Photo: wenn

Arctic Monkeys have started work on their fifth album, revealing that the harder sound they have experimented with recenty is set to be a feature of the record.

Despite only releasing fourth album ''Suck It and See'' in 2011, bassist Nick O''Malley has revealed that the band are in the early stages of writing the follow-up, shedding some light on the style of music too.

Speaking to Spinner, O''Malley said: "It''s quite early days yet. We''ve not really got any songs for it at all. So it''s difficult to say what the record will be like. But we''re enjoying playing sort of fast songs at the minute, so maybe that''ll be an indication that it may go that way."

Drummer Matt Helders recently backed up this claim, saying that the sound heard on recent single ''R U Mine?'' is the direction Alex Turner is currently writing in.