Bring Me The Horizon - Post Human: Survival Horror
Updated: Oct 30
On October 30, 2020, "Bring Me The Horizon" released their EP "Post Human: Survival Horror".
We had been eagerly waiting for it, and it delivered the release we needed. Across nine tracks lasting just over half an hour, the band channels the fear, anger and mental overload of 2020 into music that hits the whole body. The guitars bite again and the screams move to the foreground, while the electronics and enormous choruses remain essential to the experience.
Following their sixth studio album, "amo", in 2019 and the electronic experiments that followed, some fans missed the band’s heavier side. Here, they reconnect it with everything they learned along the way. The production does more than revisit their deathcore beginnings. It reshapes that aggression for a world of screens, alarms and relentless bad news.
Vocalist Oliver Sykes and keyboardist Jordan Fish led the production, with much of the work taking place remotely during lockdown. Mick Gordon, known for his "DOOM" soundtracks, contributed additional production. It is easy to hear why the partnership worked. Synthesizers and guitars push against one another, while the transitions can feel like entering the next level of a game with your health bar already flashing red.
"Dear Diary," kicks the door open. Racing drums, screams and slashing guitar pull us into an unraveling monologue in which the routine of isolation becomes a nightmare of infection and collapse. The black humor gives the horror a crooked smile. The band understands how absurd the end of the world can feel when you are stuck watching television.
"Parasite Eve" expands the threat. Its choral opening and industrial atmosphere give way to a heavy riff and a chorus that sounds like a public warning. The idea actually predates COVID-19, originating with a report about an antibiotic-resistant superbug in Japan. Reality gave it a frightening new meaning. "Ludens", written for the video game "Death Stranding" and released in 2019, also preceded the pandemic. The entire record was therefore not written during lockdown, even though isolation and anxiety became central to its identity.
"Teardrops" offers one of the record’s strongest meetings of melody and pain. The electronics, guitars and chorus recall the musical language of "Linkin Park", but Sykes brings to it the numbness of having no room left for another piece of bad news. Just as the music opens up and invites us to sing, the words describe an inability to feel. That tension is the heart of the song.
The collaborations broaden the record’s emotional range. On "Obey", YUNGBLUD joins a defiant anthem against obedience and control, his chemistry with Sykes giving the chorus an extra shove. On "1x1", the duo "Nova Twins" enters an internal confrontation with guilt and memory. Here, the threat stops coming from outside and takes up residence inside the mind.
Then the sequence of "Itch for the Cure (When Will We Be Free?)" and "Kingslayer" takes us into another kind of madness. The electronic interlude opens the gate to "BABYMETAL", whose bright Japanese and English vocals collide with screams, dizzying drums and vicious guitars. The contrast is the pleasure. Both extremes are pushed harder, somehow finding a chorus that refuses to leave our heads.
The ending finally slows the pulse. "One Day the Only Butterflies Left Will Be in Your Chest as You March Towards Your Death" brings in Amy Lee for something slow, bleak and exposed. Sykes described it as a conversation between humanity and the planet, and the two voices resemble partners who can no longer ignore the damage done. After all the eruptions, Amy Lee’s restrained delivery leaves a space that distortion cannot fill.
Commercial success also arrived in two stages. The record entered the UK Albums Chart at number five following its digital release, then climbed to number one after its physical release in January 2021. It became the band’s second UK chart-topper, following "amo".
In retrospect, this was also the opening chapter of the "Post Human" series. The original plan for four EPs in quick succession changed, and the next installment, "Post Human: Nex Gen", arrived on May 24, 2024. The foundations of that later blend of heaviness, pop and digital chaos are already audible here.
For us, "Post Human: Survival Horror" succeeds because it maintains its urgency throughout. The dense production offers little breathing room and can occasionally feel overloaded, but the songs are strong enough to justify the assault. This is a band bringing its previous incarnations into one locked room and finding a way to scream with all of them.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
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