That's the Spirit

That's the Spirit is the fifth studio album by British rock band Bring Me the Horizon. The album was released on 11 September 2015, and marks a departure from the group's metalcore roots, in favor of more melodic rock styles.

Background
The band started teasing the album in late June when the band started promoting images of a symbol of an umbrella, all in the form of tattoos, stickers and posters posted around England, which would later be revealed as a promotional symbol for the album's first single. The band later released a short video in early July where the words "That's the spirit" were spoken in reverse. On 13 July, the band announced they had left their previous label Epitaph Records and signed with Columbia.

In an interview with NME, Oli Sykes confirmed that the album would be called That's the Spirit. Sykes also mentioned several song titles from the new album some of which include: "True Friends", "Avalanche", "Throne" and "Blasphemy".

Writing and recording
Keyboardist Jordan Fish played the role as "unofficial" producer for the album in order to save money, along with Sykes, who said that an external producer was unnecessary. The band spent the extra money on a personal fitness trainer during the course of recording their album.

Influences, style and themes
In an interview with NME, Sykes said that the album is a loose concept album about life’s darker moods, such as depression, and a way of making light of it. He cited the alternative rock bands Jane's Addiction, Panic! at the Disco, Interpol and Rolling Stone stated that the album marks a change for Bring Me the Horizon from a sound "undeniably rooted in metal" to a "sound full of ebb-and-flow dynamics inspired by indie rock, alternative music and pop" in an "evolution from artsy metalcore to cinematic pop rock", and that it sounds more like Muse and Linkin Park than Metallica and Lamb of God. Similarly, Daniel Furnari of Blunt Magazine suggested that "That’s The Spirit sees Bring Me The Horizon push things further than ever with a collection of stadium-standard alt-rock anthems more suited to Glastonbury than Warped Tour ... For perhaps the first time, Bring Me The Horizon have produced a record with no throwbacks to the Suicide Season days of outrageous mosh calls and downtuned riff insanity."

Featuring characteristics of electronic music, That's the Spirit has been considered electronic rock, and has also been regarded an alternative rock and alternative metal album by several online platforms, such as AllMusic, Toronto Sun, and Blunt Magazine. Its style has also been described as pop rock by some music critics. Sites such as The Guardian have described it as nu metal.

Release and promotion
The band's first single released from the album before its announcement was "Drown" on 21 October 2014. The first promotional single was "Happy Song", released on 12 July 2015. The second official single was "Throne", which was accompanied with a music video and the official announcement of the albums tracklisting and cover art. Fish explains that "Throne" reflects the group's then current state of mind both musically and emotionally, going to say that it was one of the most straight forward songs they had recorded, but felt that it was an obvious choice for a single due to its immediate catchy-ness and level of energy. "True Friends", was released as a promotional single on 22 August along an official lyric video.

The band has set up an intimate album launch performance on 6 September at the Rose Theatre, Kingston and will embark on a tour throughout October in North America, which also features American festivals such as Aftershock Festival and Knotfest and will be supported by metalcore band Issues and rock band PVRIS.

Critical reception
Like the band's last 2 predecessors,That's The Spirit was met with critical acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic (a review aggregator site which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from music critics), based on 10 critics, the album has received a score of 88/100, which indicates "universal acclaim". However, on Sputnikmusic the album has an aggregate score of 2.8 out of 5 based on 372 votes, indicating "average" or "good".

Daniel Furnari of Blunt Magazine wrote: "[On That's the Spirit,] Oli Sykes powers through every enormous chorus and infectious verse with a confidence and finesse that would have you believe he’s been singing like this for years." Andy Biddulph of Rock Sound stated that the band sounded their most accomplished in the album, bursting with fresh ideas and says that no other band incorporates synth and atmospherics into music quite like the band does in this particular album, comparing the band to the likes of Linkin Park. James Christopher Monger at AllMusic stated "What's most surprising is how natural it all feels, but that's due in large part to the long-form recalibration of the band's sound. By entering the mainstream one limb (album) at a time, Bring Me the Horizon are merely reaping what they've sown, and longtime fans should already feel acclimated to the water." In addition to Linkin Park, Monger compared the choruses from the album to Avenged Sevenfold, Thirty Seconds to Mars and late 1990's Metallica. A more lukewarm response from Philip Whitehead of Rock Sins, who rated it a 6.8/10, stated that while "Bring Me the Horizon have improved their musicianship once again", the pacing of the album and general tone meant "there is a real sense that the band have lost the very thing that made them unique."

Track listing
Bring Me the Horizon announced the track listing on 23 July 2015.

Lyrics by Oliver Sykes, music by Bring Me the Horizon. All tracks produced by Jordan Fish and Oliver Sykes.

Personnel

 * Bring Me the Horizon
 * Oliver Sykes – lead vocals, production, vocal production
 * Lee Malia – guitars
 * Jordan Fish – programming, keyboards, backing vocals, production, engineering
 * Matt Kean – bass
 * Matt Nicholls – drums


 * Others
 * Al Groves – engineering
 * Ted Jensen – mastering
 * Nikos Goudinakis – assisting engineering
 * Sam Winfield – additional engineering
 * Will Harvey of Parallax Orchestra – violins on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11
 * Maddie Cutter of Parallax Orchestra – cellos on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11
 * Emma Fish – additional vocals on track 2