Concert Review: Bring Me The Horizon With Motionless In White, The Plot In You, and Amira Elfeky at CFG Bank Arena, Baltimore, MD

One of the most discussed topics among the musical landscape is the introduction of alternative subcultures into the mainstream. Everyone has their opinions on it, and there are pros and cons to many sides of the story. There’s the argument that with more and more people cashing in on alternative aesthetics, from goth inspired makeup and monochromatic fashion styles, the idea of what it means to be countercultural becomes diluted. However, I would like to argue that the introduction of anti- styles of music creates the capability for more interesting versions of what is happening right now, especially within the musical realm. If you keep looking around, there will be groups who do interesting work that might not have been put on your radar if you stopped looking in the first place. I’m only old enough to experience a little bit of it, but in the time I’ve spent watching it change with the increase of short form content and a radical switch in the consumption of music and art as a whole, my understanding of the musical ecosystem and what makes me interested in certain artists has completely changed.

Of course, the sources of inspiration can come from very popular acts, playing to masses of people at once and changing minds of people who’ve only seen music in one particular lens. Case in point: Sheffield-based metalcore quartet, Bring Me The Horizon.

The group appeared on my radar during a pretty quiet moment for the band back in 2017, giving me the chance to explore their career without feeling the recency bias involved with a certain album rollout. Part of Bring Me The Horizon’s success is due to their ability to always stay ahead of the curve, pivoting from one area to another before the rest of the pack can catch up. From their deathcore roots in 2006 to their pivot to metalcore with orchestra elements in 2010’s There Is A Hell Believe Me I’ve Seen It, There Is A Heaven Let’s Keep It A Secret to their full blown explorations of pop music in amo, it seemed like there was no ground that a rock band could touch that Bring Me The Horizon hadn’t at least scratched the surface of. 

Their journey has been just as interesting to watch as the fans' reactions, and their continued exploration into the future have begun to spill out from the music into other forms of media. With the release of their latest record, Post Human: Nex Gen, the Sheffield based quartet have begun rewriting the narrative of what it means to be a multi-disciplinary band, with characters like EVE and M8 so deeply woven into this iteration of the band that it becomes more than the music. As always, the best place to experience it is in front of your face, which is where i found myself in the CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. It’s been a while since I was fully clued in on the band’s actions, merely reducing my involvement to passing glances of nostalgia and casual listens as opposed to an all-seeing lens, so my curiosity for Leg 2 of their Ascension Program tour came in the form of how they would integrate the storytelling with playing songs, and more importantly whether they would sacrifice one for the other.

Before the show began, two large screens displayed the main menu for a fictional POST HUMAN: NeX GEN video game, along with segments of N64 style avatars of the members of the band fighting off zombies, filled with easter eggs to previous songs and a Metal Gear: Solid reference. At 8:45, the menu selected the extreme level of difficulty, and the lights went down. EVE, an AI sent to invoke Youtopia to the world, emerged on the screens, congratulating the audience on surviving long enough to make it to the final experiments of Nex-Gen. The curtain came down, revealing a Church of Genxsis backdrop behind a massive checkered stage. The group entered the church, bringing with them an explosion of confetti as they went into NeX GEn single “DArkSide.” From there, the group went into a selection of fan favorites from previous records, including what is now considered a Sempiternal deep cut “The House Of Wolves,” amo’s lead single “MANTRA,” and POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR’s “teardrops,” all of which were met with sing alongs, chaotic lighting, and crowdsurfing. 

While moshing is as essential to a Bring Me The Horizon show as amps are to electric guitars, That’s The Spirit’s “Happy Song” got the biggest wall of death I have ever seen in my life, partially due to the large floor of the CFG Bank Arena but also because of how involved the crowd was. Part of why cities like Baltimore are ripe for exciting crowd engagement is their dense population guarantees a great turnout, but the routing of most tours prefer to go to neighboring Northeast cities like New York, Philadelphia, Boston, or the neighboring DC, so when fans show up, they give it all they’ve got.

I got into the band during a time where Oli Sykes was unfortunately known for being somewhat rough live, as the damage he did to his vocal chords during the early days of the band had begun to impact his abilities on the stage. However, these last few records have provided the opportunities for Sykes to recover and hone his range, and I’m I’m delighted to say that he sounded more visceral than ever before, especially on tracks such as NeX GEn rager “AmEN!” The additional silver microphone provided the camera crew an opportunity to capture Sykes in a demonic form, causing the stage to appear like it was collapsing and the screens to completely shut down. After a short reset, EVE warned the audience to get out of the Church of GenXsis, as the demon known as Angeldust was headed towards the audience. In an impressive set of production design, a massive 3D demon burst through the screens and began destroying the pillars of the church as the band played the song “Kool-Aid.” At the end of the track, Angeldust ripped out their heart and fell lifeless onto the stage, with green smoke dissipating throughout the screens. As the smoke cleared, the red glow of the Sempiternal album cover began to appear as Oli Sykes brought out a flare and began to sing the call and response to “Shadow Moses.” The mosh pit was immediately receptive, with bodies flying around and crowdsurfing as soon as the guitars came in, and the audience’s titular call of “This Is Sempiternal” brought shivers down my spine.

After this display of brutality, the metalcore group brought a touch of emo to the setlist with the lead song from NeX GEn, “YOUtopia,” with Leg 2 of the tour acting as the live debut for the song. However, the calm of the song didn’t last for long, as EVE appeared again and introduced Operation Kingslayer, with Survival Horror industrial-glitch interlude “Itch For The Cure” playing as lasers began to move throughout the venue. As Oli cued the audience in, the guitars and drums slammed with the introduction of “Kingslayer,” bringing the type of fury that you really only get at a metal-adjacent show.

Another strength of the Bring Me The Horizon live show is that no matter how popular they get, they will never sacrifice the fan interactions that made them so beloved in the first place. A newer addition to the live set is the audience member singing Sempiternal’s “Antivist,” and at the CFG Bank Arena, the lucky participant was a man named Owen, who also happens to be the guitarist for the band Glasswaves. Oli’s hype surrounding the performance, as well as the audience interaction, bodes well for the future of this somewhat deep cut. Towards the end of the set, the group slowed down the action with “Follow You,” a deeply divisive single from That’s The Spirit upon release but has now become quite integral to the group’s trajectory. The live version of the song built up tremendously, starting quite minimalistic at first before exploding into a full fledged ballad with all the bells and whistles. From there, the group sped through the green lit hyperpop-emo anthem “LosT” before moving into the now seminal Bring Me The Horizon anthem, “Can You Feel My Heart.” The track brought out every ounce of energy in the audience’s voice, a firm reminder of how impactful their music has become to so many people.

The group ended the set with a three song run from That’s The Spirit, a beloved record that firmly cemented their place not only as one of the biggest metalcore, Warped Tour inspired bands but one of the biggest rock bands of the 2010s. As the audience began to chant for one more song, EVE showed up and told the audience they were all doomed before going into a touching montage of videos from music videos, live performances, and behind the scenes footage from Bring Me The Horizon’s shows, accompanied by the introduction to 2016’s Royal Albert Hall’s orchestral performance. From there, the group reemerged onto the stage under the light of the lasers for “Doomed.” The song wasn’t really meant to be a single, yet it latched onto so many listeners due to its melancholic, spacious production style that firmly conveyed the sonic atmosphere of nihilism, something that was fully encapsulated within this massive setting. Afterwards, Oli continued his audience interactions by holding up a camera during the song “Drown” and making his way through the barricade, hugging and high fiving many lucky fans. Finally, the show came to a close with the thunderous “Throne,” complimented with a massive stream of confetti and smoke during the final chorus.

The Post Human: NeX GEn album cycle has not only been an exploration to the future, but also as a way of reworking the past to fit the story of both the fictionalized Nex Gen universe and the band itself. After watching the live performance, I was amazed to see how these songs from years and years ago felt like stepping stones towards building out the story of these characters and also as integral moments for the Bring Me The Horizon we know today. In many ways, it feels like newer fans haven’t missed a beat and are joining the ride at the right time, and hopefully they feel inspired to create their own universes.

Bring Me The Horizon are wrapping up this leg of the tour, but a third leg of the Ascension Program is coming up towards the end of the year. You can purchase tickets at the link here.

Direct support for the tour once again went to fellow Warped Tour veterans Motionless In White. The Scranton-based metalcore group have been riding the success of their latest record, Scoring The End Of The World, and they walked into an arena full of people just as excited as they were. Much like Bring Me The Horizon, Motionless has been around for a very long time, with their longevity punctuated by a core fanbase that is more than willing to represent them at any given moment. They kept their setlist pretty focused on the record with highlights such as “Meltdown,” “Sign Of Life,” and the title track going over very well with audiences. They also played their new single “Afraid Of The Dark,” which was dedicated to every single person who stood by them at any point in their career.

A highlight of Motionless’ set went to their crushing performance of “Slaughterhouse,” with a surprise guest coming from Madison from the band Showing Teeth. Her feature on the song brought the dynamic the original provides to the live setting, and her screams right before the breakdown sent the entire room into chaos. Outside of these tracks, the band played a handful of songs prior to 2022, including Graveyard Shift’s LGBTQIA+ anthem “Voices” and the now integral ballad from Disguise, “Another Life.” Before the group played their final song, lead singer Chris Motionless said that this year would be a very busy one from the group and they hoped to see Baltimore soon right before going into “Eternally Yours.” The Graveyard Shift closer was a touching way to cap off a set full of excitement and emotion in the way that only Motionless In White can do.

Motionless In White is proof that the core is alive and well, with their 20 year anniversary as a band looking just as bright as ever. They just announced their new record Decades, and you can stream their new single “Playing God” here.

Turn on the lineup was the genre-bending post-hardcore band The Plot In You. The live show on the Ascension Program illustrated how their appeal doesn’t just come from crushing breakdowns, but from the mystique that surrounds them via their lyricism, surrealist imagery and into darker tones of strictly metalcore. From the second guitar started playing, there was instantly a hole on the floor in the form of one of the biggest mosh pits I've seen from an opening act. The group’s release strategy has been singles based instead of album space and they played a lot of their singles from their Volumes series over the last few years, including “Divide,” “You Get One,” “Forgotten,” which in particular was met with a ton of audience engagement. Vocalist Landon Tewers felt as nonchalant as ever, asking if the audience was ready to lose some IQ points during the night. The group were just playing heavy hitters though, as their song “Silence,” had a really interesting progression starting from Tewer’s acoustic guitar which built into an explosive middle section. They followed this with the ballot left behind and then closed their set with the only non-Volumes song, “FEEL NOTHING.”

The Plot In You continued to mystify just as much as ever, and now they have the crowds they’ve deserved for so many years. You can stream their music here

Opening the night was a newer artist in the alternative realm, Amira Elfeky. Taking the stage exactly at 6 PM, Elfeky’s performance was characterized with mystery due to the desaturated color palette in the lights and clothes of everyone on stage and the lack of stage banter in between. It was clear she wanted to speak for themselves, and they were just as beautiful as they were brutal. Elfeky’s catalogue might be small, but it’s certainly mighty, with songs like “Will You Love Me When I’m Dead” kicking off the set right and tracks like “Tonight” bringing out the first few dashes of earth shattering breakdowns in the night. It was a great tone setter for the night and a moment to remember as Elfeky rises in the alternative music world. You can listen to Elfeky’s Surrender EP here.