Bring Me the Horizon Dives Headfirst Into the Abyss with Apocalyptic/Fascinating New Song/Video ‘Parasite Eve’

Please remain calm, the end has arrived. You bring the anxiety, Bring Me the Horizon will bring the soundtrack to the end of the world.

On Thursday, the shape-shifting English rock/metal/experimental/electronic band premiered a new song, “Parasite Eve,” and it’s quite an adventure. Lyrically and thematically relevant and visually bewildering and haunting, the video for the song features lightning-quick editing, jarring colors and bizarre visuals (an eight-armed CGI woman, for example).

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please remain calm, the end has arrived #parasiteeve

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Musically, the song picks up where Bring Me the Horizon’s 2019 album Amo left off, a mash-up of styles that coalesces together into a frantic frenzy of energy. Thematically, the song seems perfectly suited for these dark, twisted days caused by the COVID-19 pandemic:

it’s the Parasite Eve
gotta feeling in your stomach, ‘cause you know that it’s coming for you l
leave your flowers and grieve
don’t forget what they told you
when we forget the infection
will we remember the lesson
if the suspense doesn’t kill you
something else will

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=racmy7Y9P4M

“Parasite Eve” is the second new song premiered by Bring Me the Horizon in recent months, following 2019’s “Ludens”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9wvTuDC-H0

Interestingly, Bring Me the Horizon worked on “Parasite Eve” before the pandemic took hold. As front man Oli Sykes said in a new NME interview, the song’s inspiration came from Sykes reading about a Japanese superbug resistant to climate change. The band began recording it in February, but then hit a crossroads:

“We shelved the song for a bit because it felt bit too close to the bone. After sitting on it for a while, we realised that this was a reason to release it now more than ever. In our music we’ve always wanted to escape, but there’s been too much escapism and ignoring the problems in the world. It’s not what the world needs. The world needs more and needs to think about it and remember. You can’t just brush over it and expect life to go back to normal, because it fucking ain’t. In so many ways, we need to change. That’s what rock music is about – addressing the dark side and processing it.”

Sykes also revealed that Bring Me the Horizon has plans to release FOUR new albums in 2020, a series of releases under the title Post Human.

“The idea behind ‘Post Human’ is looking at how we’ve stepped out of evolution and the food chain,” he told NME. “If we can do that, then we can take responsibility for what we’ve done to the planet and become something better than what humans are right now.”

The band made waves in the music scene and earned a massive, dedicated fan base with its brand of heavy metal/metalcore, changing course dramatically in recent albums. 2015’s That’s the Spirit embraced more “mainstream” accessibility, while 2019’s Amo sounded like practically a different band entirely, elements of electronic/pop creeping into the mix as Sykes and the group forged a new path.

With “Parasite Eve,” Bring Me the Horizon seems focused on diving deep into new territory once again.