Bring Me The Horizon have more or less completed their crossover to the pop world, as it were. Their newest album amo, which features collaborations with Grimes and more EDM // pop influence than the band ever previously showed before (although to be fair, it was hinted at), and the band is so prominent now, they curate their own diverse festival lineups (All Points East had Architects, Run The Jewels, and Lotus Eater – just to name a few).
However, this popularity comes at a cost with the audience that may feel alienated by their stylistic change – specifically the band’s metal past. Not that Sempiternal, which is 6 years old, is any less relevant (considering newer rock and metalcore bands are still drawing influence from it), but those days may seem far off for older fans of the band. While there will certainly be the band’s older music to hold on to for that fanbase, it’s not like the band has completely alienated their past – still playing plenty of shows and festivals with bands that are much heavier than their current incarnation. In fact, setlists for the band recently still have plenty of older material.
When asked by NME about the diversity of Glastonbury Festival, which featured the likes of Gojira, Kylie Minogue, and Slaves UK in the same lineup, Jordan Fish had this to say when asked if metal has become more “accepted” at the festival:
“We’re not really a metal band as such, we’re more sort of false metal,” said keyboardist Jordan Fish. “We’re not really accepted by the metal community. We’re just kind of doing our own thing.”
NME and Jordan Fish also broached the subject of festivals that aren’t “forward-thinking enough”, with Fish having this to say about lineup diversity:
“Sometimes you look at festival line-ups, especially the rock festivals, and I feel like they’re not that forward thinking, especially with the headliners,” he admitted. “But with APE we wanted to try and like, at least combine some acts we really respect from outside the rock world with some of the acts we most respect in the rock world, like real varied but still the core of it is rock bands, you know?”
He continued: “I guess we see a lot of line-ups and it’s bands who have played it 10 times over headlining, and for us that can be a bit frustrating. We know we’re ready to do it and we know a bunch of other bands who are ready to do those big slots as well. So yeah, doing All Points East kinda proved that there are bands who are ready to take the step up to headline.”
“One of the big things about that line-up was that it was mostly UK bands,” added Matt. “And I think especially if you look at a lot of the festivals, they do rely sometimes on a lot of international acts to bring in people. I think it was good for us to have that strong UK line-up.”
It’s important to note that it’s not like the band have entered “sellout” mode or anything. Who knows? The band’s future material could go any number of intriguing directions – even a more metallic album could be in the cards. However, despite not playing a conventional “metal” style of music, Bring Me The Horizon will likely remain a major player in the music scene. After all, the band’s past really isn’t so far in the rearview mirror.
