Hahahahah SANDPIT TURTLE, guys! Get it, because Sempiternal sounds like Sandpit Turtle, and that’s funny!
Yes, Bring Me The Horizon’s Sempiternal helped inspire an admittedly pretty hilarious set of memes, but upon its April 1st, 2013 worldwide release, the record arguably did for metalcore what Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory and Meteora did for nu-metal. An outlandish comparison? It actually makes a lot of sense.
Metalcore had existed for many, many years before BMTH released Sempiternal. The same could be said for Linkin Park’s nu-metal, though the latter was a bit of a newer genre by comparison. Sempiternal also arrived as BMTH’s fourth full-length album, compared to Hybrid Theory and Meteora being LP’s first and second. Beyond that, though, they all had an impact on the established genres at hand. Sempiternal, in particular, has influenced metalcore, post-hardcore, alternative metal, and modern rock to a point where even veteran bands bought in to the usage of electronics, pop + cinematic influences, and even a little experimental flair (“Hospital For Souls”) for good measure. If you want a really fun statistic, consider that “Sleepwalking”, “Shadow Moses”, and album opener “Can You Feel My Heart” (whose jarring pop and electronica washes immediately set the tone for the record) total almost one billion Spotify streams – by themselves. And much like Hybrid Theory, you almost immediately heard bands like Of Mice And Men follow in similar paths. Yeah, this one is a classic.
