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As a band, Bring Me the Horizon have been on a consistently upward trajectory, adding new elements to their metal core offerings in an effort to stand out from the rest of the pack in an interesting way. On their third album, There Is a Hell Belive Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven Let's Keep It a Secret, the Sheffield band's hard work pays off. Where other bands seem to have their production inflicted upon them, shoehorning in dance-pop synths and ubiquitous bass bombs, Bring Me the Horizon seamlessly integrate studio tricks into their music. Rather than feeling like items on a list of genre clichés, the glitched out vocals on "Crucify Me" and "Blacklist" actually add an interesting element of controlled chaos to the songs. These may not seems like a huge leap, but it's little touches like these that push There Is a Hell above the competition. The album doesn't live and die on studio trickery alone, though. Bring Me the Horizon bring a ton of intensity to the table with their songwriting, merging grimy hardcore punk with technical metal. The twist is that they don't bloat the songs out with breakdown after breakdown, but instead break them up with quieter, plaintively atmospheric passages. This helps to combat the "breakdown fatigue" that plagues so many albums, allowing the heaviest parts of the songs to have the proper impact. There Is a Hell finds Bring Me the Horizon at the top of their game, and its lack of over-indulgent production makes it an album that'll not only please fans of the band, but may surprise fans of bands like Converge who are interested in seeing what the kids are up to these days. ~ Gregory Heaney
