Welcome to NeX GEn... the wait is finally over. Today, British rock band, Bring Me The Horizon, release their new album, NeX GEn, via Sony/RCA.
NeX GEn is the latest chapter in the series to be revealed and sees the band expanding both musically and conceptually. Following on from 2020’s Post Human: Survival Horror - which featured collaborations with Yungblud, Nova Twins, Babymetal and Evanescence’s Amy Lee, and includes the huge hit singles "Teardrops" and "Obey". Sonically the album hits heavy, whilst frontman Oli’s vocals are his most melodic to date.
Bring Me The Horizon entered 2024 with an explosive start having played to over 140,000 fans in the UK & Ireland on their biggest UK arena tour to date, winning the BRIT Award for Best Alternative/Rock Act, announcing their first stadium show in São Paulo, Brazil and now the surprise release of their new album, which has already caused a global frenzy since appearing online last night.
The first part of the Post Human series, Survival Horror was recorded during the first COVID lockdowns, almost entirely remotely, and leaned into the band’s heavy side to express its feelings of anger, fear, emptiness and despair. Of NeX GEn, singer Oli Sykes says that it’s searching for something more hopeful, if not entirely positive in and of itself. Fittingly, the music this time – already previewed in huge singles "Kool Aid", "DiE4u", "AmEN!" and "DArkSide" – has an even more euphonic, post-hardcore-inflected stripe, while still bursting with the band’s unique, forward-thinking creativity.
Oli adds the album took “ages to write”. Partly, this is down to the band thinking that lockdown would last much longer than it did. When it lifted, they quickly found their schedules full with touring the world and headlining festivals such as Reading & Leeds (where they were joined by Ed Sheeran for their collaborative hit "Bad Habits"), hosting and headlining NEX FEST in Japan, Download Festival in the UK, Good Things in Australia and When We Were Young and Sick New World in Las Vegas.
But it’s also down to the concept quickly growing into something bigger than its creators originally imagined. Post Human: Survival Horror became far more of an event than the band had envisioned upon release, and crafting its follow-up required much bigger thinking than first anticipated.
There is so much to unwrap under the surface of the album for those who can spot it. “It's a real concept album, with a full narrative that connects to the first record, but the concept is hidden and buried,” he says. “Some people aren’t going to be interested, but for some people it could be like a self-help book. There’s a lot of things in there, some of it’s quite clear, but a lot of it cryptic and hidden. People are gonna have to work it out.”
Not that Bring Me The Horizon are looking backward. As ever, NeX GEn is the work of a band unafraid to challenge both themselves and the musical world in which they have become leaders.
Once again, others will follow. Prepare for the evolution.
Tracklisting:
"[ost] dreamseeker"
"YOUtopia"
"Kool-Aid"
"Top 10 staTues tHat CriEd bloOd"
"liMOusIne" ft AURORA
"DArkSide"
"a bulleT w/my namE On ft Underoath"
"[ost] (spi)ritual"
"n/A"
"LosT"
"sTraNgeRs"
"R.i.p" (duskCOre RemIx)
"AmEN!" (feat. Lil Uzi Vert & Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw)
"[ost] puss-e"
"DiE4u"
"DIg It"
"Kool-Aid" lyric video:
