Bring Me The Horizon Pulls You Into Its Undertow

Break down the fourth wall...common in acting as a way to let the audience in on the world of a movie/TV program. For metalcore-slanted Brits Bring Me The Horizon their drummer proves skilled at getting us into their fractured psyches almost on contact. "Drown" hobbles on unsteady legs, managing to fill us up with its toxic ache in record time. Matt Nicholls is to be given plentiful pats on the back for knowing how to handle us after he's succeeded in grabbing our attention. Behind the kit he's an absolute battering ram. Rarely is there space employed to come up for air. Not a big deal. Matt lumbers away in such calculating fashion that his unseen glare would scare the crap out of lesser mortals. Then there's the matter of vocalist Oliver Sykes. You can tell he's Mister Glass Half Full from his opening comment "What doesn't kill you makes you wish you were dead". Somebody get this dude a ticket to Build A Bear Workshop...stat. He has an advanced case of the frowns. After the song trips into third and then fourth gear Oliver's palpable unease invades him top to bottom. His yelps aren't the work of someone whose elevator goes to the top floor. Lee Malia's very proficient with his guitar. His ace in the hole stems from his delicate strokes whereas his instrument's reputation lies largely on over the top exhibitionism. Not so for Lee. He merely tries to hold on tight like a water skier who fears plunging into the drink with every fiber of his being. Bassist Matt Kean commands a bigger spotlight since he's the brawn giving Lee an added kick in the pants at crucial junctures. Repeated in the lyrics we notice Oliver begging for us to save him from himself. Common enough plea. Who among us doesn't need to be tugged away from the dramas lurking inside. I am taken with Oliver's candor. He's got the stones to go against cultural type and claim no, things are not alright, things are not OK. Why the fist bump? How many times have you been in an ever so brief social encounter with someone who says they're alright when in fact there's something, or perhaps many things eating at him/her? It's not grown-up to be that out in the open. Suffer in silence...that's what real men do, right? Oliver shrieks what many of us wish we were that uninhibited to say. Reality flings plenty of less than okey dokey manure at us. The brave thing would be to say "No, I'm in several dimensions of hell!! That's not cool!! I don't care how I'm judged!!" Oliver represents the emotionally bottled among us perfectly. The video gives us reason to believe that these blokes have a sense of humor. Twisted or not that's useful in taking the jagged edges off of a composition featuring a Brit who's in a losing, one-sided battle with his demons. Another dip into the quill pen of "Gee, that's eight different kinds of depressing" comes to us in the shape of: "What doesn't destroy you leaves you broken instead." I bet he's loads of fun on a blind date. How much Valium would need to be milling around inside him to get him anywhere within spitting distance of jocular? Is it the British gray weather that gets them like that or is Oliver an especially conflicted young waif for whom "It's going to be fine" rings blasphemous? If "Drown" was ever put into vinyl format it would come out of the jacket with icicles on the side. That's how chilly the air is inside Oliver and, by extension his band mates. They certainly gel from one kaleidoscopic fusion of helplessness to the next. What punch gets packed connects authoritatively. "Drown" as titles go gets into oxymoron territory. Oliver, despite his naked vulnerability emits some undeniable vitality. Bring Me The Horizon gets you smack in the middle of its shit storm and, strangely enough the manure aftermath isn't repugnant. Way to go, boys. You make flailing around in the water look as elegant as an Esther Williams synchronized ballet scene. "Drown" has the crunch to make worrisome waters, at least in the short term, potentially navigable.