“Even I think that song’s ****”: Oli Sykes trashes controversial Bring Me The Horizon single onstage

Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon onstage in 2023
(Image credit: Mariano Regidor/Redferns)

Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oli Sykes has lambasted one of the band’s most controversial tracks at a recent live show.

Footage uploaded to X (formerly Twitter) on Monday (June 24), shows the vocalist onstage responding to a request from an audience member for the UK pop-metal stars to play their 2019 track Medicine.

“Alright, what are we gonna do? What would you like to hear?” Sykes asks in the clip (embedded below).

After a pause, he continues: “Medicine? Are you guys alright? You good, you good, right?

“You guys would like to hear Medicine? Even I think that song’s shit!”

Bring Me The Horizon released Medicine in January 2019 as a single from their then-upcoming sixth album, Amo.

The song proved instantly controversial, as it showed the band ditching much of their heavy metal roots and fully pursuing a clean-cut pop sound.

Sykes wrote the song’s lyrics about his divorce from his ex-wife, tattoo artist Hannah Snowden.

The singer said of Medicine to NME in 2018: “I don’t want it to seem like I care, and I didn’t want to dredge up the past.

“I didn’t want to give the person the ‘glory’ of writing stuff about them and shit like that.

“After a while it just became apparent that I needed to. I needed to get it out of my system.”

According to setlist wiki setlist.fm, Bring Me The Horizon haven’t performed Medicine live since July 2022.

The band are currently touring to promote their surprise-released new album, Post Human: Nex Gen, with dates in Europe, Asia and South America scheduled for this year.

See the full list of upcoming Bring Me The Horizon shows and book tickets via their website.

Metal Hammer gave Post Human: Nex Gen a 3.5-star review upon its release last month.

Matt Mills
Contributing Editor, Metal Hammer

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.