Bring Me The Horizons Ascension Program 2 Tour finally made its way to the Windy City… Well, technically Rosemont, Illinois at Allstate Arena, which is a quick 20 minute trip down 90, but we’ll digress. For the band’s long awaited return to the Chicago area, Bring Me the Horizon delivered exactly what fans expected: a chaotic, cinematic spectacle that blurred the line between metalcore show, dystopian sci-fi production, and live-action video game.
From the moment the lights dimmed after the openers, the atmosphere inside Allstate Arena completely shifted. The massive video boards immediately lit up with futuristic, glitch-heavy visuals straight out of a cyberpunk game cutscene, instantly pulling the crowd into Bring Me The Horizon’s “Next Gen” universe. Then came E.V.E., the band’s AI-like digital character who acted as both narrator and guide throughout the evening, tying the entire performance together like chapters in an interactive story rather than just a collection of songs.
Calling the night simply a “concert” honestly feels like underselling it. Every song had its own world, complete with custom visuals, synchronized lighting, pyrotechnics, and cinematic transitions that made the entire production feel like watching a series of live-action music videos unfold in real time. It was sensory overload in the best possible way, and one of the most visually ambitious arena productions I’ve ever seen.
BMTH wasted absolutely no time setting the tone, opening with heavy hitters like “Darkside,” “The House of Wolves,” “Mantra,” and “Happy Song.” The energy inside the arena instantly exploded from the first note. With Oli Sykes sprinting across the stage delivering guttural screams and commanding every corner of the venue, circle pits immediately broke out while thousands of fans screamed every lyric back.
One of the coolest moments of the night came during “Shadow Moses,” which felt like a direct recreation of the song’s iconic 2013 music video. Seeing Oli standing atop the massive three-tier stage holding a red smoke grenade instantly transported longtime fans back to the Sempiternal era. Without missing a beat, the band rolled directly into “Kingslayer,” paying tribute to BABYMETAL’s feature on the track with futuristic wolf-like cyber characters flashing across the video boards while neon visuals pulsed alongside the song’s chaotic electronic breakdowns.
The band eventually shifted into old school territory with fan favorite “Antivist,” where E.V.E. returned to the screens requesting assistance from the crowd. After a quick audience vote, a fan named Morgan was brought on stage to perform alongside Oli. Even this moment had its own production element behind it, with Guitar Hero-style graphics tracking Morgan’s vocals word for word, showing every lyric hit or missed in real time across the giant screens. It was another example of how detailed and interactive the entire show felt from beginning to end.
After the chaos, BMTH slowed things down briefly with “Follow You,” creating one of the loudest singalongs of the night. Hearing nearly the entire arena sing every word back gave Oli a rare moment to step away from the intensity while letting the emotional weight of the song carry the room.
As the night neared its end, fans were still left wanting more. Before the encore, a montage showcasing the band’s evolution over the last 22 years played across the screens, highlighting just how far Bring Me the Horizon has come from their deathcore beginnings to becoming one of the biggest modern rock bands in the world.
The encore closed with “Doomed,” “Drown,” and arguably the band’s biggest anthem, “Throne,” sending the arena into absolute chaos one final time. But BMTH still had one final moment left. As the band exited the stage, E.V.E. returned and decided humanity was no longer worth saving, attempting to initiate the destruction of Earth before hilariously being stopped by a simple “Verify you’re not a robot” captcha prompt. The screen finally faded to one last message: “BMTH ROCKED MY WORLD.”
And honestly, that’s exactly what they did for everyone inside Allstate Arena.
By far the best concert I’ve ever attended.