Britain’s biggest contemporary metal band, Bring Me The Horizon find new heights at Reading 2025

Bring Me The Horizon kicked off their Nex Gen album cycle with a defiant first headline slot at Download Festival. Big on spectacle, it saw the biggest metal band in Britain confidently stake their claim at the top.

Two years later, they’re now closing things out at Reading Festival and, somehow, are operating at an even more impressive level. Confetti erupts for the opening swing of ‘Darkside’, while the twitching hammer of ‘Mantra’ comes with fireworks. “We’re going to rock your fucking world,” promises Oli Sykes, knowing full well they’re throwing absolutely everything at this 90-minute masterclass.

The visuals for the chirpy ‘Happy Song’ offer a crash course in being a mosher, while some clever camera trickery turns Oli into a snarling hellbeast for the ferocious ‘Amen!’, marking perhaps the first outing of stadium horror. There’s more to Bring Me than opening up those circle pits, though. ‘Kingslayer’ is a euphoric hunk of rave-rock, and the glitching hyperpop of ‘Lost’ is all urgent ass-shaking. Sure, the Liam Gallagher-approved ‘Wonderwall’ cover inspires a deafening chantalong, but so do ‘Shadow Moses’ and the emotionally charged ‘Can You Feel My Heart’. There’s no guest appearance from Ed Sheeran this time around, but when you’ve got crossover bangers ‘Drown’ and ‘Throne’ in your arsenal, you don’t really need any extras to make things more thrilling.

Taking a second to soak up the scene before him, Oli reflects on his first time on Reading’s main stage, which saw both Avenged Sevenfold and Slipknot pulling out at the last minute, leaving Bring Me with impossibly big shoes to fill. No one would have guessed the scrappy deathcore band would be here 15 years later – let alone headlining the whole thing – but no one’s questioning this booking. Tonight is a deserved celebration of Bring Me The Horizon’s undeniable legacy, but it also sees them once again raising the bar for what a rock band can be. It’s one of those all-time sets that people will still be talking about in 15 years’ time.