Bring Me the Horizon plays to a sold out show of nearly 20,000 people at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Photo credits to CeCe.
Metalcore band Bring Me the Horizon recently stopped by Music City during their North American leg of their Ascension Program tour, playing to a sold-out show of nearly 20,000 at the iconic Bridgestone Arena. This tour directly follows the success of their most recent album, Post Human: NEX GEN:, which has been ranked as one of their highest selling records– hitting over one billion streams on Spotify. The North American Ascension Program tour was first announced back in early 2025 with the tour beginning later that year and being split into two parts. The first part of the tour took place from September-October 2025, while part two began in April and is expected to wrap up in October.
The band stopped in Nashville on May 7 to play a sold-out show alongside openers Amira Elfeky, The Plot in You and Motionless in White. The nearly four hour long show began with solo artist and Connecticut native Amira Elfeky. Once Amira’s set wrapped up, Metalcore band The Plot in You performed, followed by the highly anticipated band Motionless in White
Around three hours after the show began, it was finally time for the main act, Bring Me the Horizon, to hit the stage. As the lights went down, two of the screens near the stage lit up to reveal E.V.E. an AI Android from the band’s lore, who stated that she would take us through the concert and guide us through the church of GENXSIS. As the curtain dropped, the background behind revealed a church pulpit as red confetti spread throughout the GA floor, and the band finally joined the stage to perform, “DArkSide”.
By the second song, ‘“House of Wolves”, the crowd was sufficiently hyped and thus began the main event of all rock concerts: the mosh pit. A circle pit formed near the back of the GA floor and fans began to run and mosh in circles to the heavy sounding song. Toward the end of the song, Lead singer Oliver Sykes encouraged the mosh pit to go even harder to match the hard hitting instrumentals in this back, and this is the first time of the night that we would hear Oliver’s practiced death growls.
“Happy Song”, a fan favorite, was quite the performance as two women came out in cheerleader uniforms and stood near the edge of the stage to perform a synchronized choreography that mimicked a professional cheer. Near the third verse of the song, Oliver turned his back to the crowd, facing the camera, and asked the crowd to form a Wall of Death–a common ritual for mosh pits where the crowd separates into two sections and then those sections will run toward the middle together and mosh.
“Nashville, I know you’re not gonna disappoint me,” Oliver said, hyping up the pit.
After five songs in a row, the band took a break, and E.V.E. appeared once again to tell us that there has been a containment breach and that @NGELDUST (another character within the band’s lore) has escaped and is heading toward the church and that all should evacuate. Eve then disappears and a 3D figure of @NGELDUST bursts through the screens behind the band as they perform the hit song, “Kool-Aid”.
One of the most interactive parts of the show was during “Antivist”, when Oliver picked a fan from the crowd to perform. The fan, Jessica, was dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow, which helped to gain Oliver’s attention. There were some slight difficulties throughout the performance, but she was able to finish the incredible performance with Oliver’s assistance.
Near the end of the show, Oliver slowed everything down and encouraged the crowd to hold up flashlights and to sing loudly to “Follow You”, which is an emotional song that carries the theme of following someone through anything if it meant that they stayed together. This song is one of their slower and more emotional songs, and some fans have even utilized it within their weddings.
The night ended with the highly anticipated and TikTok viral song, “Drown”. Despite the crowd sitting through a four hour show, everyone was on their feet and hyped for this song as Oliver jumped off the stage and began to sing “Drown,” to fans in the crowd. One fan even gifted him a pink cowboy hat, which he wore the remainder of the show.
The band promised to come back to Nashville soon, and judging by the quality of the show, is it clear why the show had sold out.
Even though the second part of the North American Ascension Program has concluded, we will be seeing more of the band as they embark on the third leg of the tour in September, where they will hit nine new cities. Along with the tour, the band is also expected to release a re-recorded version of their debut album, Count Your Blessings, for their 20th anniversary, signifying that the year is nowhere near over for them.