An in-depth analysis of the new Bring Me the Horizon song

       

         

          Hey all! Sorry for the silence, my life has been in a turbulent state of chaos for the last two months as I get reacquainted with the horror of university and start putting some gears in motion for what comes after. But now that things are relatively stable, I should be able to post a little bit more often.
           To that end, let's talk about Bring Me the Horizon's new single, 'Drown'. Allegedly supposed to be released as a single on December 7th, the song leaked about a week back and the band responded to the leak in the same way they dealt with the leak of their last full-length, Sempiternal, back in 2013 - by releasing it almost two months early.
            As time goes on, and Sempiternal stands effectively unopposed by any other metalcore act in terms of its vision, one's first instinct is to praise the band for putting a fresh new spin on the often-repetitive, rarely interesting metalcore sound that's been in a bit of a rut for the past three years. And while Bring Me the Horizon as a band have always been quite good at reinventing themselves with each release - tracked by yours truly back in 2012 - 'Drown' has left me scratching my head.
            To its credit, the single gives us a decent look into the creative vision of the band, who have a knack for disappearing into the English moors to record new albums. But that doesn't entirely excuse the fact that this song sounds like a B-side from one of Coldplay's worse albums...it's an interesting twist, but at the end of the day the song is severely lacking, even if there's a bit more to this video than usual.
          The fact of the matter is that Bring Me the Horizon's last two albums have all had a much more serious slant - 2010's There is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It, There is a Heaven, Let's Keep it a Secret toyed with themes of suicide, while frontman Oli Sykes has gone on record as saying that Sempiternal was all about his ketamine addiction. Lyrically, 'Drown' is basically a plea to someone to not let Oli Sykes 'drown' - presumably, a flimsy metaphor for a relapse into his ketamine addiction - but the song (and the video) all point to the continued 'maturation' (I hate using that word) that Bring Me the Horizon have been trying to get a grip on for years - even if the video features a zany 'exorcism' replete with blue vomit (how very 2006).

Exhibit A:

     While many of you will be drawn into Oli Sykes' seductive gaze, the symbol behind him is one that the band have been playing a lot with recently and is the emblem of Aleister Crowley's esoteric religion Thelema. Now, this is a pretty obscure symbol for a metalcore group to be touting - especially when their scene is replete with Christian fundamentalist shitheads, and while it's possible the band picked the Thelema symbol because it looks cool, its significance as a semi-pagan icon suggests that they're trying to be anti-religious but in a "look, we know how to use wikipedia" type way.

     Exhibit B: the first fifteen seconds of 'Drown'. I've heard similar passages on a This Will Destroy You song, and from Sempiternal we know the band is definitely listening to a little post-rock. The introduction to the new single closes the gap between what they're doing and what they want to do, even if Oli Sykes still has to sing to appease the girls. Regardless of whether or not they succeed, Bring Me the Horizon are getting closer and closer to it. Maybe Oli Sykes' decision to use clean vocals on this song is his way of 'growing up' from the screams of metalcore? Either way, the band still have a long road ahead of them before they can even be remotely linked to post-rock. 

Exhibit C: There's the sense that this music video is extremely backward-glancing - without music, the video could be something the band released during their Suicide Season touring cycle - the garish colors, the tongue-in-cheek 'zany' scenester humor, all of it is contrasted with the music, which is as far from the band's previous sound as possible. It's almost as if the band is nervously trying to poke fun at themselves. 

        The only problem is, at the end of the day, 'Drown' is just not a very good song. When compared to some of the hard-hitters on Sempiternal ('House of Wolves' springs to mind), it can't hold up. As a song, it takes none of the risks and blazes none of the new territory we'd expect a new Bring Me the Horizon song to try. And while we can learn a thing or two by analyzing the video, that can't really excuse the poor quality of this new material.