Perhaps this explains why their new album has experienced delays, but Bring Me The Horizon have separated with keyboardist Jordan Fish, effective immediately. The breaking news arrives seemingly out of nowhere, with Fish immediately becoming an integral part of the band’s evolution from Sempiternal onwards.
It cannot be stressed how much this changes things for Bring Me The Horizon, Jordan, and all involved. Firstly, for BMTH, Jordan’s electronic flourishes were a big part of what has given Bring Me The Horizon both expanding and long-lasting appeal. The thing is, it’s done right out of the gate on “Can You Feel My Heart”, where the bright electronics push forward at every turn. Immediately, you can tell that post-rock and electronica and even pop (oooh scary!) influences come to the forefront. A watershed album in forging these post-rock and electronic influences into modern metalcore, “Sleepwalking” and “Shadow Moses” have the kind of electronic inspirations that make for instant chart hits, while more cerebral fare like album closer “Hospital For Souls” roar in their lengthy ambitions to create something awe-inspiring. And that’s just on one album. “Kingslayer”, “Throne”, and “DArkSide” all turned into chart hits because of these added influences, too.
So yeah, Jordan Fish will be missed.
However, all is not lost. Plenty of bands have had to suddenly replace a member that provided a key part of their sound. Music is littered with bands who changed drastically after the departure of a singular band member. Keyboardist Alan Wilder was one of the biggest reasons Depeche Mode exploded in popularity, yet upon his 1995 departure, Depeche Mode were able to recover with some of their most classic material anyway. Underoath lost drummer/vocalist Aaron Gillespie before the release of their Disambiguation album, yet it turned out to be one of their best records. Sometimes, it even happened twice – in the case of Steve Hackett and Peter Gabriel leaving Genesis.
There is, of course, the obvious caveat of a band sorely missing an individual band member. And for Bring Me The Horizon, Jordan Fish will certainly be missed. Some bands were never quite the same, whether it was the tragic death of Metallica bassist Cliff Burton or Incubus splitting with bassist Dirk Lance after the release of Morning View. More drastic examples saw a handful of bands completely falling off the table in terms of critical success, commercial success, or even a lack of songwriting. While the latter scenarios are unlikely to happen for Bring Me The Horizon, the fact is that even one musician can have a profound effect on where a band ends up going forward. And for Jordan Fish, it’ll be intriguing to hear where his solo music goes from here.
