This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For - Bring Me The Horizon
When people talk about Bring Me the Horizon, certain albums come to mind depending on the touchstone someone has for the band. If you were there in the early days, you likely still call out Count Your Blessings or Suicide Season. If you discovered the band in the middle period of their career, you likely think of Sempiternal or That’s the Spirit. Regardless of when your fandom started, there is one project that is almost always forgotten about (not counting the original demo Bedroom Sessions, which wasn’t widely available): This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For. The EP was released in 2004, consisting of 4 tracks of pure chaos that would serve as the bedrock of the band’s sound for the next few albums. When I decided to begin this In Review project, I knew I needed to incorporate and show respect for this EP that is often forgotten.
I haven’t listened to this EP in probably 16 years, which is an insane statement to me. I always gravitated toward Count Your Blessings and Suicide Season when it came to the band’s early work, with both records being my first real exposure to them. I remember coming across Edge of Your Seat on a sketchy, illegal music site in high school while downloading the other two albums, and I remember loving the EP for how raw, unfiltered, angsty, and down-to-Earth it was. So, let’s dive into this EP 22 years after its release and 16 years from the last time I heard it.
At first blush, I immediately noticed the slightly sludgier/slower sound the songs had here, with three out of the four tracks being quite lengthy ( “RE: They Have No Reflections” is almost 6 minutes, or about 1/3 the length of the EP). As a result of these factors, the songs can feel like they drag on a bit and lack a certain amount of structure you’d expect. At times, it felt like everyone was still finding their way around their instruments and coming up with their parts on the spot, especially with how sporadic some sections were, and the sheer number of breakdowns baked into each track (I honestly lost count. The number of breakdowns present on these four tracks is staggering). As for the sound itself, it very much sounded like a bunch of teens recording in the basement of one of their parents’ houses, which I found charming and took me back to my own teen years doing the same thing. Oli’s screams are raw and wild but have this MySpacecore sound that was so prevalent at the time with bands in the same scene, which makes sense considering the era of release we’re talking about, but it doesn’t hold up as well 20+ years later. Regardless of that, I appreciate the ferocity and “fuck it” attitude. Finally, I want to call out the intro dissonant riff in “Rawwwrr!”, as that was a highlight moment for me to come back to. It’s “simple” but eerie and pokes at your eardrums in a way I find satisfying.
This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For feels and sounds like a 4-song set you’d hear from your local Hardcore band in a church basement that was rented out as a gig spot, on a Thursday at 9 PM, the night before a high school class final that makes up 25% of your grade. I say this with absolute love and admiration, as I could see myself two-stepping and moshing these tracks easily. Listening to this EP brings back so many fond memories from that time when all of this applied to me, going to Hardcore/Deathcore shows with friends on school nights, or blasting this EP and others while mowing the lawn under the scorching July sun, the summer feeling endless. This EP is a blast from the past that makes you appreciate how well the band would later develop, polish their sound, and build on the momentum found here. It also offers you a moment to reflect on simpler times if this EP found you back in the 2000s – something I know we all are yearning for again.
Thanks for checking out the first review in my Bring Me the Horizon: In Review series, and get ready for next week, where we’ll revisit one of my favorite Deathcore records and possibly my favorite Bring Me the Horizon record: Count Your Blessings.
Score: 2.5/5