Bring Me The Horizon brings metal and confetti to Philadelphia

Bring Me The Horizon | Photo by Sydney Schaefer for WXPN | sydneyschaeferphotos.com

When the English metal heads of Bring Me The Horizon released Sempiternal in 2013, their sound was revitalized, completely reinventing their image. The release of their newest album, That’s The Spirit, which was released back in 2015, has also contributed to that same reinvention. BMTH knows how to put on one hell of a production, which was able to seen by so many fans with the announcement of the band’s The American Nightmare Tour, which has been making its way around North America, but stopped in Philly on Wednesday night, March 22nd. Fellow hardcore bands Beartooth and Underoath were brought along as support on this tour, resulting in every night of this tour to be an evening of metal-packed madness.

First of the night to play was Beartooth, who were followed by Underoath. As the background music abruptly faded away, a banner high above the crowd that read ‘OATH’ was illuminated by flashing strobe lights every few seconds until the band came out and immediately started thrashing to their first song of the night, “Everyone Looks So Good From Here.” The band played 11 songs, ending with “Writing on the Walls”; their energy and momentum was alive and well up until the very last note of that last song, which was the prefect segue into BMTH’s mega production.

Within the first 30 seconds of frontman Oli Sykes making his way on stage, confetti was blasted from two cannons on either side of the stage, which exceeded the already high bar that was set by Underoath’s energy packed set. The band opened with “Happy Song”, the first single that was released off of That’s The Spirit, which Sykes says is “about making light out of a shitty situation”, as stated on the track by track commentary version of That’s The Spirit.

The band followed “Happy Song” with “Go to Hell, for Heaven’s Sake” and “The House of Wolves”, which are two songs off of Sempiternal, the album that launched the band into an era of new sound, as previously stated. The addition of Jordan Fish, the band’s programming and keys player, has also helped with this new revitalization; he’s brought a new techno type element to BMTH, adding even more a punch to their new sound. The band seems to have left their old hardcore, constant screaming sound behind for a new sound that seems to appeal to a broader audience, but still incorporating some of the signature Sykes screaming. It’s almost as if the band is pretending that their first three albums (Count Your Blessings, Suicide Season, and There Is A Hell Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is A Heaven Let’s Keep It A Secret) never existed. However, in the middle of their Philly set, they made it quite clear that they haven’t forgotten their roots when the band went right into playing “Chelsea Smile,” and Sykes screamed the beginning line, “I’VE GOT A SECRET”. “Chelsea Smile” is the second song off of Suicide Season and one of the band’s most famous songs.

After a brief blast from the past with the help of some heavy guitar riffs in “Chelsea Smile”, BMTH brought it back to their new, reinvented sound and played the rest of their set with songs off of their two most recent albums, ending their with “Throne”, one of the singles off of That’s The Spirit but returning to encore with “True Friends,” “Oh No” and “Drown,” after which the crowd was showered yet again with another blast of confetti, where four huge lit up letters, B.M.T.H., could be seen through it all. Check out more photos from the show below!

Underoath setlist:

Everyone Looks So Good From Here
In Regards to Myself
It’s Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door
A Moment Suspended in Time
A Boy Brushed Red Living in Black and White
Breathing In a New Mentality
Emergency Broadcast: The End Is Near
Illuminator
There Could Be Nothing After This
Reinventing Your Exit
Writing on the Walls

Bring Me The Horizon setlist:

Happy Song
Go to Hell, for Heaven’s Sake
The House of Wolves
Avalanche
Shadow Moses
Chelsea Smile
Follow You
Sleepwalking
Doomed
Can You Feel My Heart
Antivist
Throne

Encore:

True Friends
Oh No
Drown