Bring Me The Horizon have built a career on emotional, introspective songwriting, and frontman Oli Sykes has been able to consistently connect with fans through his own willingness to open up and write candidly about his life, personal experiences and mental health battles. One of his most poignantly personal lyrical contributions has been that of Avalanche, one of the stand-out anthems from Bring Me's 2015 album, That's The Spirit.
Written following Sykes' time in rehab and inspired partly by an ADHD diagnosis he had recently received, the song deals with the overwhelming emotional turbulence the singer had been dealing with.
"I know so many people that have got very similar traits to me and I know people have got more serious things that are undiagnosed," he told Metal Hammer in 2015. "It's a really sucky thing, I think, when you're an adult, to have an undiagnosed mental illness like that, because people can just think, 'I don't know what to do with him', rather than going, 'Well, you know what, that's how he is because of X and Y', and deal with it.
"Sometimes all you need is just someone to go, 'You know what? I'm just like you,'" he added. "You know what I mean? 'I might not be ADHD but you know what? I feel just like that.' And Avalanche is all about how some feelings and emotions can just feel like the whole weight of the world on top of you, all-consuming."
Sykes went on to describe how his time in rehab exposed him to people with a variety of emotional and mental health issues, which he said was in itself something of a cathartic experience. "When I went to rehab and I decided not to do the twelve step program and just go to the general ward, I was surrounded by bulimic people, I was surrounded by people with gender issues, I was surrounded by schizophrenics, people with self harm [issues], you know, all this stuff," he explained. "The core emotions and feelings [they were] all going through, like, 'I feel exactly the same'. Just to feel not as mental as you did through that, it's such a great feeling because you're like, 'Oh, we're all fucked up! We're all messed up!' You know what I mean? There's no such thing as a normal person, is there? So that's what [Avalanche is] about, I guess."
Watch Oli's interview below.
Released on September 11 2015, That's The Spirit was Bring Me The Horizon's fifth studio album and saw the band experiment with indie, alternative rock and emo influences. The album received critical acclaim and bagged top five positions in the UK, US, Australia, Canada and Europe.
