Music
[Album Review] Bring Me The Horizon ‘Sempiternal’
Metalcore band Bring Me The Horizon burst onto the scene in 2006 with Count Your Blessings, which won them the Kerrang! award for “Best British Newcomer”. Since then they have released two more critically acclaimed albums including a “Best Album” award for There Is A Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is A Heaven, Let’s Keep It A Secret.
Now, two and a half years later, the band is back with Sempiternal. Will the band continue their legacy of greatness or have they petered out? Find out below.
The album opens with the desperate “Can You Feel My Heart”, singer Oliver Sykes utilizing a mix of screaming and singing. The song features a great deal of synth and programming on top of huge guitars and thunderous drums. Sykes bares himself open, with lyrics such as, “I long for that feeling to not feel at all.”
“The House Of Wolves” brilliantly mixes a fast, almost thrash punk attitude with a very catchy chorus, one that will have fans chanting each time it is played live. “Empire (Let Them Sing)” is a headbanger while still keeping with the heavily melodic theme of the album.
“Shadow Moses”, their current single, is a blistering assault on the senses, shifting dynamically from one section to another. Drummer Matt Nicholls shines here, popping out to dazzle before effortlessly falling right back into the pocket. “And The Snakes Start To Sing” takes the title quite literally, with sibilant hisses whispering out of the background. It is probably the most “power ballad” of the tracks.
“Hospital For Souls” closes the album by reaching for the heavens, soaring ever higher with each passage.
The production is nothing short of thrilling, with layer after layer undulating upon one another. Judicious use of the panning knob also creates an immersive experience, best appreciated with a good set of headphones.
The Final Word: Truly the definition of a musical journey, Bring Me The Horizon have crafted something very special with Sempiternal. It is heavy, cinematic, and wildly entertaining and marks a huge leap forward for the band. This will easily stand as one of the most stellar releases of 2013.
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It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.
Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.
Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.
“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.
“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”
You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…
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