You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.
There was a time when Count Your Blessings felt like the album Bring Me The Horizon wanted to leave behind. The Sheffield metalcore heavyweights' debut earned them a devoted MySpace following in 2006, yet simultaneously caused them to become one of the most divisive names in British metal. Tonight's full album playthrough feels like BMTH reclaiming their own history, with the newly-released Count Your Blessings | Repented breathing new life into tracks that formerly served as a gateway into deathcore.
The preceding bands on the lineup serve as a reminder of how fantastic metal is in 2026. Still In Love's Nick Worthington fronts a hardcore supergroup of former members of Dead Swans, Last Witness, and Brutality Will Prevail, alongside former BMTH guitarist Curtis Ward. The five-piece rip through a powerful set that incites a horde of stage divers, even in the astonishing humidity of the indoor stage.
With only two released tracks, Nashville's Showing Teeth blend melodic choruses with deathcore growls to win over a huge portion of the eager crowd. Dying Wish follow them, Emma Boster commanding the stage, stomping across it and calling for more crowdsurfers to surge forward. Olli Appleyard, meanwhile, can't contain his delight as Static Dress whip their audience into a frenzy that only intensifies when Showing Teeth and Dying Wish's Emma join them onstage.
After a short animated introduction which serves as both a health and safety warning and a threat ("As long as you listen, survival rates remain encouraging,") Bring Me The Horizon launch straight into Pray for Plagues without an ounce of theatrics. The brutality of these songs requires no arena polish, just an embrace of every blastbeat and over-the-top breakdown. Prior to the show, there were online murmurings over whether Oli Sykes would physically be able to perform the tracks as effectively as he could 20 years ago. Those doubts are dispelled from the first punishingly low growl.
Having no barrier for this duo of shows is certainly a bold choice, but it makes sense when watching the bodies launch forward, limbs flying, as Sykes gets more up close and personal with his audience than he's been able to in many years. It's a completely apt setting for the album that has become somewhat of a cult classic, loved by diehard fans but rarely acknowledged on stage.
Bring Me The Horizon could easily have put on a Post Human-style spectacle, but they've wisely decided to keep it stripped back and focus on the music. With the exception of some flames and a late-set confetti cannon, the production is minimalist, with only some backdrop visualisers to accompany the show's brutality. Watching thousands of fans with knees far less reliable than they were two decades ago bouncing around, screaming every word to songs that they assumed they'd never hear live again, creates a moment where heavy music's past and present collide.
A short encore sees the band blast through 2010's Blessed With a Curse, 2008's Suicide Season and Diamonds Aren't Forever, and 2004's RE: They Have No Reflections. It's a fitting series of deep cuts for the devoted fanbase that have made the pilgrimage, and a near-flawless way to round off the night's celebrations.
Bring Me The Horizon's debut was once lauded as immature noise, but now fills this vast space as though every lyric is deathcore gospel. After spending 20 years refusing to be defined by Count Your Blessings, BMTH have proven that it was never something to run from.
