Last week, we reported on the BRIT Awards’ opening sequence, which included singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran performing an embarrassing cover of his own track “Bad Habits” with former deathcore act Bring Me The Horizon providing shimmery, Linkin Park-esque “metal” accompaniment (for the record, the song itself was bad by pretty typical Pop Goes Metal standards; the performance, with its Hot Topic breakdancers, was mortifying). Now, Sheeran and BMTH frontman Oli Sykes have confirmed that a studio version of their rendition of “Bad Habits” is on the way.
For the record, this has been a while coming. Back in July of last year, Sheeran talked about being a fan of death metal in his youth, and how he wouldn’t mind dipping his toes back in in the future:
“I was really into death metal as a kid. I listened to Cradle of Filth and Slipknot and all that stuff. I’m not saying I could ever step into that world.
“I learnt all those riffs on guitar as a kid. That’s something I’ve never thought about doing – but something I would not be opposed to creating.”
Which leads us to now, with Sykes posting a video of what feels like a pretty choreographed Facetime call between himself and Sheeran, in which they gush about what an incredible experience the BRIT Awards was and how they’ve got to do a studio version of it. It also features Sheeran saying they need a “proper death growl at the end,” further cementing how wack this whole ‘Let’s make metal pop again!’ thing feels. Meanwhile, Oli also includes a pre-save list for the track, which is apparently. due out this Friday.
Watch the video below, and pre-save the studio version of Ed Sheeran’s “Bad Habits” via a metal band that abandoned metal for fashion rock some time ago:
In closing, ho boy, this’ll be…something.