Bring Me The Horizon’s new concert film, *L.I.V.E. In São Paulo*, eases us in gently with the delicate sounds and late-90s aesthetic of a *Final Fantasy VII* (PS1) loading screen—but this is a false calm. After being warned of "explicit scenes of violence and gore," we are asked to choose a difficulty level: Easy, Normal, or Extreme. Given that this involves the metal giants from Sheffield, there can be only one choice.
The acronym "L.I.V.E." in the title stands for "Live Immersive Virtual Experiment." If you were lucky enough to witness Bring Me’s mind-blowing headline performance at the Reading and Leeds festivals last year, or catch them on their smash-hit arena tour in 2024, you have already played this entertaining game before. "The world has been reduced to ash, and the dead are feasting on the remains," reveals the on-screen narrative, as a parasitic, demonic presence has escaped a laboratory and unleashed a lethal virus. The show’s host is the mischievous avatar, Eve: "I hope you enjoy tonight’s performance, as it will be the last one you ever attend," she promises.
Directors: CiRCUS HEaD, Oliver Sykes
Stars: Babymetal, Bring Me The Horizon, Dani Filth
Bring Me has arrived in São Paulo to play before a sold-out crowd of 50,000 fans at Allianz Parque—the largest headline concert of their career. With a show that follows the post-apocalyptic arc of their current *Post Human* album series, this film could easily have crumbled under the weight of such an ambitious concept. Instead, what we get is an emotional rollercoaster—exquisitely curated and absolutely mesmerizing from start to finish. Edited together from various types of contrasting video footage—modern and vintage cameras, drone shots, fan recordings—their performance proves suitably incendiary: from the stratospheric choruses of "Mantra" and "Happy Song" to the savage fury of aggressive classics like "Antivist" and "Shadow Moses"; from the cyberpunk madness of "Parasite Eve" and "Kingslayer" to the augmented reality of a rendition of "Amen!" in which—quite fittingly—they appear to be possessed (a moment where Sykes transforms into a demon in real time, which is simply spectacular). The experience revolves just as much around the fans as it does the band itself; and the film aptly captures the magnitude of the moment, immersing the viewer in every circle pit, every burst of tears, every declaration of love. There are even a couple of marriage proposals during the performance of "Follow You." If our wedding invitations get lost in the mail, we’re going to be absolutely furious.
Sykes—speaking in a mix of Portuguese and his signature Yorkshire accent—tells the audience the story of the first time he visited the homeland of his current wife, Alissic, confessing that he hadn't expected to fall in love with an entire country as well. The feeling is, by all accounts, mutual. The film features a genuinely moving montage tracing BMTH’s trajectory: from their beginnings in the 2000s as young hardcore hopefuls in skinny jeans, through their era as troublemakers who famously overturned Coldplay’s table at the NME Awards, right up to the present day—transformed into an unstoppable force conquering stadiums across the globe.
The show itself feels like the fully realized vision of the band’s *POST HUMAN* narrative. With a stage production that emulates the aesthetic of a video game—from the precise moment the "start" button is pressed—what unfolds before the spectator is far more than a mere concert. It is, rather, a dystopian narrative of cyber warfare, populated by recurring characters—such as E.V.E, Selene, and M8—who add new layers of depth to the *lore* created by Horizon and to the storyline that has become inextricably intertwined with their live experience.
On the musical front, of course, the setlist serves as a "greatest hits" compilation from Bring Me’s modern era (though M8 jokingly expresses a desire to hear "Pray For Plagues"). Each track is presented on screen as if it were a distinct realm within an open-world platformer video game. From "Kool-Aid" and "AmEN!" to "Kingslayer" and "Parasite Eve"—including "Can You Feel My Heart" and "Drown," and not forgetting a moving rendition of "Follow You" during which two different couples got engaged amidst the crowd—the concert stands as a thunderous reminder of the colossal magnitude Horizon’s catalog has attained over the last decade. It is a repertoire that never suffers a single dip in intensity, as evidenced by the unceasing energy of the crowd, who remained fully engaged throughout the show’s 90-plus-minute runtime.
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