Bring Me The Horizon albums ranked: From worst to best

It’s hard to believe that Bring Me The Horizon formed nearly 20 years ago. The Sheffield-born quintet initially rose to prominence when the members were barely out of high school and would quickly become poster boys leading the deathcore invasion of the mid to late 2000s — making headlines along the way from their visceral sound, firebrand vocalist Oli Sykes, and their debaucherous antics. While many were quick to dismiss Bring Me The Horizon as just another flavor of the month mall-metal band that would only appeal to angsty adolescents before fizzling out, they found a way to cement themselves as unlikely heroes who saved the scene and won over the mainstream masses, gatekeepers, and critics alike. 

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So how did the once polarizing group of lads in Bring Me The Horizon become one of the most celebrated and critically acclaimed acts in modern rock and metal? For starters, the band, comprised of Sykes, Lee Malia (guitar), Jordan Fish (keyboards/programming), Matt Kean (bass), and Matt Nichols (drums), were dead set on proving to the world that they were fearless in every sense and favored innovation over complacency. With each album, Bring Me The Horizon would further push the sonic boundaries of their core sound, blur the lines between genres, and bridge the gap between melodic accessibility and avant-garde experimentation. 

Here we ranked Bring Me The Horizon’s seven studio albums.

7. Count Your Blessings (2006)

Bring Me The Horizon’s debut album, Count Your Blessings, is both extremely raw and often polarizing. With admittedly outdated lyrical matter on several tracks, including “Pray For Plagues” — as well as a host of ridiculous song titles such as “Tell Slater Not to Wash His Dick” and “For Stevie Wonder’s Eyes Only,” the Sheffield boys were seething with adolescent angst and unbridled rage over Black Dahlia Murder-inspired guitar riffs that are a far cry from the melodic genre-bending band we now know and love today

That is not to say that it isn’t an enjoyable album. It undeniably has a scrappy charm which put a specific brand of deathcore on the map that would inspire legions of imitators in its wake. Seventeen years later, whenever the band resurrects a classic song like “Pray For Plagues” at their live shows, it is still hard to hold back the urge to hit the circle pit and relive the glory of the Myspace days all over again. 

6. Suicide Season (2008)

On Suicide Season, Bring Me The Horizon successfully avoided the sophomore slump by penning a genre-defining metalcore album that still holds up just as strong nearly thirteen years later. After enlisting acclaimed metal producer Frederik Nordström (At The Gates, Arch Enemy, In Flames), Bring Me The Horizon made the trek to Gothenburg, Sweden, to refine their visceral sound into something a little more palatable and expansive. 

While the album contains its fair share of unrelenting metallic blasts (“Football Season Is Over” and “Diamonds Aren’t Forever”), the band also began to tread into new territory with the incorporation of everything from electronic elements (“Chelsea Smile” and “The Comedown”) — to more melodic sensibilities on tracks such as “The Sadness Will Never End,” which features beloved Architect’s frontman Sam Carter providing clean vocals. Suicide Season was a bold new step in the band’s career and helped legitimize them amongst critics and fans alike. 

5. There Is a Hell Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is a Heaven Let’s Keep It a Secret (2010)

There is much to unpack about Bring Me The Horizon’s third album, There Is a Hell Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is a Heaven Let’s Keep It a Secret, even beyond its exceedingly long title. The album as a whole possessed a more orchestral sound, with elements of post-rock and ambient electronica mixed in that served as the perfect backdrop for vocalist Oli Sykes’ anguish-filled lyrics. In many ways the final coda to the band’s true metalcore era, they most certainly capped off this period with a bang, from the moody opening track “Crucify Me,” which features electronics from Skrillex to the album’s frantic lead single “It Never Ends.” 

The album features a host of exceptional guest vocalists as well, including Canadian pop star Lights (“Don’t Go” and “Crucify Me”), along with scene staples Josh Franceschi of You Me at Six on the homesick anthem, “Fuck,” and The Chariot frontman Josh Scogin on the album’s blistering closer “The Fox and the Wolf. If There Is a Hell Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is a Heaven Let’s Keep It a Secret proved that the band feels right at home when dwelling in the darkest corners of their minds.  

4. That’s the Spirit (2015)

Bring Me The Horizon’s major label debut That’s the Spirit contains arguably some of their strongest and most iconic songs to date, including the heart-wrenching ballads “Drown” and “Follow You” — to the arena-ready singles “Throne” and “Happy Song” which all remain permanent staples in the band’s setlist today. However, as a complete listening experience, there are a few missteps on the record that, unfortunately, hold the album back from claiming the top spot. While they nailed both the opening and closing tracks with “Doomed” and “Oh No,” songs such as “True Friends” and “Blasphemy” felt like a step back; plus, songs like “Run and “What You Need” were simply not as gripping in retrospect when stacked up against their counterparts. 

3. POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR (2020) 

With POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR, Bring Me The Horizon managed to make a solid “pandemic record” that not only touched on the bleak times and collective anxieties we all faced — but utilized the physicality of lockdowns to craft one of their most ambitious bodies of work to date. Recorded remotely while social distancing in their homes, Bring Me The Horizon did not sacrifice cohesion and worked tirelessly to bridge the gap between their classic and modern sounds to stunning results. From the barn burner opening track “Dear Diary,” which finds the band subtly harkening back to their deathcore roots, to the dystopian rock of “Parasite Eve” and the chilling nu-metal despair of “Teardrops,” Bring Me The Horizon proved that visceral music can still be catchy as all hell. 

The album is also rife with stellar guest contributors, including Doom composer Mick Gordon, along with Japanese pop-metal band BABYMETAL, YUNGBLUD, Nova Twins, and Evanescence bandleader Amy Lee. POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR is like a gripping disaster film you cannot help but watch repeatedly because it’s simply too much fun. 

2. Sempiternal (2013)

For many diehard fans, Sempiternal was Bring Me The Horizon’s magnum opus. Not only did it establish a new era for the band as they acquired keyboardist and producer Jordan Fish, who would add a fresh new dimension to the band’s eclectic sound, but it also was the first time fans ever got to hear Sykes tackle clean and melodic vocals after years of primarily sticking to guttural screams. Sempiternal has it all — moody post-rock (“And the Snakes Start to Sing”) and angsty thrash metal (“Antivist” and “The House of Wolves”), as well as electronic-tinged post-hardcore numbers like “Sleepwalking” and “Can You Feel My Heart” — the latter of which has seen a recent resurgence on TikTok and now stands as one of their most streamed tracks to date. 

Lyrically, Sykes was at his most vulnerable, with most songs chronicling the larger-than-life frontman’s well-documented struggles with substance misuse and the subsequent journey to recovery. Even through the dark subject matter, Sykes makes peace with trauma and offers a welcomed glimmer of hope. 

1. amo (2019)

While many will cry blasphemy seeing Bring Me The Horizon’s 2019 full-length amo claim the top spot, it is their boldest material for many reasons. Perhaps the biggest strength of amo is the sheer array of sound that it encompasses, from the ’90s rave banger “nihilist blues” which features experimental pop star Grimes — to “heavy metal,” a snarky track that pokes fun at metal elitists over beatboxed vocals courtesy of Rahzel (formerly of The Roots). As soon as the experimental opening track, “I apologise if you feel something,” kicks in, it is instantly clear that Bring Me The Horizon operates on an entirely different level than most of their musical peers. 

Sykes rarely even attempted to scream on amo, focusing on infectious hooks and pop sensibility. At the same time, the band relied heavily on stuttering synth lines and trap drums in the absence of guitar riffs and blast beats. amo primarily covers themes of infidelity and heartbreak, especially on “medicine” and “in the dark,” but still manages to offer hopeful romantic ballads as well with the radio-ready single “mother tongue. In many ways, Bring Me The Horizon were at their most self-aware with this release, and the result is a record that sounds like a labor of love.