Bring Me The Horizon

Biography :

Bring Me the Horizon are a British metalcore band from Sheffield, Yorkshire, who formed in 2004.


History :

Early years and Count Your Blessings (2004–2007)

Bring Me the Horizon began in 2004 with members of many defunct bands from around their local area. They acquired their name based on a line taken from the film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, in which Captain Jack Sparrow shouts "Now... Bring me that horizon.".

They are currently signed to Visible Noise Records, but were originally signed to Thirty Days of Night Records and were the first band to be signed to that label. The band are also signed to Epitaph Records in the US and to Shock Records in Australia. They released their debut album Count Your Blessings in October 2006 in the United Kingdom and in August 2007 in the United States. They have toured in the past with bands such as Lostprophets, The Blackout, Killswitch Engage and The Haunted. They performed a headlining tour of the UK during March and April 2007 with the now defunct metalcore band I Killed the Prom Queen, whose guitarist would later become a permanent member of Bring Me The Horizon. They played Download Festival in 2007.

They also played the North American leg of the tour, including a guest appearance from Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes on 6 August in Calgary. He joined Sykes in chanting the start of their song "Diamonds Aren't Forever". McCoy later remixed one of their songs, "Chelsea Smile", for their remix album of Suicide Season.

In November 2007 they played three dates of the Australian leg of the Gigantour. They returned to Australia in May-June 2008, appearing on I Killed The Prom Queen's final tour.
Suicide Season and line-up change (2008–2009)

Bring Me the Horizon had been writing and recording a second studio album over the beginning of 2008. They had been in Sweden recording the album throughout April and May with Fredrik Nordström, who has worked with bands such as At the Gates, Arch Enemy, I Killed the Prom Queen and Dimmu Borgir. The album was released on 29 September 2008. Suicide Season is completely different to the previous Count Your Blessings, having a more metalcore vibe to it, similar to the debut EP release, This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For.

The band recently embarked on their first headline tour of the US, as well as appearing in the 2008 Warped Tour. Bring Me the Horizon also joined Mindless Self Indulgence, In Case of Fire, Black Tide and Dir en grey on the Kerrang! and Relentless 2009 UK tour. They also joined Thursday, Cancer Bats, Four Year Strong and Pierce the Veil on the Taste of Chaos 2009 North American tour.

It was announced on 27 August 2009 that Bring Me the Horizon will be releasing a remixed version of Suicide Season, titled Suicide Season: Cut Up!, in the UK on 2 November 2009. In an interview with Rock Sound, Sykes stated that the idea came about after asking a friend to remix one of their songs, and after being very pleased with the end result the band decided to take it a step further and get the whole of Suicide Season remixed. Musicians and producers featured on the album includes Ben Weinman from The Dillinger Escape Plan, Sonny Moore, L’Amour La Morgue (Ian Watkins from Lostprophets), Utah Saints and Shawn Crahan from Slipknot. Sykes also stated that “There’s not a song on there that really sounds like the original. What’s great though is the diversity of each song. There’s dubstep to hip-hop, electro to drum and bass”.

In March 2009, guitarist Curtis Ward left the band. A number of reasons have been cited for his departure: in an interview, bassist Matt Kean commented that "it became apparent he wasn't enjoying it" and that it was "just about commitment". In May 2009, Jona Weinhofen, formerly of I Killed The Prom Queen and Bleeding Through, joined the band on a temporary basis to fill-in for Curtis. However, it was revealed in July 2009 that he would become an official member of Bring Me the Horizon, partly due to his discontent with living in America, hence leaving Bleeding Through. According to Oliver Sykes in an interview on the subject, Weinhofen has injected the band with a new-found enthusiasm, causing the band's performances to be "so much better and refreshing", and he feels they have "stepped up another level".
There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven, Let's Keep It a Secret (2010–present)

In an exclusive interview, Bring Me the Horizon revealed to Kerrang! Magazine that the band's currently planning to write the follow-up to Suicide Season during the summer of 2009, with the plan to go into the studio with ex-producer Fredrik Nordström (who produced Suicide Season) in March 2010. The then-untitled third studio album was also set to feature new guitarist Jona Weinhoffen. The band also announced an "unofficial" release date for the upcoming record and that to be of 5th October. Sykes has also stated that the band have been doing "some writing-up and jam chords" during the Vans Warped Tour 2010 tour and that "some records are being mixed-and-blended back in the studio right now". Sykes has also announced several "unofficial" titles for the written tracks including "If You're One of Them, Die!", "Bluud", and "You Have the Looks". On August 4th, the band revealed to Kerrang! Magazine that the follow-up to Suicide Season will be titled There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven, Let's Keep It a Secret. The upcoming record also sets to feature electropop musician Lights and You Me at Six frontman Josh Franceschi. There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven, Let's Keep It a Secret will be released via Visible Noise Records (United Kingdom) and Epitaph Records (United States), as of 4 and 5 October respectively. On August 21, 2010, the band announced that they would be releasing the first single off the upcoming album "There Is A Hell..", titled "It Never Ends" via digital download on August 25. The accompanying music video was released on Youtube. On September 14th, 2010, the band announced that they would be making their new track "Fuck", from their forthcoming album, available from Myspace.


Controversy :

Nottingham incident

While on tour in the United Kingdom allegations were made against vocalist Oliver Sykes that he urinated upon and then assaulted a female fan after a gig at Nottingham Rock City when she allegedly refused his sexual advances. Sykes was subsequently charged with urinating on the fan, but not with physical assault. Online music zine Drowned In Sound claimed that Bring Me The Horizon were banned from Nottingham Rock City. However the band's label Visible Noise denied these rumors and the band subsequently played Nottingham Rock City on 1 December 2007.

On 13 April, Sykes appeared in Nottingham Magistrates Court on a charge of common assault relating to the alleged urination incident, to which he pleaded not guilty. The case was adjourned until early May. On 3 May 2007 Sykes attended Nottingham Magistrates court for the second time and confirmed his not guilty plea. The case was adjourned again until 17 September. Due to lack of evidence, all charges against Sykes were dropped. The song No Need for Introductions, I've Read About Girls Like You on the Backs of Toilet Doors, on the Suicide Season LP, is reportedly about the alleged incident.
YouTube video with Architects

During a tour, Bring Me the Horizon and Architects filmed a video showing fights between Oliver Sykes and Architects' lead singer Sam Carter. The video was filmed at an all-day event in Karlsruhe, Germany and shows what seemed to be Sam Carter committing acts of physical violence towards Oliver. The video was uploaded to YouTube and outraged many Bring Me the Horizon fans, causing many to send hate mail towards Sam Carter.

"We're mates with the guys and were sharing a bus for the whole two week tour!" Carter told Kerrang!. "The fact that people believed it was real is just so ridiculous! We filmed the fight about three times and even added in comedy punch noises and yet kids were still sending us over-the-top hate mail!" Oliver Sykes also commented saying "All-day events can get boring very fast so we conjured up the first idiotic thing we could think of and made it as unbelievable as possible. Sam was getting death threats from kids off MySpace and at the same time getting praised for laying me out! We're sorry if anyone was upset by this although I'm sure most people reading this probably like the thought of me getting a punch in the face!".


Band Members :

Current Members :

* Oliver "Oli" Sykes – Lead Vocals (since 2004)
* Lee Malia − Lead Guitar (since 2004)
* Matt Kean − Bass Guitar (since 2004)
* Matt Nicholls − Drums, Percussion (since 2004)
* Jona Weinhofen - Rhythm Guitar, Keyboards, Programming, Vocals (since 2009)

Former members :

* Curtis Ward − Rhythm Guitar (2004–2009)


Discography :

* Bring Me The Horizon - Count Your Blessings (2006)
* Bring Me The Horizon - Suicide Season (2008)
* Bring Me The Horizon - There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven, Let's Keep It a Secret (2010)