I want to hate Sheffield’s Bring Me The Horizon so bad it hurts. I want to hate them because of their awful emo, teenage looks and comb-overs. I want to hate them because they sell girly T’s on their website. I want to hate them because of their cryptic non metal album cover. I want to hate them because they are on the once great Earache label. I want to hate them because they are the most heavily pimped UK band since Bullet For My Valentine. But I also want to hate them because despite all the above, their debut album is a pretty enjoyable slab of brutal yet accessible metalcore/deathcore that will please their target audience to no end.

The formula is simple yet effectively rendered; hacking/slashing At The Gates melodeath riffage with blackened shrieks littered with burly deep growls and a plethora (what would you call large amount of breakdowns? A gaggle? A rumble? A stomp? A windmill? A spin kick?) of breakdowns. It’s all horribly by the numbers and glossed with to much emo imagery but musically it’s on par with the likes of say Rose Funeral and some of the other Siege of Amida stuff, and the ‘heavier’ end of metalcore such as Killwhitneydead, Parkway Drive, I Killed the Prom Queen, The Black Dahlia Murder, Sons oF Azrael and such, so will move some units and is moderately enjoyable for the genre.

Odd ball song titles aside, from opener “Pray for Plagues” to rumble riffic closer “Off the Heezay”, the album is a pretty standard, energetic and competent affair that sounds utterly American. With a few tangents such as the synths of “Slow Dance”, the punky “A Lot Like Vegas” and the acoustic “15 Fathoms, Counting”, to break up the album’s high octane approach, the only oddity is the strange, production that just sounded a bit hollow compared to others in the genre and it takes some of the oomph away from the heavier moments.

Despite the lashing this lot will no doubt take heat from ‘real’ metal heads, I’d look for this five piece, despite their youth and relative unoriginality to become the Beatles of Hot Topic core and make waves over here pretty soon.* sigh *

[Visit the band's website]

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