He still lives in his hometown of Sheffield, so unlike his LA-dwelling peer Alex Turner, he maintains a thick Yorkshire burr. “I wasn’t at all surprised,” Sykes says of the polarised reaction to the album. Yet he is acutely aware that this album is not for everyone, and addresses this in as explicit terms as possible on the track “Heavy Metal”.īring Me the Horizon’s sixth album has seen the shift into different genres, such as electronica, pop and hip-hop Sykes responded by sending them his favourite Shakira song. Even fellow artists have taken aim upon its release, the frontman of another band tweeted that Sykes “sounded like Shakira”. It’s a polarising album from a band who have been dividing fans and critics since they first emerged on MySpace in 2004. Amo also means “love” in the mother tongue of his new wife, and hints at the way love can be weaponised. The final track, “I Don’t Know What to Say”, tackles Sykes’s grief over a childhood friend who died of cancer. Having processed the split, he seems to enjoy a more peaceful lifestyle than his younger years, which involved being arrested in 2007 over an altercation with a fan (an assault charge against him was dropped due to lack of evidence), excessive drinking, depression, and a battle with a ketamine addiction that led to a stint in rehab.ĭivorce isn’t all that Amo is about. Still, divorce may have drawn a line between Sykes’s past and what is now a decidedly healthier existence. (Photo credit should read GUILLAUME SOUVANT/AFP/Getty Images) It sounds like The Cranberries found some kind of closure in this last record.
On it, O’Riordan, who recorded demos for the album’s 11 tracks before her death in January last year, sings: “Fighting’s not the answer/ Fighting’s not the cure/ It’s eating you like cancer/ It’s killing you for sure.” The band have spoken about how O’Riordan was singing about leaving many of the negative things in her life behind. “Wake Me When it’s Over”, the third track on In the End, could be “Zombie”’s twin. She was deeply affected by the deaths, and would no doubt have been devastated by recent events in Northern Ireland as well. “Zombie” was a protest song written by the band’s late frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan after two children were killed by IRA bombs – was released. There’s a cruel irony that the release of The Cranberries’ final album should come just a week after journalist Lyra McKee was shot dead by the New IRA during a riot in Londonderry.