Bring Me the Horizon on defying the trolls: ‘Everyone thought we were w--kers’
Oli Sykes has been trying hard not to think about headlining Reading & Leeds festival. This weekend, his band Bring Me The Horizon will close out the bank holiday weekender alongside the likes of Arctic Monkeys and The 1975. They’ll be the first new rock band to top the bill since Biffy Clyro stepped up in 2013 and the first metal band to headline since Metallica played in 2015. “I’m trying to tell myself it’s not such a big deal,” admits Sykes. But he knows it is: “For the majority of our career, we never thought a band like ours could headline a festival like Reading & Leeds.”
Formed in Sheffield in 2004 by a group of teenagers, Bring Me The Horizon set out to get drunk and make music their mates could mosh to. Sharing those tracks on fledgling social media site MySpace, the group were accidently at the forefront of a cultural revolution, with their scrappy deathcore heard by a global audience.
The press hated them, as did older metal fans, but a generation of like-minded kids resonated with their nihilistic lyrics and self-destructive attitude. After a successful tour of America, the group decided to see what would happen if they actually tried. With 2008’s punishing Suicide Season more of a triumph, the band knew they had to continue “taking risks. We knew we could never make the same album twice,” Sykes says, speaking from a tour bus somewhere in Europe. “Our ethos was always to push harder. Adapt or die.”
Bring Me The Horizon went on to release a string of progressively more ambitious, polished but ferocious records. 2013’s Sempiternal was written after Sykes went through rehab for ketamine addiction and saw the group headline Wembley Arena while 2015’s That’s The Spirit carried them to London’s O2 Arena.
Then came the divisive Amo in 2019, which leant more towards trap beats and pop production. “I was struggling to see the future of the band if we just kept doing what we were doing,” Sykes says. “If we didn’t make an album without compromise, without worrying about alienating fans now, would we ever?”
They wanted to show their huge fanbase that Bring Me were more than another rock band, but there were times during the chapter that Sykes was hurt about just how severe the criticism was. “It was such an important album for us,” he says today. “It means we can get away with stuff like collaborating with Ed Sheeran at the BRITs,” which saw the band add their signature snarl to Bad Habits, one of the biggest pop songs of 2022. The reception was so positive, a studio version was released a week later. “We were maybe expecting more backlash, but when we got the invitation to do it, we didn’t think through whether it was a good idea or not,” says Sykes. “You’re hardly going to say no to an offer like that, are you?”
“I don’t quite know how we’ve turned things around,” Sykes continues, more softly spoken than he is onstage where he regularly demands circle pits and walls of death. “We were so derided 15 years ago, it felt like we were getting on everyone’s t-ts. I’ve got zero bitterness to anyone who used to hate our band though. If I weren’t in it, I’d have probably thought we were a bunch of w---ers as well. We’ve worked hard to become a proper band though and I think people respect that. It feels like people are on our side now, rather than constantly trying to knock us down a peg.”
Their 2020 EP Post Human: Survival Horror certainly helped their cause. A deliciously grotesque blend of rock swagger and on-the-nose lyrics about the end of the world featuring exciting new talent (Yungblud, Nova Twins) and living legends (Evanescence’s Amy Lee), it reminded people of Bring Me’s sheer might. “We realised we were one of the only bands in the mainstream who are making aggressive music,” says Sykes, so the band leaned into that. A string of collaborations with cutting edge, underground artists followed soon after.
Sykes knows that rock music isn’t traditionally such a collaborative genre as hip-hop, but says that through those collaborations, rappers “help each other rise up and create a subculture in the process. Sometimes rock music feels like an arms race. I’m not about that.”
Bring Me’s headline slot at Reading and Leeds comes at a time where rock music is once again invading the mainstream, thanks to acts like Olivia Rodrigo, Machine Gun Kelly and Yungblud. “Rock music was never meant to be trendy, it’s supposed to be a counter-culture,” he says, denying that it ever died out. “Now, it’s exactly where it’s meant to be, but the scene is healthier than it’s ever been. There’s so much more diversity in the people who are making it and what it’s talking about.” Rock music, he explains, is less close-minded than it used to be.
Despite the fact they’re rapidly approaching their 20th anniversary, Bring Me The Horizon still speaks to a young fanbase, confused and angry about the state of the world. “Maybe I’ll just be f----d up forever. Should have figured myself out by now,” sings Sykes at the very start of their latest single Strangers, a cathartic, emotional hunk of emo rock. Earlier this year, their 2013 track Can You Feel My Heart went viral on TikTok. “If you’re a kid, this world is a f---ing odd place to be. I think they crave something cerebral, something that’s a little less skin deep,” Sykes says. “They want music that’s raw, intense and emotional. It’s so helpful to hear someone else vocalise what you're going through.”
Post Human: Survival Horror is the first of four EPs Bring Me The Horizon plan to release. The emo, second chapter was meant to be released before Reading & Leeds, with Sykes admitting it’s coming together “slowly”. Since lockdown lifted, the band have been busy touring so it’s been harder to find the time to get in the studio, especially with family commitments.
Lyrically, this second edition of Post Human will tackle relapse, recovery and self-love after the apocalyptic rage of Survival Horror. “When we started the band, we weren't famous but were known enough for people to have an opinion on me. I went into that world really naïve,” explains Sykes, who was seen as the saviour of rock by Bring Me’s fans but “the biggest k---head in the world,” by their many detractors. “There was so much praise and so much hate. At the time, no one could relate to what that was like. Nowadays though, everybody is going through something similar with social media. The internet has destroyed everyone’s self-worth.”
Over lockdown, Sykes started using ketamine again to disassociate from reality before another stint in rehab. “This next record is about trying to use my recovery as a story about how we all recover, how we move forward in this society, and what the next steps are,” he says. “The cracks are beginning to show in this capitalist, patriarchal world we’ve built. I know this is nihilist as hell, but with the ways things are going, it feels like the end of days.” Their new record acknowledges that but also asks “what we need to do to turn it around”.
Coming back around to Reading & Leeds, Sykes finds it “pretty trippy” to be sharing the stage with fellow Sheffielders Arctic Monkeys. “Arctic Monkeys are legitimately one of my favourite bands. I’d be lying if I said they didn’t inspire us to do what we did in terms of always changing our sound and never putting out the same album twice.”
Still, Sykes isn’t nervous about the actual gig. “I’ve absolutely no doubts about our abilities and I’m confident we’re going to put on one hell of a show. I’m so proud that we've managed to break through. It makes you hopeful for rock music if a band that sounds like us can get to those heights.”
