Bring Me The Horizon finished their Post Human European Tour this February 28th in Antwerp in a soldout Lotto Arena. During almost 90 minutes, Oli Sykes and his teammates confirmed how big they became, how smart they are and obviously how good they are live. There are 10 months go in 2023 and plenty of shows to come but this night will be in our top 5 at the end. No doubt!
Close your eyes. It’s Sunday, 2009, November 1st. The annual day to celebrate the Saints. You are in a beautiful venue: Ancienne Belgique. In front of you, 2 young bands with a great hype and a sick new album: Bring Me The Horizon who released their album “Suicide Season” the year before and A Day To Remember who released their album “Homesick” a few months ago. The band from Ocala is the main support and the British are the headliners from the evening. For your information, the opening act is a small band from Pennsylvania called August Burns Red who just released an album “Constellations”. You paid a big price for that: 16€… Let’s hope this evening is worth its price! Non-spoiler alert: the whole evening was insane, totally worth the price and you’ll never forget this evening! And if you have some memory lapses, you’ll look on YouTube the next days if some people recorded your favorite song of the evening or catched you when did your first crowdsurf ever. If only you had a camera with you…
Open your eyes. It’s Tuesday, 2023, February 28th. More than 13 years later, you are finally able to see BMTH and ADTR on the same show. Once again, the band from Ocala is the main support and the British are the headliners from the evening. What have changed since the first round? The size of the venue: from 2000p to 8000p and it’s still soldout. The size of the bands obviously: BMTH finally headline both Download and Reading, ADTR are playing huge shows worldwide too. The music of both acts: they’ve changed, are both less brutal but have still the same vibes. If you enjoyed their shows in 2009, there 99% you gonna enjoy them in 2023.
To open this not-so-nostalgic night, we don’t have 2 but 1 support: Poorstacy cancelled this final show of the Past Human European Tour. Based on the rumors we heard, it’s not a bad thing: their shows didn’t seem great and they even used some playback a few days ago… sadly – or luckily – we won’t have the chance to get our own opinions on this. But! The misfortune of some makes the happiness of others: because of Poorstacy cancellation, A Day To Remember got 10 more minutes to play on their set. Static Dress also got a set longer but sadly we arrived during their last 2 songs. Sound is great, already lot of people in the room but nothing fancy.
Now we’re talking. Main support and with an exceptional longer set to finish this tour, we had high hopes for this. Meaning: we hoped they gonna add songs from “Homesick” and not most recent stuff. Spoiler alert: our wishes have been partially excused. Jeremy reminded us they indeed have a slightly longer set tonight so they add Degenerates from “You’re Welcome” and… Mr. Highway’s Thinking About The End from fuckin “Homesick” album! The pit opened at the very first second… for the motivated and educated people. Because time have changed since 2009, especially BMTH, so are a big part of their fanbase. The kind of fans that aren’t in the heavy stuff. Imagine their faces when A Day To Remember played this old shit, 2nd Sucks or the new one Miracle… Obviously, the people not in the heavy vibe liked Rescue Me… Why the fuck are they playing a Marshmallow cover? Well, they’ve recorded the original with the DJ.
The set-list was really dope but the reality wasn’t. Yes, we had a great time. Yes, we had a decent mosh-pit. Yes, we had a fun time. Yes, the band seems happy to be there. But the show sounded a bit empty and too many people weren’t in the mood. Start with The Downfall Of Us All, finish on All Signs Point To Lauderdale, play It It Means A Lot To You, All I Want or Right Back At It Again int between: we got all the ingredients for a big old-school party but the sauce didn’t take. At least, not as good as expected. Even if for us, we had a kick-ass evening and they did their best like they were headliners (like their sick show in Tilburg last Summer)!
Set-list: The Download Of Us All, All I Want, Paranoia, Degenerates, 2nd Sucks, Right Back At It Again, Mr. Highway’s Thinking About The End, Rescue Me, Have Faith In Me, Bloodsucker, I’m Made Of Wax Larry What Are You Made Of, Miracle, Resentment, If It Means A Lot To You, All Signs Point To Lauderdale.
This is it. We got a perfect warm-up with A Day To Remember. Now it’s time for Bring Me The Horizon to destroy the place. We had a lot of expectations for this one. Firstly, because the band became massive and their last releases (all for them ?) are insane. Secondly, because we saw them playing at Tony Halles Garnier last Summer and it was a sick show. Thirdly, because this line-up was a dream coming true again and we expected to get a show as sick as the poster is. Spoiler alert? Not this time. Keep reading to know what happened.
In almost 20 years, BMTH have always released the perfect album at the perfect time. In 2006, we needed some heavy shit as fuck and they released their debut album “Count Your Blessings” and its deathcore style. In 2008, with a bigger success, they release already a second but different album, “Suicide Season“. The first huge success. Seems they’ll always evolve and won’t release twice the same kind of album – like the major the metalcore scene -, they released “There Is A Hell…“. More deep, more intense, sometimes softer and with a bunch of featurings (Skrillex, Architects, The Chariot, You Me At Six). Maybe the highlight of their career but at least a proof they understood some changes were needed and metalcore was maybe not the big thing anymore. In 2013 happened probably the biggest move of their career: a new album “Sempiternal” that is still a reference 10 years later and some important line-up changes (hello Jordan, goodbye Jona). Once again, this record sounds perfect for that time and none of these songs feel old in 2023. Maybe in 2033. With “That’s The Spirit” in 2015 and “Amo” early 2019, they continue to change their sound, to surprise everybody before being acclaimed as genius. Finally, in 2020, when we were all suffering form the pandemic and its mental consequences (on top of all its tragic consequences of course), they released the EP “Post Human: Survival Horror”. Not only they once again release a record perfect for that time but it sounds so great, so modern, with a tons of expected and non expected guests (Yungblud, Evanescence, BabyMetal, Nova Twins). From the music to the lyrics, including the visuals, it seems they’ve understand everything before everyone. With this EP, they confirmed they won’t release full-length albums: stop touring during 1 or 2 years, hide in a cave to write about 12-15 songs for an album that people will forget soon, go on tour to promote it and then repeat this whole process again and again. Now, they’ll release only EP’s and singles. They have a sick song ready to go? Instead of waiting the 11 other songs, they’ll just prepare a visual (lyric of full video) and put it online. This is what they’ve done so far with 2 singles: DiE4U and Strangers. By the way, 2 killer tracks with a great emo-pop-punk vibes that fit perfectly with the actual trend.
From the music to the lyrics, including the visuals, it seems they’ve understand everything before everyone.
Bring Me The Horizon succeed to perfectly evolve with their fans. They’re all about 36 years old in the band, just a little bit more of the average age of their fans, which is perfect to be like big brothers that have been through the same shit as us and fully understand us. in 2023, these 5 guys are where they meant to be, they all fit musically – and I guess humanely as well – perfectly in the band and they have all the potential to become even bigger than they actually are.
The main thing is to prove this status live of course! If 10 years, it wasn’t really the case, BMTH became a real beast live and have managed to silence – almost – all criticism of it! Only one thing can give us a not-good live performance from the British is their potential lake of motivation. We sadly have an example of this at Pukkelpop last Summer where Old seems really bored and the whole performance wasn’t memorable, especially with a boring audience. But not tonight. Tonight was something else.
The whole venue is soldout, meaning more than 8000 kids are there for them. From the first seconds of Can You Feel My Heart – the answer is obviously yes -, we knew we gonna have a blast. The stage production is beautiful, the sound is really good, the whole band is motivated and ready to give us all the energy they have left as it’s the last show of this arena tour in Europe. The set-list is classic, without any surprises, like the one from their headline show at Halles Tony Garnier in Lyon last Summer. But we didn’t have the time to give a shit about it! Song after song, the atmosphere is perfect, we are all 100% into the show smooth as f*ck an we enjoyed every song played.
The only big surprise was the cut-off at the end of Mantra… Power failure?! Show is over?! No. Just a joke from the band to gave us a heart-attack. Well, it’s a success (nobody died of course)! The level of energy after that will continue increase: Parasite Eve, Strangers, Shadow Moses, the party song Kingslayer, the huge single DiE4u, the lovely acoustic moment with Follow You or the final song Oli coming at the barrier, Drown. What else?! Well, the encore! We knew we gonna have Obey and Throne. How could they end the show without these 2 bangers? But an encore of 2 songs was a bit short. Luckily, they played a third one in between, coming from the “Sempiternal” album, Sleepwalking. A song introduced by Oli who reminded us this album – a game changer in their career – celebrate it’s 10th Birthday in 2023… Could we have an anniversary tour later year? That’s what we’re all going to dream about from now on! Until then, Throne perfectly closed this massive show and confirmed the actual status of living legend of Bring Me The Horizon. More than music, they’ve been long around to have a close relationship with their fans and that matters when you look at a band’s career or their potential to be the next big thing. Well, actually, they’re a big thing but not for the future: for the present.
Set-list: Can You Feel My Heart, Happy Song, Teardrops, Mantra, Dear Diary, Parasite Eve, Strangers, Shadow Moses, Kingslayer, DiE4u, Follow You, Drown. Encore: Obey, Sleepwalking, Throne.
During almost 90 minutes, Oli Sykes and his teammates confirmed how big they became, how smart they are and obviously how good they are live. There are 10 months go in 2023 and plenty of shows to come but this night will be in our top 5 at the end. No doubt!