Bring Me The Horizon is a band I have generally tried to avoid, as I have done with metalcore in general, because I do not like the general scene associated with the music. I have tried to appreciate hardcore and metalcore in the past - in my metalhead days, when I had friends who listened to metalcore and would try to get me into the genre - but I never managed to seriously enjoy it much. Generally, most metalcore bands seem to employ a combination of hardcore punk and heavy metal, but in doing so they utilise the inferior characteristics of both, resulting in something fairly mediocre. It carries neither the raw, powerful stripped-down sound of punk, nor the heavy, rich and dynamic sound of metal, and as such is inferior to both. The reason the genre has taken off of late is no mystery - metalcore is far simpler and less subversive than its roots, making it easier to swallow and consume for the masses.
Sempiternal is British metalcore band Bring Me The Horizon’s fourth studio album, and before I go on I feel I should give due credit to the album artwork - depicting the Flower of Life - which I think is quite amazing. It is very intricate and well-designed, aesthetically balanced and overall very interesting. Thus far, Sempiternal is the only Bring Me The Horizon album I have ever listened to, so I cannot compare it to their previous work. What I can tell, however, is that for the most part it is not a lot more than generic metalcore. It is a standard monotonous combination of screamed vocals, distorted heavy guitars, dark repetitive rhythms, and an overproduced clean sound.
Allegedly, it employs innovative use of electronic and ambient music influences; however, upon listening it merely switches between generic metalcore, and either pop, electronic or even dubstep at times. The drum kit sounds fake and synthesised, as if it were from a dubstep song. While this may have potential to do something interesting and innovative, Bring Me The Horizon fails to bring anything new and of value to the table with any of these new influences, due to the bland and derivative ways in which they incorporate them, and thus their attempts to freshen their sound fall short. Sleepwalking sounds more akin to modern pop, such as Katy Perry, Lady GaGa, Owl City, or Justin Bieber, in stark contrast to the brutal hardcore image the band attempts to carry.
I have always labelled the hardcore and metalcore scene as “pseudo-punk-rock”, as it completely inverts the original philosophy and ideology of punk-rock. While punk was originally about defying the status quo and forming your own identity, metalcore nowadays appears to be about following a trend and a new status quo, where the bands’ hairstyles and skinny jeans are more important than musical and artistic innovation. I say this, because Sempiternal is hardly a deviation from this trend. Anything that is made must be unique in some way; else it can too easily be substituted for something which already exists, and therefore has no reason to exist in the first place.
According to Wikipedia, one band credited with influencing metalcore is Sepultura, a Brazillian heavy metal band whose 1993 Chaos A.D and 1996 Roots albums are not only similar to many metalcore bands of today, but also superior, with an engaging use of dynamic variation, balance, subversion and complexity, a raw, organic sound, and an overall unique sense of purpose. It is interesting to note stylistic similarities between Sepultura and Sempiternal, especially when the latter emulates the former so poorly. Both utilise downtuned guitars, a heavy rhythm-driven style, screamed vocals and dark atmosphere; however Sempiternal is monotonous, repetitive and stale, and this is partially attributable to the excessively clean production. An overdriven and distorted guitar once sounded heavy, dirty, and coarse; now with modern technology, we have managed to make guitar distortion sound cleaner and smoother than ever. As I mentioned in my March Fires review, an excessively clean production sound gives the music a mechanical and cold feeling, as though it was preprogrammed by a computer, and all humanity and soul is filtered out by the production. The music therefore loses all sense of purpose, as it no longer resembles the artistic expression of one or several human beings, but merely another product churned out by a machine. The production sound on Sempiternal eliminates all dynamic diversity, resulting in the aforementioned monotonous sound, and it is thus boring to listen to.
Sempiternal can also be compared unfavorably to another, older band - Slipknot, a surprisingly great band. At times, Oli Sykes’ vocal style reminds me of Corey Taylor in his early days, in parts of Shadow Moses in particular, and the heavy rhythmic guitar and double-kick drums in unison is not too dissimilar from Slipknot. However, Sempiternal lacks the primal aggression, anger, and raw emotion present in Slipknot’s music, mostly due to the clean production sound, which makes the music sound tame, filters out the raw emotions and leaves us with just noise with no weight behind it.
It’s not only the production sound. The screamed vocals are monotonous in themselves - they are empty and carry no weight, mostly due to overuse. Literally 90% of all vocals on the album are screamed, and the effect does wear thin with every use. I mentioned subversion before, which I wish to elaborate on. Subversion, i.e. doing something unexpected and contrary to the listener’s presumptions, is the only thing needed to make something which was once boring, interesting. This is another aspect I mentioned in my review of March Fires, where one track (Horizons) needed a minor-second interval thrown in to create some dissonance. That is one example of subversion. Sempiternal has no subversion - everything is played straight and to the end, and there are barely any syncopated drum rhythms, dissonant melodies or unexpected chord progressions. This makes the album predictable, and if it’s predictable it needn’t exist - we’ve heard it before. Which brings me to another criticism: many of the songs are instantly catchy. This rings loud alarm bells for me. If a song is catchy, it means it’s simple and repetitive enough to be stuck in one’s head after a mere few listens. This in turn implies a lack of creativity, complexity, and imagination inherent in the music. Shadow Moses is a particular culprit, which despite being little more than mediocre, has been stuck in my head for quite some time.
Another metalcore trend observable in Sempiternal is the shallow lyrics, mostly concerning “first-world problems” and teen angst, which makes the music seem disingenuous. Sleepwalking, Seen It All Before, And The Snakes... in particular carry this theme, and there are too many individual lines to quote in this review. Occasionally, the band attacks religion in their lyrics, which earns them points in my book; however they merely gain ideological points, rather than artistic points, and such subject matter is subjective at best. Additionally, their attacks of religion are neither new nor particularly enlightening, merely a repetition of common criticisms. The House of Wolves appears to point out religion’s destructive tendencies and corruption, with “I’ll bow for your king when he shows himself,” “Show me a reason to think my soul can’t be saved if I sell you my sins,” and of course, the chorus. While these are all valid criticisms, they bring nothing new to the table. Similarly, Crooked Young is a rather explicit attack on religion, however it fails to make a fresh impact and instead repeats what has already been said.
Despite this, or perhaps in spite of it, one thing Sempiternal does do well is synchronize the lyrics with the music. The tone of the music fits perfectly with the tone of the lyrics for the most part, which is something I have mentioned previously, and as such there is a strong sense of unity within the album. This does increase the power and impact of the music, although it barely compensates for its inherent mediocrity in the first place. One song I actually like is Anti-Vist, for this reason. I have an ideological affinity with the lyrics in the song, and there is a genuine and powerful emotion which is captured in every element of the song, music and lyrics. Anti-Vist is the only song on this album which makes me feel anything, and my personal favourite. Even though I agree with the premise of the song, the lyrics are still shallow and immature, and I can’t help but feel that I’ve heard everything in it before, in other, better music, but I still appreciate it nonetheless. It’s also hilarious to hear the word “fucked” bring out Oli Sykes’ Yorkshire accent.
So Sempiternal isn’t all bad; however, in quality, depth or complexity it barely matches many of it’s stylistic predecessors, and as such is nothing more than an inferior replica of older bands - and if that’s the case, it really needn’t exist. And while I do feel metalcore is a step forward for mainstream scene, it is a vast step backward for the alternative scene - and yet another generic metalcore album, even one which attempts to experiment with other styles like Sempiternal, does little more than fuel the decline of modern alternative music.
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