ALBUM REVIEW: Bring Me the Horizon – amo
Bring Me the Horizon’s amo – Growing Pains
by Jarrad Levy
Bring Me the Horizon has stirred up significant controversy among their fanbase over the last few years. As a band that established themselves in the metal and hardcore genres, their slow transition to pop-rock has been met with vitriolic hatred from a large amount of their old fanbase. The band’s new album, amo, tries to solve this problem in the worst possible way. While almost every song on the record is unique, interesting, and captivating, Bring Me the Horizon backtracks on their 2015 pop-rock album That’s the Spirit by intercutting their new pop-sounding songs with heavier post-hardcore tunes that feel like they exist just to please a shrinking portion of their fanbase.
The album opens with “i apologize if you feel something,” what is essentially an interlude into the record to set the tone. The song is actually quite pretty and atmospheric, something completely unexpected from the band. However, the quiet and peaceful tone is immediately shattered by the following track and lead single, “MANTRA.” “MANTRA” is a straight up rock song, something completely out of left field as most expected something either way softer or way heavier. In essence, “MANTRA” was the perfect single to introduce amo; it is a perfect middle ground of everything on the record. In fact, the chorus even takes a shot at the fans who continually claim that Bring Me the Horizon has lost their edge: “Too late to tell you now, one ear and right out the other one / “’Cause all you ever do is chant the same old mantra!” This response to criticism of their style is a continuous motif in amo, as it is the central theme in “heavy metal” — but more on that later. “MANTRA” is followed by easily the weirdest — and my least favorite — song on amo, “nihilist blues.” The song is a long atmospheric synth-rock song that aligns with nothing ever released by the band. If “MANTRA” was out of left field, “nihilist blues” is in another baseball field entirely.
Bring Me the Horizon then does what many of their fans despise: following the opening three songs with the pop-rock ballad, “in the dark,” telling the story of a man who has been stabbed in the back by a former lover. The lyrics in the song are striking with heavy religious imagery that lashes out at those who overuse the phrase “swear to God.” Following “in the dark” is “wonderful life,” easily the hardest song on the record. While the track never truly matches the intensity of former releases by the band, there are several blood curdling screams throughout the second single from amo. Even when lead singer, Oliver Sykes, is not screaming, there is an edge to his voice not heard in any other song on the album. His voice inflection on “wonderful life” makes it so easy to imagine him going off and performing the song live. Additionally, there are some really cool horns towards the end of the song that are a brand new sound in Bring Me the Horizon’s music.
“wonderful life” is followed by “ouch,” another atmospheric track. Sadly though, this one feels out of place and random, as it does nothing other than introduce the theme of the song that follows it, “medicine.” “medicine” is easily the most pop oriented song on amo, but it sounds great. It is easy to hear real guitar and drums in the song, which is so rare to find in modern pop music. If this is the sound Bring Me the Horizon want to eventually end up with, I am all for it. Despite the song being unapologetically pop-rock, maybe even straight up pop, it is just dark and heavy enough to give the listener a reminder of where the band came from. “sugar honey iced tea” follows and is another really great song, despite it feeling tonally out of place when sandwiched between two poppier songs, “medicine” and my personal favorite song featured on amo, “why you gotta kick me when i’m down?”
The song is very unique, something like I’ve never heard before. The song is dark, and opens with some melodic rapping a la Linkin Park and Mike Shinoda. However, the song then transitions into a pop-rock chorus with a sprinkle of autotune. However, despite the pop and rap influences in the song, it still feels dramatic and heavy in the best way. Sykes once again feels intense and powerful, screaming towards the end of the song. It really is a mash-up of a variety of styles in the best way.
The band once again follows a great song with another random and out of place interlude, “fresh bruises.” The song is followed by another radio-friendly song, “mother tongue.” This song is very similar to “medicine” and is something I want to see more of from Bring Me the Horizon. “mother tongue” is followed by the aforementioned “heavy metal,” a song about the savage feedback the band has gotten for their dip into the pop pool. However, the song is a masterclass in irony, as it is unabashedly a metal song, exactly what the fans being responded to have wished for.
amo reaches its conclusion with “i don’t know what to say,” a song about a friend of Sykes who passed away to cancer at a young age. The song features harp and violin and truly gives an intimate feeling to the song before the smashing guitars and drums kick in. This song goes from peaceful and sad to heavy and dramatic in a wonderful way. “i don’t know what to say” ends with an extended instrumental outro that leaves the listener with time to reflect on the masterpiece of a song that they just listened to, full of guitar solos, screams, and harmonies. This song is Bring Me the Horizon’s magnum opus. It is their “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It is the single best song they have ever recorded. The lyrics, instruments, and voice inflection are so perfect that on an album full of excellence, this is still by far the best song on amo.
Now you may be wondering, if I loved the songs on amo so much, why did I title this review, “Growing Pains?” That is a good question, and to those who ask, I respond with this: While every piece of music on the album is amazing, it is tonally all over the place and the most incoherent piece of music I have listened to in a long time. The album keeps jumping from rock to metal to hardcore to pop and back in the worst way. While each individual song on this album is fantastic, listening to amo in full is jarring. The project would have been best served by being released as two separate EPs: one for the softer songs and one for the harder ones. Alternatively, the album could have been carved into two acts: one being the softer portion and the other being the harder with the interludes that Bring Me the Horizon seem to love so much used to separate the two halves.
Ultimately, this album deserves your time. Each individual song in great and worthy of praise, it is just a shame that the order of songs was so obviously botched in an attempt to get fans of each respective genre that the band employs to listen to the other songs that they may not enjoy. I highly recommend this album to anyone who enjoys anything in the realm of modern rock, as there is surely something you will come out of this album enjoying.