“The last record was a very personal thing,” Asking Alexandria vocalist Danny Worsnop tells Apple Music. “This one, not to sound in any way negative about it, but it's not.” On their eighth album, the UK metalcore stars ditch their trademark introspection—for the most part—in favour of delivering a crowd-pleaser. “We didn't want to experiment or explore anything new,” Worsnop says. “This wasn't about reinventing the wheel or pushing any boundaries. It's very much intended to be a synopsis of the last 15 years, and a collection of everything we've done all in one place. So all the various pockets of fans from all the various flavours of sound we've had can have one cohesive thing together before we step forwards into what's next.” Worsnop and guitarist Ben Bruce approached the album’s lyrics in the same spirit. “It was ‘What subjects have we touched on over the last 15 years that people seem to have resonated with?’” Worsnop says. “That became our list of topics. But I’m writing these songs for other people, not myself. People who complain on the internet could call it selling out, but we're just trying to create a product that people have been asking for.” Below, he comments on each track. “Bad Blood” “This one has the aggression and angst and all the screamy stuff from the first two records mixed with the pop and R&B elements from the last I don't know how many years. It’s definitely the balls-to-the-wall, big, loud, angry one. I don’t think ‘heavy’ is a real thing, by the way. It’s a sliding scale, a unit of measurement that isn’t quantifiable. But for those who would use the descriptor of ‘heavy’, that’s what this song is there to be.” “Things Could Be Different” “That's the first song I wrote for the album. This one and the last song on the album are the only songs that kind of touch on my personal life. There were a couple more I wrote that didn't make the album because I'd approached them the same way as I usually would, where it was personal moments from my life that I'm sharing, and exploring myself through the songs, because I'm a very emotionally mature human being who knows how to talk about his feelings. That's a joke—I'm not. So I write songs.” “Let Go” “We wrote a song once upon a time that seemingly overnight became our biggest song ever, and we wrote it 12 years into our career, which is very rare, and not many artists get to say that. And we have been chasing the success of ‘Alone in a Room’ ever since. I don't think we'll ever beat that song, but this is our hat-tip to that. This is the big, bouncy, radio-friendly, full-stadium-of-people-singing-along number.” “Psycho” “It’s tongue-in-cheek. It's a bit cheesy and corny—just a big, bombastic, almost humorous rock song. It's just a bunch of fun. I think there's a lot of subject matter within the song that's a bit darker, but it never feels that way. It's just a big, fun rock song. I never want to be too serious. I like my rock to be Van Halen and Aerosmith. I don’t care about it being Metallica and Slayer.” “Dark Void” “This was the first single, and that was kind of by design. It's another one that has that harkening back to the early work, but at the same time does incorporate a lot of the more modern stuff. It's probably the most well-rounded song on the album in terms of bringing everything into one place. It's a good window sticker of what the rest of the album holds, so it was kind of a no-brainer for it to be the first single.” “Nothing Left” “That one actually got really popular right away, even though people haven't really heard it. There was a little clip of it at the end of ‘Dark Void’ when it came out, and people haven't stopped asking about it. So hopefully it follows through. But I don't really know how to describe the song properly. I think it manages to showcase our electronic aspects very well, often in a stand-alone way. It's very different than everything else on there, while still having that old feel. It’s the outlier, the black sheep.” “Feel” “This one's a very big jump-along head-banger. I think it's going to be a big crowd-pleaser, but of course we don't get to make that decision. It’s very driving and powerful throughout. But inevitably most of these songs won’t get played live, unfortunately, same as most of our discography in general. We have eight albums and only so much time onstage. What usually happens, and this is the reality of being Danny Worsnop, is that my favourites won’t get played. Maybe. That’s how we pick singles as well. ‘What’s Danny’s favourite? Don’t go with that one.’” “Let the Dead Take Me” “This one sort of has that kind of chanty anthem feeling, and almost a cinematic aspect to it. Akin to ‘When the Lights Come On’, ‘If You Can’t Ride Two Horses...’—stuff like that, where it has the very sing-along, shout-along sensibility to it. It almost feels communal, which is a strange way, I think, to describe a song—but when people hear it, it'll make sense. It's not necessarily a song to listen to as much as it is one to join in with.” “Kill It With Fire” “This song is probably the most interesting story on the entire album. I have heard that song one time, after it was on the album, and probably after you did. It was a last-minute addition by Ben, and he did all of it himself. I got asked in an interview about that song, and I had no idea what it was. I don’t want to speak on his behalf as to where it came from, but it was something Ben put together himself.” “Holding On to Something More” “This song, to me, has almost a punk feeling to it, obviously the more pop side. It’s got the upbeat, fast-paced high energy. I think the topic is leaving things that aren't necessarily the best for you, despite how attached to them you may be, which is a difficult thing at the best of times. And the acknowledgement of that is, I think, an important part of people's process in life, which is why it's been a thematic part of our music for a long time.” “Where Do We Go From Here” “This one wasn't supposed to be on the album at all. When we talked about the record being an amalgamation of everything we’ve done prior, one of the first things I said was, ‘And there isn’t a ballad.’ Because that’s always my thing—that’s my addition to the album. But this album isn’t about me, and it isn’t for us. When we finished, everybody started calling me on the same day basically saying, ‘This needs the Danny song.’ It was strange timing because I was writing this song for my next solo record. It felt like the universe sending a sign that it was supposed to be here. It’s something very personal for myself that turned out to be very personal for the band as well. And then it became the album title.”