Ranking Bring Me the Horizon’s Albums

Since Bring Me the Horizon has 4 albums with anniversaries between September and November (including their debut album, Count Your Blessings, whose 15^th anniversary occurs while I am writing this, as the album was released October 30^th, 2006), I thought it would be fun to rank their albums, especially since they are one of my favorite bands.  I listened to all 6 of their studio albums again so that I wasn’t biased (I’m glad I did since my order drastically changed) and ranked them.  I also have two honorable mentions:  one that is an extended play and one that is a live album.

 

 

Honorable Mention:  Post Human:  Survival Horror (2020)

Since it is not technically one of their studio albums and has been described as either an EP or a release, it cannot be officially included in the rankings.  That said, this 9-track, 32-minute release appears to be the group incorporating some metal from their earlier releases (as evident in the metalcore track “Dear Diary”), has points where they’re evolving their style (like “Ludens”), and other points where they seem to do both (such as with “Parasite Eve”).  The thing is that not only does each individual track work, but BMTH somehow managed to make the tracks flow smoothly into each other, despite contrasting styles at times.  I think that is a true sign of the group’s evolution and makes me excited going forward.

 

 

 

Honorable Mention:  Live at the Royal Albert Hall (2016)

This is a live album (so it is not eligible for my list) that was recorded on April 22^nd, 2016, at the Royal Albert Hall in London.  While BMTH has had their fair share of shows that received praise (the time I saw them at Epicenter was excellent), this was different because they were accompanied by the Parallax Orchestra.  The composition worked perfectly for the music from That’s the Spirit, which was their previous release and shifted away from metalcore, so that makes sense.  In particular, I thought the compositions for “Doomed”, “Drown”, and “Oh No” were excellent.  The songs from Sempiternal worked well with it, as “Shadow Moses” and “Sleepwalking” were probably the highlights of those.  One that seemed perfect from it was “It Never Ends”, a heavier song that doesn’t sound like it would make for the perfect transition, but it sounded incredible.  The orchestral compositions enhanced the songs and it made for an exceptional performance.

 

6:  Count Your Blessings (2006)

This album, the band’s debut, is frequently considered by far the worst of their albums.  Look, if you can’t deal with deathcore then there is no doubt that you will hate this album.  If you are okay with the subgenre, this is a fine album.  The songs that they selected for it honestly work well enough together to make it a decent listen and one that might be worth giving it a second go-around later on.  There are some tracks that might sound like they are going to be sillier songs (such as “For Stevie Wonders Eyes Only (Braille)” and “Tell Slater Not to Wash His Dick”), but the lyrics on these songs are a little darker and cleverer than many gave them credit for at the time.  The highlight of the album is likely the first track, “Pray for Plagues”, which is a typical deathcore song with some decent lyrics and a lot of energy.  It isn’t for everybody, but it’s not a bad album in my opinion.

 

 

5:  Sempiternal (2013)

It didn’t take long before I had an opinion that is likely going to be viewed as shocking here considering the importance of this album in BMTH’s development and how many songs from it are popular at concerts.  That said, it feels undeniable to me that while there are great songs on this album, they don’t feel like they amount to anything more than an average collection together.  While I thought “Hospital for Souls” was the perfect way to finish the album, I thought the rest of the songs felt clunkily thrown together, which is interesting since they’ve been good at that in their other albums.  That said, it is worth a listen since it contains several great songs, including “Sleepwalking”, “Shadow Moses”, “Go to Hell, for Heaven’s Sake”, “Empire (Let Them Sing)”, “Can You Feel My Heart”, “Antivist”, “And the Snakes Start to Sing”, and the aforementioned “Hospital for Souls”.  That said, while it’s solid, I cannot consider it better considering this sounds like an album they didn’t plot out as well as they did with their others.

 

 

4:  Amo (2019)

Amo is a strange album for this band since it was much closer to pop rock and electronic than it was to anything metal, but it was still good.  While there were glimpses of songs that were a little heavier and sounded like they would fit on That’s the Spirit (such as “Mantra” and “Wonderful Life”, the latter of which featured Dani Filth of Cradle of Filth), there several songs that were blatant pop songs (most notably “Mother Tongue”). One common trend was the strong display of electronic instrumentation, as evident in songs like “Sugar Honey Ice & Tea”, “Mantra”, and “Nihilist Blues”, which features Grimes.  Despite it seemingly going different directions at time, the album flows nicely and the songs are well-written, making it work.

 

 

3:  That’s the Spirit (2015)

While some were surprised with change in style that occurred, I thought it made sense and was natural given the direction BMTH’s albums had been trending prior.  The range in genres that were included on the album between an alternative metal/hard rock influence, electronic sound, and pop rock approach at points would sound like it wouldn’t work, especially considering the style differed from song to song.  That said, the flow somehow just works even when shifting from a song closer to hard rock/alternative metal like “Happy Song” into a more electronic rock song like “Throne”.  I’m honestly not quite sure how they pulled it off, but they did.  Even beyond that, I didn’t really feel like there was a bad song in it; I consider the highlight to be “Drown”, though almost every song is great on it.  The fact that this album is third on this list isn’t the result of it being a bad album, but more the result of the others being better.  This album is worth a listen, especially if you’d prefer an album that isn’t metal.

 

2:  Suicide Season (2008)

While this album received mixed reviews at the time of release, it has been influential in the metalcore music that followed and reappraised by many, and there’s good reason for it.  There are so many incredible songs on this album and, due in part to it’s more focused style in metalcore, the songs flow seamlessly into each other.  The star of the album is absolutely “Chelsea Smile”, but there are also several great songs on it, including the title track (an 8:17 long track to end it, which was the perfect ending to any album they released), “It Was Written In Blood”, “Diamonds Aren’t Forever”, and “The Comedown”.  This album is shorter than many of their albums following, but they still managed to explore some other metal and occasional electronic elements in it, setting themselves up perfectly for their future releases.  This is one of the best metalcore albums ever, but they released one that’s better.

 

1:  There Is a Hell Believe Me I’ve Seen It.  There Is a Heaven Let’s Keep It a Secret (2010)

If you want to claim I’m a bit biased because this is also my favorite album by them, you can, and I think it is totally reasonable.  That said, this album is a master class in not only metalcore but incorporating electronic music into metalcore and having it fit seamlessly.  While this album might not have the best songs, there are several standout tracks.  I think the best song on the album is “Crucify Me”, but some other great ones are “It Never Ends”, “Don’t Go”, “Blessed with a Curse”, “Anthem”, and “Home Sweet Hole”.  They took epic metalcore songs to a new level with “Crucify Me” (even though “Chelsea Smile” and “Suicide Season” are exceptional), took an interesting approach on metal ballads with “Don’t Go” and “Blessed with a Curse”, and had moments where they were heavy until it flipped to a softer part.  The reason this album is ahead of Suicide Season is because of the perfect flow of the album and the additional experimentation that was utilized on this.  Ultimately, I consider it indisputable that this album is the best album by the band.

 

 

Which album do you think is Bring Me the Horizon’s best?  Let me know in the comments!