Bring Me The Horizon have been generating plenty of conversation following the release of their crushing new deathcore track, “Dehumanized.” The song, which arrived alongside a graphic and provocative music video, serves as a bonus track on the band’s upcoming re-recorded version of their 2006 debut album, Count Your Blessings | Repented, due out on July 10.
While the single marks a return to the band’s deathcore roots, frontman Oli Sykes recently revealed that its lyrical themes were also shaped by a deeply personal experience involving the band’s humanitarian activism.
In a series of Instagram Stories shared after the song’s release, Sykes explained that “Dehumanized” was inspired in part by the dystopian novel Tender Is The Flesh, but also by the backlash he says the band received after displaying Palestinian flags during their headline performances at the Reading & Leeds Festivals in 2025.
According to Sykes, he was warned that the decision could have severe consequences for the band’s future.
“This video was actually inspired by this book I’m reading rn called Tender Is The Flesh. It’s fucked, have a read if you can…
“[‘Dehumanized’] was born from an event that happened last year. I was told that peacefully raising a flag on stage in recognition of a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding where children were being killed would most likely carry career ending consequences.
It made me realise how we are silently conditioned to suppress our humanity. We think we are free, conscious beings, when in truth we are driven by forces we barely understand.
‘Some of us are butchers, some of us are lambs, send me to the abattoir, let’s find out which I am,’ is the crux of this song.
The abattoir is a metaphor for being put in a place where my very livelihood is facing execution.
When empathy becomes an act of anarchy, then you discover whether your values are real.
I want this video to take that central theme to the worst imaginable conclusion.
A fully operational human slaughterhouse.
Let’s ask the viewer at what point does suffering become unacceptable to you?
At what point do you draw the line?
Every time we’re taught to look away or stay quiet, we lose a little bit more of who we are.
So the slaughterhouse is an analogy for modern civilization.
On top of that many of the lyrics reference this kind of setting…”
Despite those alleged warnings, Bring Me The Horizon went ahead with the performances, appearing onstage with Palestinian flags during both of their Reading & Leeds Festival headline sets in 2025.
The band’s latest single, “Dehumanized,” continues to spark discussion not only for its return to deathcore, but also for the social and political themes Sykes says helped shape its message. The track will officially be included on Count Your Blessings | Repented when the album arrives on July 10.
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