Every generation seemingly produces one or two metal bands that inexplicably infuriate the scene's more diehard corners. From Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit to Ghost, Babymetal and Sleep Token, artists that are deemed to not look/sound/feel metal enough spark deranged online debates whenever they're covered by major rock outlets.
Few bands in history, however, caused quite a stir upon arrival like Bring Me The Horizon. The Sheffield mob attracted near-unprecedented levels of both adoration and disgust as they began to blow up in the UK and beyond, many traditional metalheads seemingly unable to get past their Myspace-friendly aesthetic no matter how heavy their music was (and believe us: when Bring Me The Horizon fancy it, they know how to go heavy). The haters lost in the end, of course: Bring Me would go on to become one of the biggest UK metal bands of all time, eventually headlining rock and metal Mecca Download to widespread acclaim in 2023.
Thirteen whole years before that history-making appearance, however, Metal Hammer was waving the flag for the Yorkshire collective, determined to show the metal world that despite their trendy image, Bring Me's music more than merited inclusion in the world's biggest metal mag.
In 2010, Hammer sent some staff to Bloodstock, the UK's most metal outdoor festival, armed with a pair of headphones and some Bring Me The Horizon tracks. Their mission? To see if metal's most respected figureheads would approve of the band's music without knowing who'd actually written it.
Opeth mainman Mikael Åkerfeldt, Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier, two members of Obituary and the one and only Devin Townsend were amongst the metal heroes that took part. Here's what they had to say...
Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth)
“It sounds like John Tardy on vocals, but the music doesn’t sound like Obituary. I liked it, it’s grooving and heavy....it's Bring Me The Horizon? Really?! I never heard their music before. I’ve heard of them, but not their music. So I am a fan of BMTH! I didn’t mind it at all, it didn’t irritate me – I liked the production. I liked that it was slow.”
Dino Cazares (Fear Factory)
“It’s hard to judge after only hearing a few minutes, but it sounds pretty cool… I like what the guitar riff is doing. I mean, it’s really heavy, but I’d really have to hear more. Bring Me The Horizon? Oh, well, now I know who it is, no, I’m not into it, ha ha ha!”
Alexi Laiho (Chidlren Of Bodom)
“The vocals are like Obituary, I know it’s not them but, they sound a bit like that. It could be new or old school I guess, but I’ll go old school.” IT’S BMTH “Really?! Ha ha! What the fuck happened? But then Vanilla Ice made a metal album too. I quite like the vocals, they were pretty cool. That was a surprise!”
Joe Duplantier (Gojira)
"I liked it. It’s not really my cup of tea but it’s very well done, energetic. I like the energy about it. I like the tuning. It’s Bring Me The Horizon? Really? I didn’t imagine that they would sound like that. I met the guys, very nice guys.”
Trevor Peres (Obituary)
“That’s some heavy shit, man. It kind of reminds me of the whole metalcore thing, a little bit. I don’t really listen to much modern metal – I prefer stuff like Reign In Blood, old-school black and death – but this is pretty killer....I don’t know Bring Me The Horizon, but I guess I didn’t expect them to look like that."
Ralph Santola (Obituary)
“That was heavy as fuck! I love the production, the riffs are killer; I love that kind of stuff that’s, like, really fucking heavy, but with a groove. Bring Me The Horizon? I’ve never heard of them, but it was awesome!”
Devin Townsend
“I can tell when people are faking if they’ve got problems and this guy’s got problems....it's Bring Me The Horizon? Cool! I know Jona [Weinhofen, former BMTH guitarist] because I produced Bleeding Through’s album. I’ve never been bothered by BMTH’s image – I find that people who look like that make so many different types of music. I don’t listen to a lot of metal nowadays because a lot of it’s not that good, but I really like this. Tell Jona that I said ‘awesome!’"
...so there you have it. While Bring Me The Horizon may have evolved away from much of their heavy roots in recent years, there can be no doubting that they've belonged in the metal scene pretty much from the start.
