1. Bring Me The Horizon - Sempiternal
Starting out as a run of the mill deathcore band with not many songs to write home about, Bring Me The Horizon have not only made a massive leap in terms of songwriting quality with each album, they have also evolved their sound drastically with each release. Their 2013 album, Sempiternal, is no different. Whilst their previous two records, Suicide Season and the slightly ridiculously titled There is a Hell, Believe me I've seen it...There is a Heaven, Let's keep it a Secret had an extremely well executed focus on speed and brutality, the band seem to have made a conscious decision to slow things down this time, not only allowing the music to breathe a little more, but also giving them the opportunity to experiment further with their instruments. The most notable element of this record is the introduction of more electronic and synth elements, which although present on previous albums, were never this well executed or provided as much value to the rest of the music. This is likely down to the addition of keyboardist/programmer Jordan Fish to the band, whose influence can not be belittled, especially as most of the memorable hooks on the record are created by his electronic work rather than catchy guitar riffs. Frontman Oli Syke's vocals are also a massive talking point for this album - most notably the fact that he's actually singing. Granted, his raspy deathcore vocals on the bands previous records fit perfectly with the brutal vibe that they were striving for in that period, but his use of more melodic vocals, somewhere between clean singing and screaming, allow for him to use more emotive lyrics that actually resonate with the listener, instead of getting lost in the mix. Crucially, the band still remain as heavy as ever - they've managed to survive the extremely difficult process of expanding their sound to a more mainstream audience without losing any of the signature explosiveness that defined their identity. In doing so, they have managed to produce a set of massive sounding songs, which range from ferocious numbers such as House of Wolves, Empire (Let them Sing) and Antivist, to more poppy singalong anthems like Sleepwalking. The band have managed to create an album which could prove to be genre defining for the generation that they are a part of - not only has it been immensely popular amongst metal fans but it has also brought in a number of listeners who would not normally listen to the band's style of music, notably demonstrated in the way that they annihilated Reading and Leeds festival this year, at one point getting the crowd to form an enormous circle pit around the mixing tower. As a result of this, Bring Me The Horizon have found themselves in a position where they have the world at their feet, and are almost certain to one day be headlining a festival in this country.