"Parasite Eve" is a song by British

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Bring Me the Horizon Bring Me the Horizon (often abbreviated as BMTH) are a British rock band formed in Sheffield in 2004. The group consists of lead vocalist Oliver Sykes, guitarist Lee Malia, bassist Matt Kean, drummer Matt Nicholls and keyboardist Jordan Fis ...

. Produced by the band's vocalist

Oliver Sykes Oliver Scott Sykes (born 20 November 1986) is a British singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Bring Me the Horizon. He also founded the apparel company Drop Dead Clothing, and created a graphic novel. Early l ...

and keyboardist Jordan Fish and written by the entire band, it was released as the second single from the group's 2020 commercial release '' Post Human: Survival Horror'' on 25 June 2020. The song samples "Erghen Diado" written by Petar Lyondev and performed by the Bulgarian Female Vocal Choir; Lyondev is credited as a co-writer. "Parasite Eve" is the band's second Top 20 single hit in the

Scottish Singles Chart The Scottish Albums Chart is a chart compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) which is based on how physical and digital sales towards the UK Albums Chart fare in Scotland. The official singles chart for Scotland, the Scottish Singles Chart, ...

Promotion and release

The track was teased by

on Instagram. It was expected to be released on 10 June 2020, but due to the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internati ...

and the

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...

movement, the song was postponed to 25 June.

Composition and lyrics

"Parasite Eve" has been described as a

nu metal Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, sometimes called aggro-metal) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk, industrial, and grunge. Nu met ...

and

electronic rock Electronic rock is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music, featuring instruments typically found within both genres. It originates from the late 1960s, when rock bands began incorporating electronic instrume ...

song with some elements of

electropop Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a re ...

. The song was inspired by the Japanese video game of the same name. It was written and composed by the band while in quarantining during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The song samples "Erghen Diado" from the album ''

Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares ''Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares'' (translated as "The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices") is a compilation album of modern arrangements of Bulgarian folk songs featuring, among others, the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir, with s ...

''. The lyrics talk about what is happening during the pandemic, saying that "This is a war" between countries for discovering a vaccine. At the same time, Sykes talks about when the pandemic is overcome, while asking "When we forget the Infection, will we remember the lesson?" to the people and the world leaders like

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

and Brazil President

Jair Bolsonaro Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who has been the 38th president of Brazil since 1 January 2019. He was elected in 2018 as a member of the Social Liberal Party, which he turn ...

that rejected and ignored the gravity of the virus. Musically, it was influenced a lot by Sykes playing the game ''

Doom Eternal ''Doom Eternal'' is a first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. The sequel to ''Doom'' (2016), and the sixth main game in the ''Doom'' series, it was released on March 20, 2020, for Windows, PlaySt ...

'', as well as the contributions of the game soundtrack artist Mick Gordon, giving it a futuristic and cyber overlay. Sykes said about the lyrics of the song amid the similarity of the current world situation:

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for "Parasite Eve" was released on the same day as the single was streamed. Directed by Sykes himself, he took inspiration from some of his favorite video games, films and the genre of

. Using masks a friend of his created, each member filmed their video parts separately. This was an effort to stay within the social distancing restrictions set in place. Due to the lockdown restrictions, the band filmed the video with minimal crew and minimal resources.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Bring Me the Horizon 2020 singles 2020 songs Bring Me the Horizon songs Songs written by Oliver Sykes RCA Records singles Sony Music singles Nu metal songs Electronic rock songs Songs about the COVID-19 pandemic