ssmarcus I think we can all agree that what the world really needed right now was yet another rock band yelling at us about what's wrong with us and the world. While all of us struggle, both individually and collectively through our overwhelmed political institutions, to withstand nature's latest device for knocking off humans, I am grateful to have Architects reminding us to pay attention to the world's real problems. For decades now, successful musical artists have an established tradition of warning their listeners of the imminent environmental collapse to befall us. As we the sheeple are just too caught up in the undertow of our own selfishness and quest for survival, its up to the artist, detached as he or she might be from frivolous shortsightedness, to educate and inspire us to action. For Those that Wish to Exist, with its totally savage takedown of apathy, will undoubtedly be regarded by history as the turning point.

As important and relevant as the messaging might be, it is further enhanced by the musical breakthroughs explored by the band on this release. By repeating the same formula in nearly every song, the message of imminent doom and the complete moral failure of the human race is drilled into the deepest recesses of the listener's brain. And, in 2021, who would expect a modern metal act to incorporate more and more industrial and electronic accompaniments to an otherwise standard metalcore foundation? Musically speaking, I really don't think it would be hyperbole to crown Architects as the Coldplay of metal. This is music for the masses of consumers looking for an experience of emotion without having to put in any of the work.

I thought about scheduling this review to post on April 1st but realized readers may think I was being sarcastic in my assessment of this record. So here it is a week late for your reading and listening pleasure...

Kingcrimsonprog This was always going to a difficult album. After the passing of Tom, who was the main songwriter, it was never going to be easy to make another record.

Last year however they dropped the excellent single ‘Doomsday’ which was one of the best singles of their career to date, and made this one of the most anticipated comeback albums of recent memory.

Think of albums like Nightmare or The Gray Chapter; when a band looses a member, especially a main songwriter, it always leaves a big mark. Holy Hell has such a mark on it. You can really hear the change in songwriter for example. The music is a bit less technical and a bit more direct. The structures are a bit more straightforward and a bit less expansive. Lyrically, there’s a clear impact. I mean, the opening track is called ‘Death Is Not Defeat’ which tells you everything you need to know.

Its not as heavy as the old Nightmare and Hollow Crown days, nor is it as light as the underrated The Here And Now, but it does it sonically somewhere between Lost Forever // Lost Together and All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us.

Like the aforementioned previous two albums, there is a big focus on melody and floaty electronics and like each album since the beginning, there are plenty of rhythmic breakdowns and a few of Sam’s trademark ‘Bleurgh!’ exclamations. It sounds pretty terrific, not just musically but also with a crystal clear production too. Highlights include the singles ‘Royal Beggars’ and ‘Modern Misery’ as well as the title-track. The best track by far though, is ‘Doomsday’ in my opinion, its one of the band’s best songs period.

It is obviously always going to be an important milestone in their career due to the circumstances of its backstory, but luckily it holds up musically. I wouldn’t jump into a sea of hyperbole and say its the best thing they’ve ever released, but it is a fitting continuation of the legacy and a very welcome addition to the catalogue. It would be a good jumping on point for a new fan and any existing fan would do well to add it to their collection. Skippable it aint.

Kingcrimsonprog All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us was the critically acclaimed 2016 album from British Metalcore champions Architects. It is their seventh full-length release, their most successful to date, and their final album to feature Tom Searle before his untimely and tragic passing. It was produced by Fredrik Nordstrom (Arch Enemy, At The Gates, In Flames) and released on Epitaph records.

Architects fans generally fall into three categories; people who only like the incredibly brash and technical Dillinger Escape Plan-influenced early days. People who worship their breakthrough album Hollow Crown above all else, and people who favour their newest three albums. Me, I’m in the latter camp. My favourite of all their albums is Lost Forever // Lost Together.

My second favourite of all their albums is this. All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us is a real achievement. It is arguably their finest and most diverse record to date and when you take personal favouritism out of it, objectively their best. Their electronic side is fleshed out the best here. Sam’s voice is the strongest its ever been here. The balance between their heavy and contemplative sides is at its most harmonious here. Its got their best lyrics to date in my opinion. The production job is utterly perfect, the twinkling electronics float and the crunchy riffs really crunch.

The musical style comes close to Djent a lot at times especially with the balance of progressive metal style clean beautiful vocals, floating electronics and crunchy rhythmic, awkward riffing. They don’t fully immerse themselves in that one style but fans of it would love this album. Its one colour in their bigger picture. They also look in some more commercial directions here too, and luckily they have the tact and taste not to sound like they’re selling out or anything, again its just one part of a bigger whole. Its a very natural evolution of the style they’ve been refining since 2012’s Daybreaker.

Highlights include the punishing opener ‘Nihilist’ (which is the sort-of title track), as well as the rhythmic single ‘A Match Made In Heaven’ and the touching Anathema-esque closer ‘Memento Mori.’ It fittingly tells us to be mindful of death.

Overall; this is a stunning, tasteful, diverse and beautiful album that lives in a mathy, techy, heavy world too. It is expertly written, played, produced and has some fantastic lyrics. Its one of the band’s better if not best albums and if you like the band you’d be mad to miss it (unless you really only like the earliest stuff only). If you like bands like Tesseract, Circles or Monuments I’d also highly recommend this one to you to try.

Kingcrimsonprog British Metalcore/Tech band Architects have never released a similar album twice in a row. After the brilliant Daybreaker album however, it seems like Architects have definitely decided on their path… holding Hollow Crown in reverence and balancing innovation around that, to masterful effect.

2014 saw the release of the Lost Forever Lost Together album, which feels like a heavier and slightly more sophisticated take on that Daybreaker sound. Its meatier and more complex without necessarily being as obtuse and angular as some of their oldest material or as brash as even the popular Hollow Crown. They also take a few post-rock twists and delve into some spacey textured moments to balance it out, there’s in-your-face power and there’s brooding, and the mix works rather well. This is all topped off with thought provoking socially and environmentally conscious lyrics and an absolutely superb production job that enhances the listening experience further. The band are one of the best bands to do the tech thing without being complex, the brash thing without being caustic and the melodic thing without being saccharine. They are a great example of how passionate and honest this music can be and a standard bearer for quality. They’re not just another band, they’ve got that extra ‘special something’ and this isn’t just another album, it too has some indescribable elevating factor.

As always, the talented musicians do a remarkable job with the construction/performance of the material and the singing is arguably better than ever. Highlights include the pummeling ‘C.A.N.C.E.R’ and ‘Broken Cross’ as well as the quitter ‘Colony Collapse.’ Really though, there’s no filler, no weak tracks and quite literally never a dull moment. If this sort of music is your thing, you ought to check out this record, because it is a particularly good example of it.

I think the easiest way to describe Lost Forever Lost Together is ‘exactly the Architects album you hoped for in 2014’ and I mean that as a very big compliment as well as an honest description of what to expect stylistically and in terms of quality. I caught the band live just as the album was coming out and it got me really excited, the music they played from this album fit so well alongside their back catalogue and was absolutely massive in its own right. If you’ve never heard the band before, and don’t know what to expect, just stick on 'Castles In The Air,' ‘The Devil Is Near’ and ‘The Distant Blue’ and that will give you a good idea of what these guys have to offer.

What this album is, at its heart, is Architects absolutely perfecting their formula and delivering as perfect an example of it as they can possibly muster, throwing everything they have into performance, lyrical craft and all the bells and whistles on top. I highly recommend it to any fan of the genre, the band, or heavy music in general… this isn’t a throw-away record that you won’t be listening to next year… this one is built to last.

Kingcrimsonprog Daybreaker is the fifth full-length studio album by the British Metal/Hardcore band Architects overall, and their fourth since the current frontman Sam Carter joined the band.

When the band began, their sound had about an eighty-twenty ratio of hard and heavy music with a clear Math-Metal influence to light and melodic music with a more Post-Hardcore direction. Over time though they gradually shifted that ratio by about twenty percent towards the more melodic and commercial side of their sound with each new album that they released. Many fans and publications felt that the band had hit upon the perfect formula on 2009′s Hollow Crown album and then the album which followed, 2011′s The Here And Now, was a step too far (despite also being a very good album regardless)

With Daybreaker the band have in-part toned the melodic and commercial side of things down by several notches and made a more logical successor to the style found on Hollow Crown. That being said however, Daybreaker is still their second least heavy album to date and the band have also in-part taken things one step further than on The Hear And Now, as there is a lot of synth, piano and clean singing. Additionally, the album features guest appearances from members of Bring Me The Horizon, Deez Nuts and Stray From The Path.

Daybreaker is rarely as heavy as anything off of Ruin or Nightmares and at times is more melodic and mature than anything on Hollow Crown (save for that album’s title track, which ‘Behind The Throne’ is reminiscent of here) for example the clean middle of ‘Day Break’ and the start of ‘Truth Be Told.’

As a generalization however, this album is also a lot heavier and more intricate than most of The Here And Now, for example ‘Outsider Heart’ and the other three pre-released tracks; so if you liked both Hollow Crown and The Here And Now then this album will likely satisfy you pretty well in a sort of best-of-both-worlds way.

There are several ways you can look at this particular album’s direction and the band’s decision to go a little heavier than last time. If you go for negatively; the band are cynically back-peddling. If you go for positively; the band are putting aside their own musical pride to give the loyal fans what they want, or lastly you can look at it neutrally, that these are just the songs that got written in this particular session with no real game plan. I’d personally land on the neutral option, but at the end of the day its up to you which to believe.

Depending on how you do end up viewing things it may colour how you view the album overall, but I would urge you to try and be as objective and open-minded as possible when listening to Daybreaker and to just allow the music to speak for itself. It may take several spins to really grasp all the little nuances from the performance and become accustomed to the shift in lyrical direction but I feel it is ultimately worth that initial investment in the long run.

As far as I am concerned, Daybreaker is a strong and enjoyable record when judged on its own merits. Tracks like ‘Even If You Win, You’re Still A Rat’ and the aforementioned almost-title-track ‘Day Break’ are up there with some of the best material the band have written to date and would fit into a live set very well, the standard of songwriting and musicianship is incredibly high and the only legitimate reasons not to like it are down to personal preference.

If you’ve heard the pre-released tracks ‘Devils Island,’ ‘These Colours Don’t Run’ and the single ‘Alpha Omega’ before hand, you can probably gauge how much you will like the album already; they aren’t necessarily the hands-down best tracks on the album, but are arguably fairly representative of half of the record’s main musical direction.

I say “half” because there are a few twists and turns in the album overall that aren’t covered by just those three songs (the entire opening & closing tracks and the proggy mid-section to ‘Truth Be Told’ for example, which are all very soft and slightly electronic, almost post-rock in sound) so if what you heard already before the albums release didn’t particularly do anything for you there is still reason to give the album a shot.

Overall, If you only like the band’s more extreme side such as on their debut and haven’t liked anything that they’ve done since, then Daybreaker isn’t going to change your mind at all. If you generally like most of Architects’ music, especially the last two albums, then it is a strong and well-put together album that you should give a try, because regardless of its direction it is definitely a masterfully crafted record.