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Named after a lyric in the album's opening song "Pray for Plagues", Count Your Blessings is representative of the band's early deathcore sound, which was phased out on later releases and eventually abandoned in favour of other, less aggressive styles. The band members were young when they recorded the album, and both the band and its fans have largely disregarded it later in their career; it began as early as 2008, when guitarist Lee Malia was already criticising the album's quality. Most of the songs on the record quickly faded from the band's live setlists. Most band members recorded their parts individually, rather than the group doing so as a whole, with the central location of the studio blamed for distracting the young musicians. The album received some negative reviews, with the main complaints revolving around musical originality, although it still reached number 93 on the UK Albums Chart.

Background and recording

Following the release of their first extended play This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For in October 2004, Bring Me the Horizon toured extensively while writing new material for their full-length debut album. Due to the number of shows the band were playing at the time, much of the material was written quickly before recording was due to begin – drummer Matt Nicholls claimed that three songs were written in the space of two days due to the upcoming deadline. A number of songs are re-recordings of early demos that the band had taped for a project titled The Bedroom Sessions and in a broadcast session for the UK station Radio 1, namely "(I Used to Make Out With) Medusa", "Off the Heezay" and "Liquor & Love Lost" (then known as "Dragon Slaying").

Recording took place at DEP International Studios in Birmingham with producer Dan Sprigg, who had previously worked with bands including Cradle of Filth, Napalm Death and, more recently, Lostprophets. Frontman Oliver Sykes described the recording process as "an intense experience" due to the group's desire to make the best debut album they could, with biographer Ben Welch claiming that they "were starting to feel the pressure of all of the hype that was building around them" at the time. Due to the studio's location in the centre of the city, the young band members (all under 20 years old at the time) were often distracted and would not spend much time in the studio; this meant that each individual member ended up recording the majority of their contributions to the album alone, rather than the full unit performing together.

Influences, style and themes

When recording Count Your Blessings, Bring Me the Horizon intended to make an album which sounded "as heavy and brutal as they possibly could"; Welch claims that the band scrapped any song ideas that "didn't fit that criterion". Speaking in 2014 about the band's intentions when writing and recording music during their early years, Sykes claimed the group "just wanted to make noisy music". Similarly, when asked about the band's beginnings in a 2014 interview, guitarist Lee Malia explained, "When you're young, you just want to do everything to extremes. That's what the first EP and the album were like: too over-excited sounding".[6] Matt Nicholls said that on Count Your Blessings, Bring Me the Horizon "were influenced a lot by Swedish metal – At The Gates and stuff like that." Nicholls also said that on Count Your Blessings, Bring Me the Horizon's members "were 18 or 19 years old and wanted to be as metal as possible." Specifically, the band's members were influenced by Norma Jean, Skycamefalling, Metallica, Pantera, At the Gates, Arch Enemy, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and In Flames at the band's beginning.[8]

The musical style of Count Your Blessings is most often categorised as deathcore, but has also been labeled as metalcore[9] and melodic death metal.[13] Count Your Blessings uses elements of genres like melodic death metal, death metal and black metal,[9][13] drawing comparisons to bands like The Black Dahlia Murder,[14] Cannibal Corpse,[10] At the Gates,and Obituary.[16] Last Rites noted that the album's black metal-reminiscent vocals (which consist of death growls and high-pitched shrieks) were placed over a musical base of melodic death metal.[13] According to Drowned in Sound columnist Raziq Rauf, the songs on the album "generally consist of The Black Dahlia Murder-style thunderous riffs mixed with some dastardly sludgy doom moments and more breakdowns than your dad's old Nissan Sunny". The lyrical content is admittedly simple, which according to Sykes is due to the fact that his life had "never been that bad" at the time he wrote them; the singer has noted that most songs on the album are "about girls or just growing up", which he claims contributes to the group's brand of "party music".

Promotion and release

Count Your Blessings was originally released in the United Kingdom on 30 October 2006 by Visible Noise. It was not released in the United States until 14 August 2007, when it was issued by Earache Records. The version released by retailer Hot Topic featured a cover version of Slipknot's "Eyeless" as a bonus track, which had originally been recorded for Higher Voltage: Another Brief History of Rock, a CD released for free with an issue of Kerrang! magazine in June 2007. A first music video for "Pray for Plagues", was directed by Kenny Lindström and released on 4 June 2007. A second music video, directed by Perrone Salvatore, "For Stevie Wonder's Eyes Only (Braille)" was issued on 6 March 2008.

Following the release of Count Your Blessings, Bring Me the Horizon toured extensively in support of the album. Throughout October and November the group toured the UK with American black metal band Abigail Williams, although the Phoenix, Arizona-based band left the tour early on after drummer Zach Gibson suffered a wrist injury. Centurion replaced Abigail Williams for the remainder of the tour, and Bring Me the Horizon spent the rest of the year supporting labelmates Lostprophets. The band later replaced Bury Your Dead supporting Killswitch Engage on their European tour in January 2007, then continued to tour the UK through March and April. During the summer, the band played a number of festivals (including Download Festival)

Recorded at the Studio at the Palms in Paradise, Nevada with additional production at Abbey Road Studios in London with producer Rob Mathes, the album was released March 21, 2008 on Decaydance and Fueled by Ramen. Inspired by baroque pop and the works of the Beatles and the Beach Boys, the psychedelic-styled rock album differs greatly from the techno-influenced pop punk of A Fever You Can't Sweat Out (2005).

To begin work on the record, Panic at the Disco retreated to a cabin in the rural mountains of Mount Charleston, in the group's native state of Nevada. Upon growing dissatisfied with their final product, the band scrapped the entire album and spent time writing and recording Pretty. Odd. throughout the following winter. Production came together quickly and each song made the cut. Additional recording, such as strings and horns, were produced at Abbey Road Studios. It is the only album to feature bassist Jon Walker, and last to feature vocalist and lead guitarist Ryan Ross as both left the band in 2009, a year later after the album's release.

The record received a generally positive critical response and under-performed commercially in the aftermath of its double-platinum-selling predecessor. The album spent 18 weeks on the Billboard 200, peaking at number two, and the album's lead single "Nine in the Afternoon" was certified double platinum by the RIAA. The album has since gathered a cult following and sold 422,000 copies by 2011. In 2019, the album was certified platinum by the RIAA.