"Wonderful Life" 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 Wale ...

band

Bring Me the Horizon Bring Me the Horizon are a British Rock music, rock band, formed in Sheffield, England in 2004. The group currently consists of lead vocalist Oli Sykes, drummer Matt Nicholls, guitarist Lee Malia and bassist Matt Kean (musician), Matt Kean. T ...

featuring

Cradle of Filth Cradle of Filth are an English extreme metal band formed in Suffolk in 1991. The band's musical style evolved originally from black metal to a cleaner and more "produced" amalgam of gothic metal, symphonic metal and other metal genres. Their ly ...

vocalist

Dani Filth Daniel Lloyd Davey (born 25 July 1973), known professionally as Dani Filth, is an English singer who is the lead vocalist, lyricist and founding member of the extreme metal band Cradle of Filth. Personal life Daniel Lloyd Davey was born to Su ...

. Produced by the band's vocalist

Oliver Sykes Oliver Scott Sykes (born 20 November 1986) is a British musician who is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band Bring Me the Horizon. He also founded the apparel company Drop Dead Clothing, and created a graphic novel. Early ...

and keyboardist Jordan Fish, it is featured on the group's 2019 sixth studio album '' Amo''. The track was released as the second single from the album on 21 October 2018.

Promotion and release

The track was teased by

on an Instagram live stream. After searching the tease on Shazam, fans discovered the name for the leaked song as "WONDERFUL LIFE" featuring

vocalist

as a guest. After it, Sykes posted a video on his Instagram account announcing the "Wonderful Life" release date to be 21 October on Radio 1.

Composition and lyrics

"Wonderful Life" has been described as a

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

and

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

song. The song shows a troubled narrator barely holding on to life but constantly referring to it as wonderful. The narrator, who seems to hold a dark and depressing view of the world around him, still enjoys the mundane and often gloomy aspects of everydayness. Sykes said of the song's lyrics:

Music video

The

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

for "Wonderful Life" was released on the same day as the single was streamed. Directed by Theo Watkins, the video shows clips of the band doing everyday, mundane things.

is seen wearing heavy

corpse paint Corpse paint is a style of body painting, used mainly by black metal bands for concerts and band photos. The body painting is used to make the musicians appear inhuman, corpse-like, or demonic, and is perhaps "the most identifiable aspect of the ...

and sci-fi-esque stage clothing while eating cereal and shopping at the supermarket. Jordan Fish is shown playing with his son,

is having his water boiler fixed and sitting on the sofa with his dog, Matt Kean is out running, Lee Malia is seen washing a

camper van Camper or campers may refer to: * a person who engages in recreational camping * a recreational vehicle used for camping * Camper (surname), including a list of people with the name * Camper (company), a Spanish shoe company * Camping (video g ...

and mowing his lawn, and Matt Nicholls is shown walking his dog. It features appearances from Fish's real life son, Eliot Fish, and Sykes', Nicholls', and Fish's dogs Luna, Bud, and Bailey.

Personnel

Credits adapted from

Tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

. Bring Me the Horizon *

– lead vocals, production, composition * Lee Malia – guitars, composition *

Matt Kean Matthew John Kean (born 16 September 1981) is a former Australian politician who is the Chair of the Climate Change Authority. Prior to this, he was the Treasurer of New South Wales in the second Perrottet ministry of New South Wales betwee ...

– bass, composition *

Matt Nicholls Matthew Stephen Nicholls (born 22 March 1986) is a British musician, best known as the drummer of the rock band Bring Me the Horizon. He is featured on all seven of the band's studio releases. Early life Nicholls was born and raised in Rothe ...

– drums, composition *

Jordan Fish Jordan Keith Attwood Fish (born 26 June 1986) is a British musician and record producer. He was the keyboardist and producer of the Rock music, rock band Bring Me the Horizon from 2012 until his departure in 2023. Fish appeared on five studio re ...

– keyboard, synthesizers, programming, percussion, backing vocals, production, composition, programming Additional musicians *

– guest vocals * Lewis Reid – contrabass * Alexander Verster – contrabass * Jessica Price – contrabass * Parallax Orchestra – contrabass, strings * Gavin Kibble – cello * Rachael Lander – cello * Max Ruisi – cello * Madilyn Eve Cutter – cello * Choir Noir – choir * Oliver Hickie – French horn * Ross Anderson – trombone * Jane Salmon – trombone * Simon Dobson – trumpet, strings * Victoria Rule – trumpet * Anisa Arslanagic – viola * Benjamin Kaminski – viola * Mark Gibbs – viola Additional personnel * Robbie Nelson – engineering * Peter Miles – engineering * Romesh Dodangoda – engineering * Alejandro Baima – assistant engineering * Conor Panayi – assistant engineering * Francesco Cameli – assistant engineering * Daniel Morris – assistant engineering *

Ted Jensen Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' '' Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Early life ...

– mastering * Rhys May – mixing *

Dan Lancaster Dan Lancaster is a producer, mixer, songwriter and artist from the UK. He is best known for his mixing and production work in contemporary rock music, and has worked with prominent global acts such as Blink-182, 5 Seconds Of Summer, Bring Me ...

– mixing

In popular culture

"Wonderful Life" is featured in the soundtrack for the video game ''

WWE 2K20 ''WWE 2K20'' is a professional wrestling video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K. It was released worldwide on October 22, 2019, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It is the twenty-first installment of the ...

'', as well as one of the theme songs for '' NXT TakeOver: WarGames (2018)''.

Charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 2018 singles 2018 songs Bring Me the Horizon songs RCA Records singles Songs about loneliness Songs written by Oliver Sykes Songs written by Jordan Fish Song recordings produced by Jordan Fish Sony Music singles Nu metal songs