-step to hip-hop, electro to drum and bass”[10]
In March 2009, guitarist Curtis Ward left the band. A number of reasons have been cited for his departure: in an interview, bassist Matt Kean commented that "it became apparent he wasn't enjoying it" and that it was "just about commitment".[11] In May 2009, Jona Weinhofen, formerly of I Killed The Prom Queen and Bleeding Through, joined the band on a temporary basis to fill-in for Curtis. However, it was revealed in July 2009 that he would become an official member of Bring Me the Horizon, partly due to his discontent with living in America, hence leaving Bleeding Through. According to Oliver Sykes in an interview on the subject, Weinhofen has injected the band with a new-found enthusiasm, causing the bands performances to be 'so much better and refreshing', and he feels they have 'stepped up another level'.[12]
Third studio album (2009–present)
In an interview with Kerrang! Magazine, it has be revealed that Bring Me the Horizon will begin writing the follow-up to Suicide Season during the summer of 2009, with the plan to go into Studio Fredman with producer Fredrik Nordström (who produced Suicide Season) in March 2010, hopefully resulting in an album release in summer 2010.[12]
Controversy
Nottingham incident
While on tour in the United Kingdom allegations were made against vocalist Oliver Sykes that he urinated upon and then assaulted a female fan after a gig at Nottingham Rock City when she allegedly refused his sexual advances. Sykes was subsequently charged with urinating on the fan, but not with physical assault.[13] Online Music Zine Drowned In Sound claimed that Bring Me The Horizon were banned from Nottingham Rock City.[14] However the band's label Visible Noise denied these rumors and the band subsequently played Nottingham Rock City on 1 December 2007.[15]
On 13 April, Sykes appeared in Nottingham Magistrates Court on a charge of common assault relating to the alleged urination incident, to which he pleaded not guilty. The case was adjourned until early May.[16] On 3 May 2007 Sykes attended Nottingham Magistrates court for the second time and confirmed his not guilty plea. The case was adjourned again until 17 September.[17] Due to lack of evidence, all charges against Sykes were dropped.[18]
YouTube video with Architects
During a tour, Bring Me the Horizon and Architects filmed a video showing fights between Oliver Sykes and Architects' lead singer Sam Carter. The video was filmed at an all-day event in Karlsruhe, Germany and shows what seemed to be Sam Carter committing acts of physical violence towards Oliver. The video was uploaded onto the online video website, YouTube of which it attracted thousands of hits. This video outraged many Bring Me the Horizon fans causing many people to send hate mail towards Sam Carter.
"We're mates with the guys and were sharing a bus for the whole two week tour!" Carter told Kerrang!. "The fact that people believed it was real is just so ridiculous! We filmed the fight about three times and even added in comedy punch noises and yet kids were still sending us over-the-top hate mail!" Oliver Sykes also commented saying "All-day events can get boring very fast so we conjured up the first idiotic thing we could think of and made it as unbelievable as possible. Sam was getting death threats from kids off MySpace and at the same time getting praised for laying me out! We're sorry if anyone was upset by this although I'm sure most people reading this probably like the thought of me getting a punch in the face!". The issue was later resolved with things returning back to normal.[19]
Discography
- Count Your Blessings (2006)
- Suicide Season (2008)
Band members
Current members
- Oliver Sykes – lead vocals (2004–present)
- Lee Malia − lead guitar (2004–present)
- Matt Kean − bass guitar (2004–present)
- Matt Nicholls − drums, percussion (2004–present)
- Jona Weinhofen - rhythm guitar, keyboards, vocals (2009–present)
Former members
- Curtis Ward − rhythm guitar (2004–2009)
Awards and readers poll results
- Kerrang! Award for Best British Newcomer 2006. (Won)[20]
- Kerrang! Award for Best British Band 2008. (Nominated) [21]
- Voted Best British band. (Rock Sound readers poll)
- Voted Best Album and Worst Album for Suicide Season (Rock Sound readers' poll)
- Voted Worse Band in 2008. (Kerrang! readers poll)
Other projects
- Oli Sykes ("Master Syko"), Matt Nicholls, Tom Sykes and XricciX formed a rap group called Womb 2 Da Tomb[22]
- Oli Sykes and his ex girlfriend's brother, Neil Whiteley, formed a heavy metal duo named Purple Curto[23]
- Oli Sykes owns Drop Dead Clothing and employs his younger brother Tom and mother Carol to help run and manage it with him.[24]
- Oli Sykes also had an electronic instrumental side project called Olisaurus/Oli Has a Deathwish.[25]
References
- ^ a b "Official MySpace". MySpace.com. http://www.myspace.com/bmth. Retrieved 13 October 2007.
- ^ British metalcore outfit Bring Me the Horizon will release their sophomore album, Suicide Season, on November 18th via Epitaph Records
- ^ http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=BRING|ME|THE|HORIZON&sql=11:azfoxqldldke~T1
- ^ [1]
- ^ How they formed - record label's page
- ^ Information on BMTH genre from the Download Festival Website
- ^ Information on one of the gigs that BMTH supported Lostprophets
- ^ Information on BMTH supporting KsE
- ^ Download Festival line-up from official site
- ^ a b [2]
- ^ "BRING ME THE HORIZON Bassist Discusses Guitarist's Departure". idiomag. 2009-04-01. http://www.idiomag.com/peek/73480/bring_me_the_horizon. Retrieved 2009-04-01.
- ^ a b Kerrang! Magazine, Issue No. 1269, July 11th 2009
- ^ BMTH singer Oli Sykes charged by police, punktastic.com, retrieved 10 April 2007
- ^ Bring Me The... head of the person that did this drownedinsound.com, retrieved 11 April 2007
- ^ rock-city.co.uk ::: gig guide
- ^ Bring Me the Horizon frontman fronts court, pleads not guilty halo-17.net, retrieved 15 April 2007
- ^ The sordid Bring Me The Horizon saga continues, halo-17.net, retrieved 6 June 2007
- ^ Oliver Sykes is off the hook, halo-17.net, retrieved 11 September 2007.
- ^ http://www2.kerrang.com/2008/02/bmth_fans_send_architects_sing.html
- ^ BMTH win Best British Newcomer
- ^ http://www.buzznet.com/musicnews/all-time-low-avenged-sevenfold-j2741831/
- ^ Womb 2 Da Tomb Myspace
- ^ Purple Curto Myspace
- ^ Drop Dead Clothing website
- ^ Bandwagon.co.uk
