{"id":3595,"date":"2019-01-29T21:33:01","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T02:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=3595"},"modified":"2019-12-17T18:10:42","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T23:10:42","slug":"album-review-bring-me-the-horizon-amo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2019\/01\/29\/album-review-bring-me-the-horizon-amo\/","title":{"rendered":"ALBUM REVIEW: Bring Me the Horizon – amo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bring Me the Horizon\u2019s <\/span>amo<\/span><\/i> – Growing Pains<\/span><\/p>\n

by\u00a0<\/em>Jarrad Levy<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u2019s new album, amo<\/em>, 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\u2019s the Spirit<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

The album opens with \u201ci apologize if you feel something,\u201d 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, \u201cMANTRA.\u201d \u201cMANTRA\u201d is a straight up rock song, something completely out of left field as most expected something either way softer or way heavier. In essence, \u201cMANTRA\u201d was the perfect single to introduce amo<\/em>; 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: \u201cToo late to tell you now, one ear and right out the other one \/ \u201c\u2019Cause all you ever do is chant the same old mantra!\u201d This response to criticism of their style is a continuous motif in amo<\/em>, as it is the central theme in \u201cheavy metal\u201d \u2014 but more on that later. \u201cMANTRA\u201d is followed by easily the weirdest \u2014 and my least favorite \u2014 song on amo<\/em>, \u201cnihilist blues.\u201d The song is a long atmospheric synth-rock song that aligns with nothing ever released by the band. If \u201cMANTRA\u201d was out of left field, \u201cnihilist blues\u201d is in another baseball field entirely.<\/p>\n

Bring Me the Horizon then does what many of their fans despise: following the opening three songs with the pop-rock ballad, \u201cin the dark,\u201d 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 \u201cswear to God.\u201d Following \u201cin the dark\u201d is \u201cwonderful life,\u201d 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<\/em>. 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 \u201cwonderful life\u201d 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\u2019s music.<\/p>\n

\u201cwonderful life\u201d is followed by \u201couch,\u201d 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, \u201cmedicine.\u201d \u201cmedicine\u201d is easily the most pop oriented song on amo<\/em>, 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. \u201csugar honey iced tea\u201d follows and is another really great song, despite it feeling tonally out of place when sandwiched between two poppier songs, \u201cmedicine\u201d and my personal favorite song featured on amo<\/em>, \u201cwhy you gotta kick me when i\u2019m down?\u201d<\/p>\n

The song is very unique, something like I\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

The band once again follows a great song with another random and out of place interlude, \u201cfresh bruises.\u201d The song is followed by another radio-friendly song, \u201cmother tongue.\u201d This song is very similar to \u201cmedicine\u201d and is something I want to see more of from Bring Me the Horizon. \u201cmother tongue\u201d is followed by the aforementioned \u201cheavy metal,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

amo<\/em> reaches its conclusion with \u201ci don\u2019t know what to say,\u201d 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. \u201ci don\u2019t know what to say\u201d 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\u2019s magnum opus. It is their \u201cBohemian Rhapsody.\u201d 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<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Now you may be wondering, if I loved the songs on amo so much, why did I title this review, \u201cGrowing Pains?\u201d 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<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bring Me the Horizon\u2019s amo – Growing Pains by\u00a0Jarrad 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1524],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3595"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3596,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3595\/revisions\/3596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}