:: Bring Me The Horizon - Count Your Blessings

Bring Me The Horizon

If the British press is to be believed, then up and coming Sheffield based quintet Bring Me The Horizon is the next big thing on the metal scene. And while there is no denying that the young band made quite an impression with their debut E.P. ‘This Is What The Edge Of Your Seat Was Made For’ back in 2004, the expectations placed upon their debut full-length effort ‘Count Your Blessings’ simply doesn’t materialise for the most part.

The opening track ‘Pray For Plagues’ is quick to establish the direction the band are going for this time around, with the intensity of the band’s death metal influences stepped up quite a bit in their two years away. But for all the heaviness the band project in their sound, it’s the familiarity of the band’s song structures in the way of repetitive breakdowns, cliché lyrical content and a general lack of any real stand out chorus of note that gives the song a ‘by the numbers’ feel. The ridiculously titled ‘Tell Slater Not To Wash His Dick’ is virtually interchangeable with the opening track, apart from a few lines where the music dies out long enough for Sykes to gargle a few spoken lines, while ‘For Stevie Wonder’s Eyes Only’ starts out initially with a full on death metal sound, but to much disappointment, it soon falls into line with the two former tracks with a sudden change of pace to a slow chugging groove, followed by a couple of breakdowns amongst some of the faster moments, all of which is predictably cliché metalcore sounding.

From here on in, the remainder of the album doesn’t deviate much from the first few tracks, apart from an extended solo section that appears in ‘A Lot Like Vegas’ and two instrumental numbers (‘Slow Dance’, which sounds like the other tracks on the album, but without Sykes’ constant growls, and the acoustic ‘15 Fathoms, Counting’, which sounding completely out of line with the rest of the album, which begs the question why it was included in the first place). If you’re still mourning the demise of I Killed The Prom Queen, or looking for something familiar within the death/metalcore genre, then Bring Me The Horizon comes highly recommended. However, if you’re after something original and different, then disregard the hype dished up on the back in recent times and continue to look elsewhere for the real ‘next big thing’.