Post Human: Survival Horror kicks off with Dear Diary, an in your face wall of sound which feels like something from an early 00s nu-metal album and it’s easy to see the impact from bringing on video game composer Mick Gordon. Lyrically, this song depicts the monotony of life under lockdown, “the sky is falling, it’s fucking boring, I’m going braindead isolated.” Dear Diary feels like something that could easily feel at home on 2010’s There is A Hell, Believe Me, I’ve Seen It, the song drops in pace before a fantastic build-up and breakdown. This song is powerful and made me long to hear this live.
Following this, we get the dark and hypnotic ‘Paradise Eve’, it’s a contrast from the previous song but works perfectly as a pallet cleanser for the rest of the record. Once again, the lyrics are reflecting the current situation regarding 2020 and the COVID situation, ‘When we forget the infection, will we remember the lesson?’, it’s clear that Bring Me found clear inspiration from the current world and the doom and gloom of the lyrics pair perfectly with the moody electronics of the track.
Whilst this record is layered in familiarity, BMTH also pushes the boundary and attempt something new with the features on this EP, though with varying degrees of success. Obey, featuring Yungblud, has a familiar metalcore sound and has a chorus so catchy that I’ve found myself singing it everywhere I go, “Obey, We hope you have a lovely day” is so simple but effective and though I am not the biggest fan of Yungblud, his melodramatic vocals fit perfectly here and is a welcome addition and I’m pleased to hear him on dip out of his comfort zone.
Whilst this EP has a lot of highs, it has some low points too. Kingslayer featuring BabyMetal is probably the heaviest song on the record and features frontman Oliver Sykes hitting low growls similar to that from Count Your Blessings all those years ago; but the contrast from the overproduced high pitched vocals of BabyMetal feel forced and unwelcome, though I admire BMTH for trying something new and I can see it as a lot of people’s favourite song on the EP.
After Kingslayer the project starts to feel awkward as the band attempt to slow the pace of the record. 1×1, featuring the Nova Twins feels like BMTH does Linkin Park, the chorus feels a little too forced and cheesy with the whole track just feeling like filler. The record finishes with One Day The Butterflies featuring Amy Lee of Evanescence and she brings all the drama and melody you would expect from her but overall it’s a boring and disappointing end to a quite solid EP. The song feels sonically isolated from the rest, with the first few minutes feeling like a musical theatre performance. As a positive, Oli sounds fantastic on this and he and Amy do compliment one another but the song is just far too dramatic and campy for my taste, whilst I do appreciate the band taking a risk it missed the mark.
Overall Post Human: Survival Horror is a pleasure to listen to for the most part despite the record falling off at the end. Honestly, I wish it was longer, it’s a well-produced EP with some absolute highlights. I hope that with the next release BMTH they dive deeper into the nu-metal sound and focus on more tracks like Dear Diary & Obey.
Overall score 7/10