Apocalyptic, traumatizing, and diseased vibes. These are the main moods of Bring Me the Horizon’s album Post Human: Survival Horror. The album is energetic, with a heavier sound than the previous album, Music To Listen To, and is littered with many collaborations with well-known artists such as the Japanese heavy metal band Babymetal in the song “Kingslayer,” as well as English Indie Rock artist Yungblud who appears in “Obey.”

Post Human: Survival Horror was created as a way to cope with the pandemic that seemed to put all artists and creators on a halt. 

“Dear Diary” starts out with an almost immediate jump into a crazy and heavy intro that gives off a very paranoid feeling. The lyrics are set up in a letter format as the narrator states in a fearful and confused manner: “Dear diary, I don’t know what’s going on, but something’s up. The dog won’t stop barking, and I think my TV is bust.” As the song progresses, Oli’s voice turns more gravelly and sick, narrating about the sickness taking over him in an almost zombie-esque view with the lyrics “I feel so hungry, what the hell is happening?” By the end of the song, the narrator is completely sick and the song slows down to a deep, pulsing beat. The vocals are brought down tenfold to an apathetic mutter, explaining the apocalypse completely taking over, as well as him being completely diseased.

“Parasite Eve,” although heavily inspired by the game of the same name by Hideaki Sena, fits perfectly into reality with COVID-19. Oli sings about the inevitability of the virus that has ultimately taken over. “This ain’t a warning, this is a war.” The music video is visually aesthetic with gruesome masks covering the band members’ faces that make them look like a mix between alien and human. Flashing lights strobe across the members as they move in sickly ways to look more diseased. The production is wonderful and creative, and watching them behind the scenes with creating the music video is entertaining, as they improvised heavily with COVID situations.

“Teardrops,” the third song in the album, switches the theme completely into a song about mental issues such as depression, anxiety, and drug addiction. The song was composed with the inspiration of Linkin Park, which was a very big inspiration for the creation of Bring Me the Horizon as a whole. They show their respect for the band with “Teardrops” as well as another title that stands as an interlude for the song “Kingslayer,” the sixth song in the album. “Teardrops” isn’t as heavy as “Dear Diary,” but the lyrics are unapologetically honest “We hurt ourselves for fun. Force-feed our fear until our hearts go numb. Addicted to a lonely kind of love.” 

After “Teardrops,” the songs suddenly become very political. “Obey,” which features Yungblud, is about how the system that man falls under is brainwashing and ultimately will not save us in the end. They give the message that we will never be truly free when we are stuck under this system. They sing from the point of view of the oppressor, telling the listeners. “There’s nothing to see here, it’s under control. We’re only gambling with your soul. Obey, Whatever you do, just don’t wake up and smell the corruption.” 

After the interlude “Itch for the Cure,” which is a play on Linkin Park’s song “Cure for the Itch,” comes in “Kingslayer,” featuring Babymetal. The phrase “kingslayer” is a reference to someone that brings a change in a positive manner, which ties into the theme of the song that Oli conveyed. He sings to the audience along with Babymetal that the people they are falling to are ultimately using the people for their own benefit, calling the audience puppets being controlled by the bigger people in the lyrics: “You’re a puppet when they cut your strings off, Don’t come crawling back you’re on your own.” The song stands as “an ode to someone who’s willing to do what’s right even if it’s illegal,” as Oli Sykes has said in an interview with NME.

Bring Me the Horizon then comes in with yet another collaboration, this time with a lesser-known pair called Nova Twins, in the song “1×1.” “1×1” sings about the guilt and sorrow that comes with one’s past actions. It’s a song that’s easy to relate to and is pretty general with its meaning, but that doesn’t take away from the talent of Oli Sykes’ lyricism.

The second to last song is an interesting one, as the song was created for a video game called Death Stranding. The song references this game with its title “Ludens,” which in the video game is a mask that a game character wears that has Ludens text on the forehead. The song states how we need to be our own heroes in our lives as well as taking a political view on taking on a different form of leadership, which is the theme of Death Stranding.

The last song, which is my favorite song when it comes to the meaning behind the lyrics, is a lengthy title: “One Day The Only Butterflies Left Will Be In Your Chest As We March Towards Our Death.” The song, ironically, is short. It features another big inspiration for Bring Me the Horizon, Amy Lee of Evanescence, and the mix of Oli and Amy’s voices is close to angelic. The song is from two points of view: Mother Nature and humanity. Oli stands as humanity, who realizes way too late that the Earth they’ve destroyed is dying and ultimately, we have killed ourselves. Amy sings as Mother Nature, telling humanity that they had done this to themselves and that humanity cannot survive without her, but she can survive without them. The song is a serenading, depressing, and honest view of how we humans are killing Earth, and how we’re running out of time faster than we believe.

Post Human: Survival Horror is an amazing, breathtaking album that became one of the few albums where I enjoy every song without hesitation. Each song is thought of intricately, and different views and stories make it very interesting. The energy and variety of genre from ballads to thrash metal is unique, and I love it. If you want a new view of rock music and experimental music, I would recommend this entire album.