Time is on Oli Sykes’ mind. Throughout the opening night of Bring Me The Horizon’s NX_GN WRLD TOUR at Cardiff’s Utilita Arena, the frontman rarely misses the opportunity to quip about ageing and nostalgia. In a heartfelt moment late in the set he reveals that, like many of the band’s early critics, “we didn’t think our band would last five years, let alone twenty.”
BMTH have proven their doubters wrong and then some. The four-piece are now a globe-conquering behemoth, one whose reach seems to still be growing, two decades on from their origins as the enfant terribles of deathcore. This tour will be the largest of their career, following a summer that saw them ascend to headliner status at Download Festival.
However, 2023 ended with some growing pains. Late in the year, following the news that the second instalment of their ‘Post Human’ release series – which began in 2020 – was delayed until the summer, the band parted ways with keyboardist and studio wiz Jordan Fish. Fish was a key figure in BMTH’s rise to genre-busting arena fillers from 2013’s ‘Sempiternal’ onwards, so his departure (along with the long-gestating new music) left a hint of uncertainty hanging over the band.
Not that you’d know it from tonight’s commanding spectacle. BMTH have always been brash, sometimes to a fault, but in the context of a live show these brazen tendencies are unleashed to thrilling effect. Amongst other OTT delights, the set features fire, hazmat-suited dancers and an on-screen character named EVE. It’s an unrelenting assault on the senses, one that shuffles through visual motifs (from a retrofuturist video game intro to gothic church backdrops) with the same wilful abandon as their unpredictable music.
The peak of this manic juxtaposition comes when, midway through the set, the band gather to perform a stripped-back rendition of the soulful ‘Strangers’. This moment of relative calm is immediately followed by ‘Diamonds Aren’t Forever’; a breakdown-strewn, giddily heavy cut from 2008’s ‘Suicide Season’. It’s a whiplash-inducing rip through BMTH’s timeline, but also a bluntly effective jolt to the senses.
Sykes eventually addresses the recent uncertainties in the band’s camp. In a strange interlude, the EVE character appears on screen and ‘asks’ Sykes about the progress of their new release. He alludes to “internal issues” and after unveiling some brief snippets of new songs, Sykes jokes that the new music may come out “in six years.”
Nonetheless, this show takes place firmly in the ‘Post Human’-verse. The set leans hard on newer tracks, with cuts like ‘Parasite Eve’ and ‘Kingslayer’ generating some of the wildest responses. The band give it their all, utilising the full dimensions of the stage, which now boasts extra space given the absence of Fish and his setup. The spotlight is, of course, often reserved for Sykes, who performs with the effortless confidence of a rock star in total command of his craft, even if, once you notice that his red suit resembles Eddie Murphy’s in Delirious; you can’t unsee it.
“I’m way too old for this shit,” Sykes announces during one of his many reflections on time and ageing. However, on the basis of tonight and in spite of any recent complications, the BMTH juggernaut is showing no signs of rust.
Bring Me The Horizon played:
‘DArkside’
‘Empire (Let Them Sing)’
‘MANTRA’
‘Teardrops’
‘AmEN!’
‘Kool Aid’
Shadow Moses’
‘Obey’
‘DiE4u’
‘Kingslayer’
‘sTrAnGeRs’
‘Diamonds Aren’t Forever’
‘Parasite Eve’
‘Antivist’
‘Drown’
‘Can You Feel My Heart’
‘Doomed’
‘LosT’
‘Throne’