‘Making amo was a slog’, admits BMTH man Oli Sykes

Oli BMTH — (Image credit: Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images)

Bring Me The Horizon’s eclectic 2019 album amo may have been a critical and commercial success for the Sheffield quintet, but frontman Oli Sykes says that the experience was hard work and notes, “We couldn’t do that again.”

Recorded in Los Angeles and co-produced by Sykes and BMTH keyboard man Jordan Fish, amo stands as the most diverse album yet from the Yorkshire band, with pop singer Grimes, Cradle Of Filth frontman Dani Filth and former The Roots rapper Rahzel among its contributing guests. The album debuted at number one in the UK and Australia, and peaked at number 14 in America.

“I’m really proud of that record, but it was a slog – a real ball-ache,” Sykes says in a new interview with NME. “Maybe that’s because we forced ourselves into making an album that wasn’t based on anything that we could do easily. We couldn’t do that again. You spend a year-and-a-bit making a record, people listen to it in 45 minutes and then they’re like, ‘Alright, what’s next?’ It’s like with a Netflix series – you watch all eight episodes in one go and it’s over. It doesn’t last.”

Having previously insisted that Bring Me The Horizon won’t make another album, preferring to focus on more spontaneous releases, Sykes says that the making of the band’s new EP, Post Human: Survival Horror, which features collaborations with Babymetal, Evanescence’s Amy Lee and Yungblud, was a more instantly gratifying experience.

“We wanted to get less precious about our music,” says Sykes. “Some of the music that we’ve written recently has been about not overthinking it and doing what comes from the gut – and it’s probably being received better than the stuff we spent so much longer on.”

As to what comes next for the creatively restless Yorkshiremen, Sykes admits he himself is unsure.

“I’m like everyone else – confused, scared and angry,” he tells NME.“I need to disconnect for a bit and learn some things about myself. I’m hoping that I can go off and have an epiphany moment about what to do next, because at the moment I’ve got no fucking idea.”

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.