vote
8.0
He finally saw the light, suddenly. We don’t know if because he was actually held hostage by the producer/keyboard player Jordan Fish, now a cumbersome ‘ex’ of the British, but certainly this second part of the “Post Human” project had a long and troubled management, with the first single “Die 4 U” even released in September 2021.
Such a tormented process could lead to a fragmented or qualitatively fluctuating project, but this does not happen when Oliver Sykes is at the helm, who with great stubbornness not only remains faithful to the plan, delivering the second chapter of a series created as a quick pandemic exchange , but wraps up an ambitious, multifaceted and multifaceted vision in a coherent record from start to finish.
We had already absorbed six tracks over a long period of time, now we find ourselves faced with a long sensorial assault, loud, layered and with a color palette never seen before, even from a band that has often been accused of having abandoned heavy music for repeated incursions in rock and pop territories. Today BMTH strongly challenge this solution by considerably extending the ‘leaps’ between genres and making them a defining characteristic, filtering different musical trends through their taste and their writing ability and preferring a very rich approach, hypersaturated to the limit with chaos.
Moving on from Post Malone, My Chemical Romance, Glassjaw and Babymetal, a dimension very close to Deftones is added to these hints, but if the results are as sensational as the incredible “Limousine” the complaints are easily disintegrated: this is because the hyperproduction of ” Nex Gen” is a sophisticated and layered work on nevertheless winning compositions, which would have successfully resonated in arenas even with Jordan Fish’s more elegant approach.
Sykes in this case, aware of the weight of the former keyboard player, gives ground to his companions but, as a person prone to addictions (be they drugs or collaborators), leaves great space to the one who is the least celebrated architect of this success : we are talking about the Japanese Daisuke Ehara, guitarist and producer of Paledusk, from whom the current BMTH inherits schizophrenia, sound stratification, compositional madness and that patina of hyperpop that acts as a guiding element within the tracklist. The crossover with this genre, avant-garde but relatively obscure, trendy but far from the charts, is evident in the general maximalist approach, in the glitches, in the artificial and cartoonish aesthetics and in the ultra-processed sounds.
Let’s add, as the icing on the cake, that it is a record without dead moments and slip-ups, but above all an extremely fun record, capable of proving itself up to the creative standards required of the band – “Amen” and “Top 10…” in they are an example. If we add a charismatic frontman, a profound mastery of social media and the ability to reflect a digitally overloaded society, it is easy to understand the incredible success of a band that has always been ahead of its time.
The wait was amply rewarded: this monster with a thousand contrasts and brightness, which bombards the senses and changes shape continuously, represents the latest evolution of a band that is always at the forefront, with followers who are still trying to copy ” Sempiternal”. If you believe that belonging and dedication to a single musical genre are indispensable, then listening is not even worth considering. Those who manage to overcome this obstacle will be able to enjoy yet another target hit by a band that is still very inspired and constantly growing, which despite what it may seem still has a significant weight in the heavy scene, managing once again to involve, to renew itself , to look ahead.
