Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oli Sykes has opened up about a troubling incident from the band’s early career, as reported by Loudersound.
Sykes revealed that the band quietly dropped off a festival in 2006 after receiving threats from another act on the lineup — though he stopped short of naming the band responsible. He explained the climate of hostility the group faced during that period.
“We said we were sick [when we dropped out of the festival], because there were another band there that said when we got there, they were going to shave all our hair off and beat us up. It were mental at first,” Sykes said.
He went on to place the incident within the broader culture of band rivalries that defined the era.
“It were that era, when people latched onto something, like, ‘We hate this band, we hate My Chemical Romance.’ It were everyone,” he continued.
The identity of the threatening band has not yet been disclosed. Further details may emerge as Sykes continues to speak about the band’s history.
The incident reflects a wider atmosphere of hostility that ran through the mid-2000s rock and metalcore scene — one where bands like Bring Me The Horizon were frequent targets simply for the style of music they played.
That climate was not unique to BMTH. Kerrang! reported that My Chemical Romance faced intense controversy and backlash throughout 2006, the same year they released their landmark album The Black Parade. Despite its critical success, the record drew significant negative coverage and made the band a lightning rod for scene-wide hostility.
The rivalry culture of the era extended well beyond public feuds. A widely circulated account on Instagram detailed how tensions between bands could turn deeply personal — as seen in the long-running feud between My Chemical Romance and The Used. Tensions escalated when MCR hired two of The Used’s most vital touring crew members, including their manager and tour manager, fueling resentment across the scene.
My Chemical Romance’s rise only intensified the backlash directed at bands associated with the emo and post-hardcore movements. Britannica noted that the band was already closely tied to the emo movement and its controversies by the time The Black Parade was released in October 2006. That moment crystallized both the genre’s mainstream peak and the fierce opposition it attracted from within the music community itself.
For a young Bring Me The Horizon, still building their reputation on the UK underground circuit, navigating that environment meant facing threats that went far beyond online criticism. Sykes’ account of the 2006 festival incident is a rare, candid look at just how hostile that world could be — and how the band quietly chose safety over confrontation at a time when the stakes felt very real.
