The Cranberries release new Dolores O'Riordan song on the anniversary of her death

O'Riordan's unmistakable voice resonates through the new material

Exactly 12 months after Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan's death, her bandmates have opened up about their "painful year".

The group were speaking to BBC Radio 2 as they premiered All Over Now, a new song using vocals that O'Riordan recorded before she died.

A heartbreaking story of domestic abuse, the song captures the band at their emotional best.

O'Riordan was found dead in a London hotel room on 15 January 2018.

Eerily, the new song opens with the lyric: "Do you remember that night at a hotel in London?"

But the song ultimately celebrates a woman who escapes a cycle of violence. Her story remains unfinished, however, as O'Riordan only left a single verse and chorus for her bandmates to work with.

Speaking to Jeremy Vine, guitarist Noel Hogan said working on the track had been emotionally draining.

"The hardest part for us was, a couple of month after she'd passed, you start going back through the demos," he said.

"It was hard at first to listen to Dolores coming through the speakers like that. I found you could only take x amount of time a day."

Having taken some time out to come to terms with O'Riordan's death, the band have now completed an entire album of music, using demos they recorded in late 2017.

The band will split after releasing this final album

Titled In The End, it will be released in April. After that, the band - who rose to fame with songs like Linger and Zombie in the 1990s - will split permanently.

Hogan said he hoped the album would be "a celebration this band and Dolores and the legacy we'll leave behind".

O'Riordan was just 46 years old when she was found dead in the bath of her hotel room at London's Hilton Park Lane on 15 January last year.

The mother-of-three from Limerick, Ireland, had suffered with depression and alcoholism in the past, and was more than four times over the legal limit for driving when she died.

An inquest ruled her death was caused by drowning due to excessive alcohol consumption.

However, her bandmates said the star had been in "good spirits" in the months leading up to her death.

"Over the years we probably collectively spent more time together than we have with our own families," said Hogan.

"When you're on tour, you get to know people so well - their good point and their bad points [and] especially the troubles Dolores had.

"And Dolores never made a secret of that. She was very good [at] recognising there was a problem with herself.

"So there were times when you would worry a lot about her. But the weird thing for us is that, particularly the last couple of years, she was in really, really good spirits.

"Things had turned around and she seemed to be heading the other direction, away from all of that.

"And especially the months of writing this album, she was sending ideas all the time and you were thinking, 'This is fantastic, she's got so much to say right now.'"

In a statement announcing the album, O'Riordan's mother Eileen said: "I miss her awfully, especially today, as does the entire family.

"That said I can't think of a more fitting way to commemorate the first anniversary of her passing and to celebrate her life than to announce to the world the release of her final album with the band.

"She was very excited about this new album and was really looking forward to its release. I have no doubt that she is happy now and would be delighted with today's announcement."

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