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A screenshot of the spectrogram contained in a song from the latest album by Bring Me the Horizon. The QR code leads to a hidden website with Easter eggs for fans.Image Credits:Reddit (screenshot)
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A screenshot of the warning message that the hidden site developers showed to visitors, after someone tried to hack the site.Image Credits:Bring Me the Horizon (screenshot)
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On Friday , Pal Kovacswas listen to thelong - expect raw albumfrom tilt and metallic element giants convey Me the Horizon when he noticeda strange soundat the conclusion of the platter ’s last track .
Being a fan of solving riddle and break cypher codes , Kovacs wondered , Does this sound turn back a secret message ?
His hunch guide to the discovery of a hidden hacking - theme website that at some point in time actually got hacked .
Kovacs opened the song in the audio - editing app Audacity and , as he surmise , there was indeed a spectrogram — fundamentally a ocular representation of the sound recording itself — which was actually a scannable QR codification . aroused , Kovacsshared his findingson the Bring Me the Horizon ’s subreddit .
The QR code led tothe hidden internet site , which is protected by a passcode that turned out to be a number ( 93934521 ) indite on the album cover art , on the head of one of the character , called M8 . This M8 character utter in some of the tracks and appears on the out of sight site as a sort of guide .
The website is basically an “ alternate realness biz , ” or ARG , which bands like Nine Inch Nailshave done beforeas a mode to get fans more engaged with the band ’s euphony and traditional knowledge .
In this particular case , the game consists of a site where , among other thing , the stria uploaded some unreleased caterpillar tread , a leaflet protected by a “ cypher , ” which leave to more countersign - protected files , more mysteries , and more hidden Easter eggs , some of which are still unresolved and mesh by unknown codes .
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Kovacs ’ discovery launch a idle decentralised chase where thousands of play Me the Horizon fans tried to bring out all the secrets hide within the site . twenty-four hour period after , the sports fan are still at it , as the site ’s makers append young challenges and puzzles to solve . sports fan havea dedicated Discord serverwith around 3,000 multitude deep down and a shared Google Doc that at the sentence of writing is around 5,500 words in length .
Perhaps expectedly , on the first day when fans found the site , someone hacked it in an attempt to get forrader in the game . This prompted the developers to temporarily take the site down and replace it with a admonition , asking sports fan not to doactualhacking on the hacking - theme website .
“ It appears exploiter / s have been illicitly hacking into the M8 server to decode obscure secrets , ” show the substance from M8 , the album ’s pathfinder , which multiple fans cover insure in Old World chat with TechCrunch . “ It ’s my duty to inform you that this behaviour is both naughty and counterproductive ! You see , the whole idea of this program is to launch the mysteries at a tantalizing pace , admit everyone to delight the bang of discovery . By bypassing the system and sharing the secrets untimely , you ’re spoiling the merriment for everyone ! ”
It ’s unreadable what the developers mean exactly by hacking into “ the server , ” nor who was responsible . Sony Music Entertainment , the band ’s record label , did not respond to a petition for comment .
“ There was an email address found after solve a riddle on the internet site , we found it legitimately but when we emailed this email like the situation assure us to , we received a warning content say that we had chop it and may get blacklist if we try on again . We assume it was an old error from the first day when these hackers extracted information from the land site , ” xDarkMagicianGirl , the owner of the Discord server , distinguish TechCrunch .
xDarkMagician share a written matter of the email that some people received after the hacking attempts .
“ So a friendly warning : your recent unauthorized access to our web site has not gone unnoticed . While I admire your enthusiasm , it ’s time to call the effect of your actions . If you extend to hack into the scheme , you ’ll be permanently blocked from accessing any part of , ” the email translate .
“ have ’s wager middling and revel the journey together . After all , a petty longanimity goes a farseeing way in making the experience truly enjoyable for everyone . So block up being a dips — t , and play fair ! ”
