Bring Me the Horizon - Amo (2019)^{Release ID: 24114}

I have a history with this band and talking about it puts me in a very odd position. See I’ve known about this band, for better or worse, since their debut album Count Your Blessings in 2006. They were a deathcore band trying to cash in on the phase of the time. As time passed, Bring Me The Horizon changed their sound by ditching the death metal on Suicide Season in 2008 as well as on the follow-up in 2010.

Now all of those records are awful. They were awful back then and they are still awful to this day. I’ve never been a fan of metal/deathcore because of its insistence on not writing melodies, but rather writing breakdowns. That all changed in 2012 with Sempiternal, the first album of theirs that I actually liked. Make no mistake, that album was still a breakdown fest, but at least the group wrote some decent hooks to make the tracks distinguishable from one another. And by the time That’s The Spirit came out, Bring Me The Horizon had all but abandoned their heavy metal tendencies for more mainstream accessible hard rock or alternative metal.

So as a Bring Me The Horizon pleb, I was surprised to hear that a lot of Bring Me The Horizon fans were upset with frontman Oli Sykes for suggesting that this new album, amo, would be even more mainstream accessible than That’s The Spirit. Guys, the band have done this for every album since their inception. This shouldn’t surprise you!

As for the record itself, props to the band for at least trying to do something different. Unlike many of their contemporaries who have pulled the same gimmick, Bring Me The Horizon at least go all out with incorporation of synth melodies, EDM tracks, and even a trap song. It’s just unfortunate that this group can’t really keep it all together. In short, this album is a mess.

To expand, we have to look in further detail about the styles this group is trying to incorporate. You’ve got your heavier tracks like “MANTRA”, “wonderful life”, “sugar honey ice & tea” and “heavy metal”; a reminder of what this band once was. And I dig the tones on “wonderful life” and the inclusion of The Roots beatboxer Rahzel of all people on “heavy metal”, but songs like “MANTRA” and “sugar honey ice & tea” have these buzzing guitars sounds that remind me of all the things I didn’t like about Three Days Grace’s last album. And isn’t the point of a beatboxer that they don’t need percussion? So why is there any percussion at all during the break on “heavy metal”?

Then you have the some pop-rock influence in “mother tongue” and “medicine”, the latter being as generic of a pop-rock song as you can get, seriously, give this song to Imagine Dragons and see if you can tell the difference. Or take the more EDM influence on “nihilist blues” featuring Grimes as well as “in the dark”, which brings me to one of the bigger problems with the production as a whole, and that is the use of acoustic versus electronic percussion. During the build on “nihilist blues”, you can hear some acoustic drums helping the track to build up to something huge, and then nothing happens. Synthesizers and electronic drums take over during the chorus and it feels like a wasted opportunity.

Then you have the closing track “i don’t know what to say”, which may be influenced by a concert by the band with the Parallax Orchestra in 2016. The use of strings and horns is very nice and the guitar solo following the bridge is a nice touch, mostly because it’s the only one on the entire album, but hey, baby steps.

The other big problem with Bring Me The Horizon behind the soundboard is their dynamics. Let me clear this up; even on Bring Me The Horizon’s best albums, they paid very little, if any at all, attention to dynamics and that shows here as well. “MANTRA” is the most glaring example. But you could say the same for “medicine” and “mother tongue” as well.

But then their is “why you gotta kick me when i’m down?” where the band tries their hand at their best trap impersonation, while mimicking the vocal styles of Twenty One Pilots. It’s actually not that bad of a song except for the percussion.

And that leaves me here wondering what Bring Me The Horizon are actually trying to be. At least on an album like Count Your Blessings, you knew that each track was going to match well with the previous.

But then their are the lyrics and themes. And this album seems to be broken up into three parts. The first part from “i apoligise if you feel something” until “wonderful life” are nihilist pieces that range from cult leaders taking advantage of young minds on “MANTRA”, to a re-telling of Everything’s Fine by Jean Grae on “wonderful life”. The second part marks the relationship struggle between Oli Sykes and Hannah Snowdon. “medicine” is about her receiving the same poor treatment than Oli got from her. “why you gotta kick me when i’m down?” is about the negative news that Oli got after the relationship had ended. And the final part is the revelation; a looking ahead rather than regretting the past. “native tongue” is the love song dedicated to Oli’s new partner, and “heavy metal” is Oli accepting the fact that some of their older fans are not going to like this new material.

I do have one major concern with the structuring of this album however. And that is the inclusion of the interlude “fresh bruises” before “native tongue”. “fresh bruises” on its own doesn’t say much, but when you read into the language and the repetition of “Don't you try to fuck with me”, it makes Oli sound incredibly demanding of his new partner. Then to immediately follow that up with the love song felt really weird.

So in terms of the content, I can see some potential. The face value of the story leads me to believe that there is a level of subtext that has to do with depression and anxiety. But as a whole, the music is all over the place. If you’re a fan of this band, I can only see most of you enjoying a handful of tracks and that depends on whether you’re a “hipster” fan who only enjoys the heavy stuff or if you are more willing to give their pop adventure a chance.