RANKED: Every Song with a Bring Me The Horizon Feature

Truth be told, this was actually intended for around the release of a proper Bring Me The Horizon album. Obviously that’s not the case now; POST HUMAN: NeX GEn dropped without warning a few weeks back, meaning that this was shunted to the wayside by default.

Still, the buzz around Bring Me The Horizon is rather evergreen nowadays, as a band who never seem to stop moving. It doesn’t need reiterating how the face of alternative music’s forefront has bent to their will multiple times over, nor how the reach outside their preordained circles never stops expanding. Right now, a piece of Bring Me The Horizon backing can give an artist a lot of attention, regardless of where they come from. And when a lot of them fall outside more ‘traditional’ rock or metal remits, it goes without saying that that’s a phenomenon in itself.

So with that in mind, which of those is the best? Which song, blessed with a shot of success juice from metal’s top dogs, stands above the rest? Well, here’s all of them ranked worst to best, with a couple of stipulations to begin:

• These are songs with named features only. If a song has specific featuring credits for Bring Me The Horizon (or Oli Sykes, because often the two are interchangeable in these situations), it counts.

• These are other artists’ songs that feature Bring Me The Horizon; not the other way around. Doing it that way is a bit more interesting overall, opening up more diversity and variety in the songs covered, as well as some unknowns that probably wouldn’t get the attention otherwise (for better or worse). Plus, never having to think about Music To Listen To again is a mercy in itself.

With that out the way, here’s all 21 songs (as of July 2024) with Bring Me The Horizon features, ranked.

---

21. Cheat Codes ft. Oli Sykes – Dummy (2021)

Don’t be fooled by that earworm of a chorus—that’s how Cheat Codes get you to believe they’re not a bunch of abject hacks. They’re one of those dance acts with no real genre consistency as long as it’ll make them money, and, of course, on a ‘rock-leaning’ project (in the vaguest possible terms), drawing in Oli Sykes makes too much sense. It also makes sense that Cheat Codes haven’t the foggiest of what to do with him. That’s why he’s left alone to sing incredibly shabbily, with a bit more get-up-and-go on the hook thanks to a well-placed emo-pop guitar, before some of the most heinous AutoTune ever committed to record on the second verse that smashes any verisimilitude, and utterly craters the concept of ‘good will’. Not like Cheat Codes deserve that grace in the first place, but it remains truly awe-inspiring how, without fail, they’ll squander every single one of the vast resources that somehow keep getting handed out to them. It’s mesmeric, in its own way.

---

20. daine ft. Oli Sykes – SALT (2021)

Let’s just say it outright—this sounds atrocious. Both daine and Oli Sykes are incessantly glugging through unnecessary AutoTune (which still doesn’t mask how neither are exactly proficient singers), while gallumphing bass hits, chronically underweight trap rattles and the most pitiful emo-rap guitar in the preset try to crowbar themselves into place for a workable final product. It’s the kind of song that feels pointless to ever give a relisten to, for the sole fact that it’s so obvious how there’s nothing you’d want to rediscover about it, or dig into deeper. Not that you’d find anything anyway; daine at this point already belonged to the breed of artists peddling melodrama that’s terrified of investigating below its very surface, of which Sykes seems all too happy to enable. She’s since graduated into something closer to hyperpop which, despite its own anachronistic issues, is a lot more entertaining than whatever this slop is.

---

19. Masked Wolf ft. Bring Me The Horizon – Fallout (2022)

Remember Masked Wolf? He of Astronaut In The Ocean fame and precisely nothing else? Well, this followed-up on that hit, and proved that even Bring Me The Horizon aren’t infallible when it comes to new artists to endorse. Fallout was the herald of true one-hit wonderdom for Masked Wolf, not only as a song that didn’t stick around whatsoever, but also just a generally awful one. For starters, there’s no reason to have a guest feature whose name carries as much weight as Bring Me The Horizon’s if they’re relegated to stock-standard hard rock backing, and a meek, little groan passing itself as Oli Sykes for just the chorus. Yet somehow, Masked Wolf is even more anonymous, once again having nothing of import to say while simultaneously sounding as pleased with themselves as ‘lyrical miracle spiritual’ rappers always do. The fact that this exists in the first place, and that Bring Me The Horizon thought it was worth their time to offer as much as they did, really isn’t spoken of enough. Though when Masked Wolf’s fall-off since has been utterly catastrophic without a peep in the wider world since, it’s no wonder.

---

18. Olivia O’Brien ft. Oli Sykes – No More Friends (2021)

As much as time has had a desensitising factor to songs like that—a female perspective on post-breakup ‘angst’ set to clattering, faux-DIY pop-rock—it hasn’t made them any less insufferable. Literally the only unique factor about this one is Oli Sykes, who finds his verse doused in obvious effects to presumably mitigate some inconsequentiality. But as usual, it’s a slog to get through. Olivia O’Brien is a better singer on average but is saddled with traditionally awful lyrics, while the guitars groan and the clattering percussion is louder than anything else to fruitlessly bolster some ‘alt-rock grit’. There’s no reason for this exist, with or without its guest star. If this is the first time you’re hearing of Olivia O’Brien since her similarly empty appearance on gnash’s i hate u, i love u, that’ll be why.

---

17. SLANDER, blackbear & Bring Me The Horizon – Wish I Could Forget (2023)

Maybe the most perfunctory of all of these inclusions, though anyone strong-armed into working with both SLANDER and blackbear is likely to have the drive sapped out of them, post-haste. To be fair, Oli Sykes is giving it a good go at sounding invested; not much is demanded of him when he’s basically putting in the same shift as blackbear, but y’know…it’s something. But for four sets of hands in the post (because there’s no way the rest of Bring Me The Horizon are on this, let’s be real), surely you’d expect more than a slovenly EDM lurcher that paradoxically feels more weighed down the higher it tries to soar.

---

16. Deez Nuts ft. Oli Sykes – If You Don’t Know Now You Know (2010)

The only time that Deez Nuts’ larikin-core is interesting is when there’s someone guesting on it, but even that might be a little optimistic here. Hearing early Oli Sykes splutter his way through a verse is at least a break from JJ Peters’ sounding as workmanlike as he does, albeit not by much when there’s not a lot to work with as a whole. Here, a one-paced hardcore chug steamrolls all in its wake, where a song supposedly defined by its ‘keep on swingin’’ attitude winds up as painfully dull. If you don’t know, it’s not all that worth finding out.

---

15. Tom Morello ft. Bring Me The Horizon – Let’s Get The Party Started (2021)

Even the supernova strength of 2021 Bring Me The Horizon can’t save Tom Morello’s wildly uneven solo career, apparently. You’d almost half expect it to when they do fully take over; Morello barely has a breath on this song, save for some admittedly cool guitar whirrs towards the end, even if they’re quick to dip out for Bring Me The Horizon’s cut-rate version of themselves. Yeah, there’s really no way to escape how much of a canned effort this is, where the building blocks are in regular stead but with none of the vibrancy or exploratory spirit that got Bring Me The Horizon to this level. Apparently Post Malone was a writer on this, though between him, Oli Sykes, Jordan Fish and Morello himself, you’d hope for better than a hook hammering down lyrics like “fifty shades of fucked up”. At that point, you can’t even chalk it up to playing it safe and steady in the presence of a legitimate guitar hero. It’s just a bit lazy.

---

14. Lil Uzi Vert ft. Bring Me The Horizon – Werewolf (2023)

Maybe it’s a blessing that Lil Uzi Vert is barely on their own song, when Pink Tape’s other notable foray into metal was the cover of Chop Suey! that legitimately might be a violation of the Geneva Conventions. Bring Me The Horizon are therefore left to take matters into their own hands, in which they embody a surprisingly Deftones-esque stance, contrary to the rent-a-metal approach that these songs often get from them. Not that that’s not there at all, mind, especially early on in a way that presents Werewolf as parts of a handful of different songs stapled together. Maybe that’s just what Bring Me The Horizon and Lil Uzi Vert bring out of each other; AmEN! is exactly the same. But where that song has its own character—and the benefit of a greater album context where it isn’t an obvious musical outlier—Werewolf seems like a flubbed attempt to ‘legitimise’ the rock side of Lil Uzi Vert that’s only ever tangential at best. Plus, when the song has effectively been outsourced to someone else, your grand creative statement can only ever go so far.

---

13. POORSTACY & Oli Sykes – Knife Party (2021)

The kind of song that’s catnip for the modern-day Oli Sykes, apparently—a chance to go in, rattle off procedurally-generated edgelord shit for half a minute, and cash out. To be fair, that is what everyone comes for, and he’s honestly not bad at doing it. At least on a song more confrontational and head-pounding like this, there’s a longer leash to move around on. It helps that POORSTACY doesn’t do a bad job at it himself, where past emo-rap dalliances have been cast way aside for a more ‘legitimate’ metal angle. No wheels are being reinvented, but they are rolling, and that counts for something. At least, until you realise just how great a percentage is taken up by the brain-drillingly repetitive hook, and wish to never listen to it again.

---

12. Ed Sheeran ft. Bring Me The Horizon – Bad Habits (2022)

When this first aired during the 2022 BRIT Awards, it was like an actual headtrip. Opening the show was Ed Sheeran taking what had already been a global smash for months, and giving it to Bring Me The Horizon to remould, in a meeting of worlds that the staunchest defenders of either side would probably assert could not and should not happen. But there it was, in the flesh. It was cool to see, so it didn’t have to be good. And when you consider what’s been added—extra chugs on the build; a slab of alt-metal polystyrene drizzled with synth shine as a drop; Oli Sykes straining for ‘emotive pop star’ mode—it’s hardly the most resounding of winners. It’s precisely the same novelty as it was from conception, where Big Pop Singer and Big Metal Band hold hands to show that, hey, there’s room for everyone, you know! Appreciate the sentiment and the effort pulled off, gents, but there’s likely a reason that, in the lineage of one of the biggest songs of the 21st Century, this is a footnote at best.

---

11. Alice Longyu Gao & Oli Sykes – Believe The Hype (2022)

Provided you can stomach a near-constant barrage of crushing machinery and the Jekyll-and-Hyde shrieks of a performer with no concern for mainstream palatability, there’s probably something that’ll appeal about this one. It’s the least easy to put in a box, purely because Alice Longyu Gao’s hyperpop is so reliant on norms being eviscerated that it can be difficult to know whether this works or not. Signs point to it kinda doing so, if only because the production shifts are interesting and abrasive enough to have you pay attention, regardless of whether you’re actually enjoying it. As for Oli Sykes, he doesn’t need to be here per se, but the fact he’s so game to mirror nonplussed flexing punctuated by vampire shrieks is worth the praise. At least—for him, anyway—it’s a different kind of vibe and mood, even if there’ll be some Bring Me The Horizon diehards who’ll have a violent negative reaction to this. Otherwise…it’s not boring, we’ll say that for sure.

---

10. IC3PEAK & Oli Sykes – VAMPIR (2021)

Probably the biggest oddity on this list, as Oli Sykes jumps on a track from Russian witch-house duo IC3PEAK which he seemingly has no business being on. It’s very awkward to hear him English his way through after Anastasia Kreslina’s native Russian creates this mystique and haunted vibe; he’s bricked out in the middle in such an obvious way. Granted, the song is a little rough even besides that, clearly with a low budget that stems to metal-ish guitars shrunken into the barest grunt, and louder percussion that can be replicated by giving a shoebox a good thump. There’s some good atmosphere elsewhere, though, and a mix of darkwave and quasi-operatic ideals is an interesting angle for Kreslina to come from. Whereas the truly bad songs on this list are borderline-irredeemable garbage with Sykes’ name attached for clout to cover the cracks, IC3PEAK seem as though they have more to offer than what’s being shown here. A collab of this magnitude to get them through the door is not an awful strategy, all things considered.

---

9. Admiral’s Arms ft. Oli Sykes – Dawn Of The New Age (2009)

Surprised there isn’t more of these, to be honest. Here’s an old hardcore song from a band no one’s ever heard of, featuring an embryonic Oli Sykes before there was even a shred of refinement in his repertoire to be found. It truly is a relic from another time; Admiral’s Arms haven’t done a thing since a brief reunion in 2017, and Bring Me The Horizon…well, it goes without saying, really. Still, other than some unforgivably shoddy vocal mixing—not only are both singers about six feet behind everyone else, but they’re borderline indistinguishable from each other—there’s a kernel of something pretty good here. The rest of the sound is actually surprisingly strong, giving shades of The Chariot that’s a little more melodic while also having the professional touches that often far exceed a band of this size. If you were to dig this up today, it’d get more swell from the feature above anything else, but it’s not like Admiral’s Arms are slacking on their own merits. Back in 2009 when this came out—a time when routine hatred for Bring Me The Horizon was the norm—a team-up like this was lightyears from the stim-pack it’d be today. Could Admiral’s Arms be seen as unsung pioneers, then? The forgotten name in the annals of Bring Me The Horizon’s history, without whom they wouldn’t be nearly as far ahead as they are today? …well, let’s not push it.

---

8. Yungblud & Oli Sykes – Happier (2023)

If Obey is anything to go by, then there’s tangible evidence that the presence of Oli Sykes brings out the best in Yungblud. That could also be true of Happier, though more likely, it’s a case of Yungblud reining in his shredded, ear-abusing caterwaul that’s pulling such a Herculean weight. He actually sounds like—gasp!—a competent performer, aided by some restrained alt-pop production where the primary element is the synth fizzle at the very top, mimicking hyperpop in texture but more easy on the ears overall. It’s another case where Sykes is more along for the ride, too; he sounds alright, his proven chemistry with Yungblud allowing the two to integrate pretty solidly. Even in the usual writing slant that would’ve killed as ‘deep’ Tumblr edits about a decade ago, it’s a lot less obnoxious than Yungblud’s bottom line tends to be. Honestly, it’s one of his more listenable songs as the lead artist, and in a catalogue as packed to the gills with plastic-punk detritus and horribly executed ideas as his, that’s high praise indeed. It’s not given out lightly either, so savour it.

---

7. Lotus Eater ft. Oli Sykes – Obliterate (2021)

Oh yeah—this one. So, this was due to appear on Lotus Eater’s debut Where The Body Goes, until allegations around vocalist Paul Collins led to the band breaking up and the album being shelved indefinitely. As the single, this was likely intended to be the big breakthrough, held aloft by its cosign to place Lotus Eater among the bright new frontline of British metal. Obviously that’s not happening now, though Obliterate still manages to paint a compelling picture of what could’ve been. Using Sykes as a more bullish accompaniment is something quite different, where his presence isn’t downplayed but doesn’t dwarf Lotus Eater themselves. Theirs is a savage, gnarled take on nu-metalcore here, where the industrial grinds and shrapnel bursts are timed and arranged near enough perfectly. As an exercise in barely-contained savagery, this was about as good as Lotus Eater ever got. Even if the circumstances make it difficult to properly endorse, there was something here, no question.

---

6. CORPSE & Bring Me The Horizon – CODE MISTAKE (2023)

Let it be known that in the current era of Bring Me The Horizon collabs, it’s the Among Us YouTuber that gets one of the better performances from them. Maybe not from Oli Sykes trying to mimic the deep, heaving voice that CORPSE has become known for and ending up with a croaked-out half-step, but everything else is attuned to both acts’ wheelhouses pretty well. The remarkably clean segue from pitch-black trap to hulking alt-metal is already good, and CORPSE being allowed to breathlessly scream and pant a suitably nihilistic lyrical set seeks to smoothen the transition even further. It likely goes without saying that when neither acts are stretching themselves too far (and there’s considerable overlap between the two), the result sticks the landing in the most appropriate way possible.

---

5. Sigrid & Bring Me The Horizon – Bad Life (2022)

If you were an OG Bring Me The Horizon fan in 2022 still holding out hope that they might see the error of their ways and make the full pivot back to deathcore, you’d have likely been losing your shit at the choices they were making. The flag had been planted in mainstream pop’s ecosystem often unfriendly to their kind with Bad Habits, and in doubling down for a collab with Sigrid…well, you might have related to the title of this one more than you expected. Hell, even if you’re not deluded, this might seem like a pretty unforeseen pivot, in how measured and restrained it can be as pianos take precedence over an alt-rock glaze that’s firmly tamped back in intensity. But thanks to both Sigrid and Oli Sykes palpably emoting, a genuine kernel of comfort that ripples around the big, blustery vista of a mix, and a killer power-ballad hook sold impeccably, everything comes together. Perhaps this can be seen as the defining turning point in the perceptive shift of Bring Me The Horizon, a band for whom genre allegiance is a thing of the past, and who are capable of elevating practically anything they touch.

---

4. Architects ft. Oli Sykes – Even If You Win, You’re Still A Rat (2012)

Back in the day, Architects and Bring Me The Horizon were like the best buds on British metalcore. They’ve both covered huge distances since—Bring Me The Horizon have gone bigger than ever in forging their own scenes, while Architects have gone down the pan—but between this and The Sadness Will Never End a few years prior, it’s good to have these neat little time capsules of when that was so prevalent. Even if Oli Sykes’ contributions are sparing, the camaraderie between him and Sam Carter remains clear, both at arguably their apex when it comes to uncleans. What’s more, this is kind of big, pointed metalcore missile that was tailor-made for both at the time, a little less technical than some of Architects’ work but duly compensating in its grandeur. It’s worth remembering that this was a point where Architects were at the top of the world, and wouldn’t get unseated for a few good albums more after this. Sykes’ inclusion, then, reads most like a victory lap on a song that doesn’t strictly need him, but feels like the conscious decision of creators capable of anything in the world.

---

3. mgk ft. Bring Me The Horizon – maybe (2022)

Credit to Bring Me The Horizon for being able to shunt mgk’s pop-punk cosplay era over the line for what was easily its best song. Credit to Paramore, too—without Misery Business existing, this liberal ripoff likely wouldn’t either. And while you can then question how this turns out even remotely well when the lead artist’s contributions to that are negligible, the fact that it’s withstood is more than can be said for anything else off mainstream sellout. At least this wholly captures the reckless, freewheeling pop-punk that mgk sought to engineer for himself; that’s a considerable plus when he was so bad at it elsewhere. And you know what? When the intent and construction fall into place as they do—either through honest-to-goodness miracle or simply being brute-forced into the right place—you can’t really argue with results. It’s the best thing mgk’s pop-punk phase produced, without a shadow of a doubt.

---

2. You Me At Six ft. Oli Sykes – Bite My Tongue (2011)

If you were around among the Britrock cliques when this first dropped, you’ll remember how much of a nuke this felt. You Me At Six were already toying with a harder direction, and reinforcing their working relationship with Bring Me The Horizon—having fully earned their stripes in the eyes of many the year prior with There Is A Hell…—was borderline unbelievable. This was the era when Josh Franceschi and Oli Sykes were the closest thing to heartthrobs that British alternative scenes had, remember. So naturally, there’s an entire weighted blanket of nostalgia covering this one, and when it’s removed…yeah, this still holds up. Nitpicks remain, like how early-2010s Britrock production rears its underweight head (and holds the knowledge of how a good remaster could save this entirely nowadays), but the darker, harder sound palette and low-swinging hook are still among the best that You Me At Six have ever had. Especially in the context of everything that’s come since, you can tell why this was their era that bore that most excitement and fervour—a song like this demands it. And, of course, there’s Oli Sykes’ bridge, tying everything together as not only the track’s most enduring feature over a decade later, but as the perfect boiling point reached for a gnashing that’s still radio-friendly, but for the time, uncharacteristically harsh. Ever since, You Me At Six have never cultivated a moment like they did with this, a song not only elevated to among their signature canon, but also indicative of a potential for broader movement that they’d seldom capitalise on again. Ah well; at least we got one of their best songs that a subsequent five full albums could only rarely match up to.

---

1. While She Sleeps ft. Oli Sykes – Silence Speaks (2017)

This is the one. A little ironically, too, seeing how, of all the songs touched by Bring Me The Horizon’s guiding hands, there’s probably the least of them to show for it. Saying that, Oli Sykes’ wham-line delivery of “I think the silence speaks volumes” is a gold moment in modern metal, and significant in a way that most will likely brush off. At this point, Bring Me The Horizon appeared to have abdicated from strict metal entirely, so to come back and give their blessing to fellow Sheffieldians in their stead does mean something. It’d be a while until While She Sleeps would turn their attention to aping their approach entirely—as in, just this year—and it would be nowhere close to the beast the Silence Speaks is. It’s enormous; it’s punishing in the exact ways it should be; it has the most perfect accents of melody that singlehandedly lift it a few strata higher. Most importantly, it’s the quintessential display of everything that makes While She Sleeps incredible, in perfect marriage and synchronicity to fly to sun with no danger of burning up. Disregarding the feature, it’s a perfect modern metal song as it is; with it, it’s a proper, etched-in-stone defining moment.

---

Bring Me The Horizon’s ‘POST HUMAN: NeX GEn’ is out now on Sony Music Entertainment.

Words by Luke Nuttall