Early years and Count Your Blessings (2004–2007)

Early years and Count Your Blessings (2004–2007)

Bring Me the Horizon began in 2004 with members of many defunct bands from around their local area.^[5][6] They acquired their name based on a line taken from the film Pirates of the Caribbean, in which Captain Jack Sparrow shouts "Now... Bring me that horizon."[4] After slightly altering the original line, by simply changing 'that' to 'the', Bring Me the Horizon then became the official name of the band.

They are currently signed to Visible Noise Records, but were originally signed to Thirty Days of Night Records and were the first band to be signed to that label. The band are also signed to Epitaph Records in the US and to Shock Records in Australia. They released their debut album Count Your Blessings in October 2006 in the UK and in August 2007 in the United States. They have toured in the past with bands such as Lostprophets, The Blackout^[7]; Killswitch Engage and The Haunted^[8]. They performed a headlining tour of the UK during March and April 2007 with the now defunct metalcore band I Killed the Prom Queen. They played Download Festival 2007 in June also with Iron Maiden, Slayer, and others.^[9]

They also played the North American leg of the tour, including a guest appearance Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes on August 6 in Calgary. He joined Oli in chanting the start of their song "Diamonds Aren't Forever".

In November 2007 they toured on the Australian leg of Gigantour, playing three dates. They returned to Australia in May-June 2008, appearing on I Killed The Prom Queen's final ever tour.

Suicide Season and line-up change (2008–2009)

Bring Me the Horizon had been writing and recording a second studio album over the beginning of 2008. They had been in Sweden recording the album throughout April and May with Fredrik Nordström, who has worked with bands such as At The Gates, Arch Enemy, I Killed The Prom Queen and Dimmu Borgir. The album was released on September 29, 2008. Suicide Season is completely different to previous album Count Your Blessings, having a more metalcore vibe to it, similar to the debut EP release, This Is What The Edge Of Your Seat Was Made For.^{[citation needed]}

The band recently embarked on their first headline tour of the USA, as well as appearing in the 2008 Warped Tour. Bring Me the Horizon are also joined Mindless Self Indulgence, In Case Of Fire, Black Tide and Dir en grey on the Kerrang! and Relentless 2009 UK tour.^{[citation needed]} They are also set to join Thursday, Cancer Bats, Four Year Strong and Pierce the Veil on the Taste of Chaos 2009 North American tour.

It was announced on August 27, 2009 that Bring Me the Horizon will be releasing a remixed version of Suicide Season, titled Suicide Season: Cut Up, in the UK on November 2, 2009.^[10] In an interview with Rock Sound, Oliver Sykes stated that the idea came about after asking a friend to remix one of their songs, and after being very pleased with the end result the band decided to take it a step further and get the whole of Suicide Season remixed. Musicians and producers featured on the album includes Tek-One, Robot Sonic, Ben Weinman from The Dillinger Escape Plan, Outcry Collective, L’Amour La Morgue (Ian Watkins from Lostprophets), Utah Saints and Shawn Crahan from Slipknot. Sykes also stated that “There’s not a song on there that really sounds like the original. What’s great though is the diversity of each song. There’s dub-step to hip-hop, electro to drum and bass”^[11]

In March 2009, guitarist Curtis Ward left the band. A number of reasons have been cited for his departure: in an interview, bassist Matt Kean commented that "it became apparent he wasn't enjoying it" and that it was "just about commitment".^[12] In May 2009, Jona Weinhofen, formerly of I Killed The Prom Queen and Bleeding Through, joined the band on a temporary basis to fill-in for Curtis. However, it was revealed in July 2009 that he would become an official member of Bring Me the Horizon, partly due to his discontent with living in America, hence leaving Bleeding Through. According to Oliver Sykes in an interview on the subject, Weinhofen has injected the band with a new-found enthusiasm, causing the bands performances to be 'so much better and refreshing', and he feels they have 'stepped up another level'.^[13]