Review Summary: Trying to redefine love//AMO
Bring Me The Horizon has been a band of controversies pretty much ever since (at least) their sophomore release, Suicide Season. An already quite drastic shift from the deathcore sounds of their debut Count Your Blessings, in favor of a more melodic metalcore type sound was a surefire reason for some uproar in the scene community. Don’t ask me about the details, I was still wetting the bed in the early 2000s. Every studio release by the band was a shift in sound in comparison to the last, and this almost always went paired with a divided listening audience. This also happened with the bands 2013 release Sempiternal, by many considered to be their magnum opus; you probably know the story, there’s no need for me to go into any further detail about all that.
Fast forward to 2018, sometime in August, now already 4 years ago. The band releases MANTRA onto the world. This was my first encounter with the band. I was interested; it has edgy lyrics, nice riffs, what more could a 16 year old ask for? More singles follow, and the 25th of January the next year, amo is released. Everyone has had or has heard opinions on this record, varying from one person to the next. I’m not here to write about that. What I am here to write about is why I personally think that this record is their magnum opus.
Ever since the album released I’ve had this on repeat. Sometimes it’d be all I listened to, sometimes it needed to make room for more. Around 2020 the album became an emotional safe haven for heartbroken 18 year old me, because I was going through the aftermath of a toxic relationship the size of a jumbo jet. Every word made sense, from the likes of “before the truth will set you free, it’ll piss you off” on MANTRA to the line “Where do you start, when you know it has to end?” off of the still often gut-wrenchingly sad album closer i don’t know what to say. Truly poetic for a big sad, right?
After the storm passes (que the “some people are a lot like clouds you know, ‘cause life’s so much brighter when they go”), and after a hefty amount of cutting off toxic people, the emotional connection vanishes a bit. The reason I had for having the record on repeat was gone. Much like I had with the album as with people (and myself as a person), as the narrative that is pushed by Oli Sykes throughout the 52 minute runtime, I had to redefine love. A love whose fruits are now bigger than they ever could have been. By now, my musical noggin had expanded massively (for proof, I’ll link my Spotify playlist I’ve been keeping up for over a year now, not for flexing, just for sharing😊) and my musical know-how and preferences were crystal clear. Without any further ado and a somewhat oddly placed apology for this long anecdote about my last few teenage years, let’s jump into the actual album itself.
I won’t be going into the album track-by-track, but I will most definitely mention the start of this album, i apologise if you feel something. This atmospheric intro track is the perfect way to let the listener know what kind of soundscapes to expect, whilst also giving you a somewhat clear idea of what is going to be “discussed”. The little vocal passages, heavily manipulated by effects, whispering “feel something”, with a hint of desperation, later on in the song gives you a pretty good general idea. From there on out we go back to 2018 for their first single for this joint, and off we go.
The thing that is the most interesting about this album is where it pulls its additional influences and knickknacks from. Yes, after a couple of listens, it’s clear that this album likes to tear the rock landscape from at least the past 19 years open to create some thickly layered pop-rock mesh with some heavier bits and pieces here and there. But sonically speaking, every single song has an “outside-the-box” element to it, that I don’t think gets praised enough. From strings on the last leg of in the dark to the horns playing while wonderful life is coming to a close, it all pops, and for some weird magical reason, it doesn’t sound unfocused by the end of it. The weird trippy interlude ouch, that starts off as an emo Aphex Twin-esque idm track turns into a full-on future bass-esque song, all within the track’s short length, or the weird house/trance/techno-y breakdown on nihilist blues are two great examples of song structure and sound that is alien to many people within the metal community, a great thing to point to when talking about the polarizing effect the band has on its fans and the heavy music scene as a whole. To add insult to injury, the band flips every single one of those so-called haters off with a trap-inspired song later on in the record being why you gotta kick me when i’m down?. The result of this is, as mentioned earlier, a divide. The love/hate relationship caused by said divide is the general theme of the song heavy metal, which discusses this need for Bring Me The Horizon to not stay in one certain musical spot, not wanting to be put in one specific musical box. The album closer was already discussed earlier, but wow. This song still can sound like a beautiful stab in the heart at the end of this (albeit edgy) emotional rollercoaster.
Let’s not pretend, music from this side of the heavy music scene, doesn’t matter if it’s metalcore or a poppy residue of said heavy music circa 2019 has always been edgy. But that’s okay, just embrace it, it’s part of the narrative. This almost desperate call for love to me doesn’t run stale by the end of it, a song like sugar honey ice and tea is a perfect example for this edge and this disparity. The song comes to an end with a gasping for air Mr. Sykes telling us “and we all march on like we know the way to heaven. Who the hell died and made you the king”, which is followed by a play on the “what do we want? when do we want it? RIGHT NOW” kind of chant; truly exhilarating.
I’ve stayed away from writing a review for this album for a while now, not thinking anything I write down about it can wholly do it justice. I still can’t fully put into words what this album means to me, and why I think it is truly so great. I don’t know if you should classify this as metal, rock or pop; truth is I don’t really care. I didn’t see it coming ;), but when talking about “The Greatest Albums of the 2010s”, you can bet I’ll bring this up every time, I don’t care if I die alone on that hill. This body of work is, in my opinion, their absolute best.
