Updated 05.21 | Published 02.12
SWEDEN ROCK It may be Sweden’s national day, but it’s the Brits in Bring Me The Horizon who ultimately steal the show on the fourth and final day of Sweden Rock.
The metalcore band’s festival debut is almost a hit – and a fantastic finale to the entire spectacle.
Bring Me The Horizon
Place: Festival Stage, Sweden Rock Festival. Audience: Many, but doesn’t really feel like a full set. 30,000 maybe? Length: 90 wonderful minutes. Best: “Kool-Aid”, “Can you feel my heart” and “Shadow moses”. Worst: For my part, the band can remove the Babymetal collaboration “Kingslayer” from the live repertoire. And that we are not invited to a track from the debut album, which will be released later this summer in a newly recorded version.
NORWAY. Metalcore, a fusion of metal and hardcore, has long been regarded as a curiosity rather than a legitimate music genre by self-proclaimed “connoisseurs” of the rock and metal scene.
Over the past two decades, the subgenre has grown into a sizzling global affair. Bring Me The Horizonwho have long had their sights set on the biggest stages, are now not only the world’s biggest metalcore act, but also one of the world’s biggest metal bands. It has only been a matter of time before the Sheffield sons come to Sölvesborg and Sweden Rock for the very first time.
It is the band’s first festival performance this summer, but the members already feel warm in their clothes. Not least the singer Oli Sykes who takes the Festival Stage with a poise, attitude and arrogance that is simply dazzling.
Magnus Owl has in turn already warmed up the crowd (there we have a sentence I never thought I’d write in a Bring Me The Horizon context). Most of them are on the sheet music the second “Darkside” starts.
Those who watched the group Sthlm Fields two summers ago recognize the stage construction and layout, although it has been slightly upgraded since last time.
The stage is dominated by multi-level platforms and giant screens that initially depict stained glass church windows in the Gothic style. The drummer Matt Nicholls securely anchored in the top right corner, the touring guitarist John Jones standing on the platform on the opposite side. The guitarist Lee Malia and the bass player Matt Keane hiding in turn on either side of singer Sykes on the stage floor.
In addition, there are plenty of pyrotechnics, confetti, sound effects, fireworks and computer game-inspired animations that often include a talking AI avatar named EVE Before the game, EVE scans the area for contraband and moshpits, among other things.
It feels super modern and looks super cool.
But sure. It wouldn’t hurt if they removed some pre-recorded features and instead poked another song or two into the tracklist. Suggested material from the debut album “Count your blessings” which surprisingly shines with its absence. In July, a newly recorded version of the album will be released, and a taster would probably have been in order.
I’m also convinced that the British music would do just fine without effects search. Songs like “Can you feel my heart”, “Kool-Aid” and “Shadow moses” are on their own better than all the pyrotechnics in the whole world.
All in all, it’s a festival debut called duga and a fantastic finale to the whole spectacle.
Bring Me The Horizon also belongs on Sweden Rock, it turns out.
To those of you who think otherwise, I say: go to bed.
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ALL THE SONGS
1. Darkside 2. The house of wolves 3. Mantra 4. Happy song 5. Teardrops 6. Amen! 7. Kool-Aid 8. Shadow Moses 9. Kingslayer 10. Antivist 11. Follow you 12. Can you feel my heart Encore: 13. Doomed 14. Drowned 15. Throne
