Amo (Bring Me the Horizon album)
Amo (stylised in lowercase) is the sixth studio album by British rock band Bring Me the Horizon. Originally scheduled for release on 11 January 2019, it was released on 25 January 2019. The album was announced on 22 August 2018, a day after the release of the lead single "Mantra".[2] It was produced by vocalist Oliver Sykes and keyboardist Jordan Fish, and was written and recorded primarily in Los Angeles.[3]
Amo
25 January 2019
- Sphere and MDDN Studios[1]
- Los Angeles, US
- The Cinnamons[1]
- Sheffield, South Yorkshire
51:54
The album was preceded by five singles. The lead single, "Mantra", was released on 21 August 2018. The second single, "Wonderful Life" featuring Dani Filth of Cradle of Filth, was released on 21 October 2018. The third single, "Medicine", was released on 3 January 2019. The fourth single, "Mother Tongue", was released on 22 January 2019. The fifth single, "Nihilist Blues" featuring Grimes, was released on 24 January 2019. "Sugar Honey Ice & Tea" was released as the album's sixth single on 26 July 2019.
"In the Dark" was released as the album's seventh single on 21 October 2019.
The band embarked on the First Love World Tour in 2019 in support of the album.[2] In the 22 August 2018 issue of Kerrang!,[4] they described the album as "varied", "free", "weird" and "mental", with NME noting that "Mantra" continues the electronic and pop rock elements featured on the band's previous studio album, That's the Spirit (2015).[2] "Mantra" subsequently debuted at number one on the UK Rock & Metal Chart,[5] and its video was released on 24 August.[6] Upon its release, the album was met with critical acclaim and was later nominated for a Kerrang! Award for Best Album as well as the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album.[7][8]
Background and promotion[edit]
The album, named after the Portuguese word for "I love",[A] was first promoted by an advertising campaign of billboards across London and other cities worldwide with symbols used by the band in the past on them, along with the words "Do you wanna start a cult with me?", which are lyrics from "Mantra".[2][10] A website titled joinmantra.org was also launched that stated "Salvation will return",[11][2] and a phone number that when called featured various audio clips at different times, including one of a woman named Samantha stating "They're making me do this. I didn't know what I was getting myself into."[2]
The song "Mantra" was subsequently premiered on BBC Radio 1,[12] with Sykes saying to Annie Mac: "It's basically—we've gone off and recorded some stuff and this is the first thing we've wanted to show people of our return. It's quite different but it's got similarities—it's what we wanted to share with the world."[12] Sykes stated that "Mantra" is "not really" representative of the sound of the whole album, also saying "every song on the record is completely different. It’s a lot more experimental than our last record."[9]
On 21 October, the band released their second single "Wonderful Life" featuring Dani Filth, along with the tracklist for Amo. That same day, the band announced that the album release date has been delayed to 25 January 2019.[13]
On 3 January 2019, the band released the third single "Medicine" and its corresponding music video.[14] On 22 January, the band released their fourth single "Mother Tongue".[15] On 24 January, the band released their fifth single "Nihilist Blues" featuring Grimes.[16] On 26 July, the band released the sixth single "Sugar Honey Ice & Tea" alongside an accompanying music video.[17] On 21 October, the band released the seventh single "In the Dark" alongside an accompanying music video featuring Forest Whitaker.[18][19]
Composition[edit]
Influences, style and themes[edit]
Sykes stated about the album: "amo is a love album that explores every aspect of that most powerful emotion. [...] It deals with the good the bad and the ugly, and as a result we've created an album that's more experimental, more varied, weird, and wonderful than anything we've done before."[20] He later commented that Amo is a concept album about love, as "Everything boils down to love in the end".[9] Sykes also said that some of the lyrical content concerns his divorce.[21] The genres of the album has been described as pop rock,[22] electronic rock,[23] electropop,[22] synth-pop,[22] EDM,[22] alternative rock,[24] electronica,[23] hard rock,[25][24] pop metal,[26] and pop.[27][24] The album also contains elements of hip hop[24] and trap.[28][24]
Notes