Bring Me The Horizon — Parasite Eve: ‘Video game-inspired track turned into a pandemic anthem’
Please remain calm. The end has arrived.
If you think that it sounds overly nihilistic, because it is.
Bring Me The Horizon welcomes their first installment, ‘Parasite Eve’ for their highly anticipated project, ‘Post Human.’
As the single came right in time as we navigate our lives in the pools of uncertainties, it is easy to imagine that people would presume that we don’t need this kind of negativity anymore.
But, is it true, though?
Bring Me The Horizon is not here to take an advantage of the situation by being fear-mongering preachers.
Despite the fact that the single is scarily relevant to our new reality, the single was originally inspired by the survival horror PlayStation game with the exact same name. However, the British rockers decided to tweak it as soon as the band realized there are so many parallels between the song and our current situation, accompanied with its jarring apocalyptic music video. Voila. It is majestic.
This is not the band’s first time channeling their enthusiasm for video games, as the band’s enthusiasm for video games is abundantly present in their other tracks such as Shadow Moses (inspired by Metal Gear Solid) and Ludens (inspired by Death Stranding). Sonically, it’s not something that is entirely different to what they have done in the past, but message-wise, ‘Parasite Eve’ gets as surprising as they get.
You can feel the intensity the moment the song even in the first few seconds of the track starts. Accompanied with the Bulgarian monologue, we have no clue where they are taking us. Are they going back to their deathcore roots? Or is it going to be similar bangers like ‘amo’? Probably it’s a little bit of both. And it’s brilliant. Crafted with robotic sci-fi tones, who would’ve thought that it’s going to be a satirical anthem that manifests the current state of the world?
Some artists might try to drive safely instead of taking a risky road, but when I think of Bring Me The Horizon, I always admire their experimental and fearless quality by exploring a wide-range of musical styles. With their strong metalcore background, they were not afraid to jump into the bandwagon of electronic-pop with ‘amo.’
“You can board up your windows, you can lock up your doors, but you can’t keep washing your hands of this shit anymore”
Other than being masters at metaphorical wordplay that hits too close to home, BMTH is unafraid to challenge their identity, you know, but not only representing themselves with a singular identity. BMTH is multifaceted.
Looking through this brilliant concept and their EP title, ‘Post Human’, seems like that they are not going the ‘amo’ way.
Which is fantastic.
As Oliver Sykes said it himself, ‘The world does not need optimistic music right now. The world needs more and needs to think about it and remember. You can’t just brush over it and expect life to go back to normal, because it fucking ain’t. In so many ways, we need to change. That’s what rock music is about — addressing the dark side and processing it.”’
With the anticipated project, my guess is that it would be a critique revolving around worldwide issues, nature of human beings, climate change, politics et cetera. Might be some kind of like Black Mirror-esque of an album that makes you contemplate the whole situation in blatant isolation.
But let’s see. One thing I’m certain is that ‘Post Human’ is not going to be all glittery and rosy, but I’m up for it.
