Don't Keep This Record a Secret

British death metal titans Bring Me the Horizon have spent the better part of the last two years quite literally taking America by storm. Stints on the Vans Warped Tour and Taste of Chaos, as well as a couple of successful headlining tours, have propelled the band to the top of the extreme music heap on an international scale. The success of their sophomore album Suicide Season was the Cinderella sleeper hit of 2008, and the unlikely heroes found themselves riding an unlikely wave of success into 2010 never before seen by such a heavy band. Partially due to the controversy that follows charismatic, heavily tattooed frontman Oli Sykes wherever he goes, Bring Me the Horizon's buzz was heavy and the follow up to Suicide Season was heavily anticipated by fans and critics alike. As much as their fan base had expanded, there was also no shortage of haters waiting in the wings for the band to fall flat on their face for the follow up. 

What Bring Me the Horizon followed up with was There Is A Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It, There Is A Hell, Let's Keep It A Secret. Aside from the obscenely long album title, Bring Me the Horizon have done pretty well for themselves. The addition of former I Killed the Prom Queen and Bleeding Through guitarist Jona Weinhofen has beefed up the band's sound considerably; Weinhofen adds some seriously catchy, chunky riffs to the mix that have amped the songs in a way that previous guitarist Curtis Ward never could. The band has always had a bit of an electronic side to it, but it has never been quite so prevalent as on Heaven. Every song on the record has a computerized thump lurking in the background, and the curveballs don't stop there. BMTH have brought in clean vocals for the first time, utilizing the singer from You Me At Six and Canadian songstress Lights for a little added melody as well as bringing in a choir on the first track, "Crucify Me" and some violin on "Don't Go." 

As good as this record is, it's not without its pitfalls. Sykes lyrics are pretty awful, as they always have been. The frontman screeches and bellows in vague, contrived metaphors with excessive needless profanity. Sometimes it's like he couldn't come up with any other words, so he just drops an f-bomb right in the middle of a verse. The band balance subgenres well; "Home Sweet Hole" has a vague punk rock vibe, not unlike the way Parkway Drive subtly cribs their breakneck drum beats from old Bad Religion records. "Alligator Blood" is anthemic thrash, like Weinhofen's former employers Bleeding Through covering an old Entombed song.

Bring Me the Horizon are great at building moments. Subdued verses turn into bombastic choruses that stick in your head despite Sykes' jarring, confrontational vocals. In terms of the current death metal scene, Bring Me the Horizon have established themselves as true masters of the genre. Love them or hate them, for whatever reason, these young Brits have really turned out some quality material and manage to stand out from the pack in a genre that so often suffers from stifling sameness. For Sykes and the gang, Heaven is another step in the right direction and a perfectly acceptable chapter in their already illustrious career as Great Britain's go to purveyors of abrasive metal.