When Architects announced their first album after 2022, fans were skeptical. Metalcore as a genre has found a saturation. Sure, the band is one of the pioneers and fan favourites throughout the world. We still didn’t know. The previous album was experimental. The new album needed to go more like circa 2012-2016 Architects. Bands don’t like to do that. Onwards and upwards-always. This one is called, The Sky, The Earth & All Between.
Taken as a lyric from the first song Elegy, the album is heavy. It’s not all great that it is heavy, but unexpected and heavy is a good mixture that is maintained. When the songs were being released as singles, fans were in a frenzy. Especially the meta construction of Seeing Red is something I got looped into.
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The video made fun of metalcore video construction. The song itself had a hundred references to composition. There were riffs, fills and lyrics to say-if I go angry and insane you like it, otherwise you hate emotions? Let me call you out and make a killer song in the process.
All the weight
Then comes the other music. Blackhole and Whiplash were the heavy numbers that brought that thunder back. Something that the fans loved and remembered. Architects are not a band that are going to limit themselves to a bubble. Their prior album almost tore open the internet for its bigotry and trash. This was going to get spiritual and multilayered. You best be prepared for it.
Where the band misses out by a chunk is the lyrical department. Beside a few numbers, the lyrics seem to be regurgitated element. Sure, after 20 years of making music you might get tired and repeat moments here and there. Judgement Day and Everything Ends are songs which become the angst capital of the album. You know the pen has shifted within the band, and perhaps Sam now carries the lyrics for Architects. Either way, there is some charisma drawn off, especially because of the kind of lyrics they were known for.
The experimental dance energy of Everything Ends is a great surprise. I love when metal purists lose it, and I can see many fanatics pop off their headphones the moment this version came. I have always been for Architects experimenting within this very contemporary genre. There are going to be flavours that are not for you.
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This is what you will hear in Landmines. The song itself has a heavy riff and beginning. The verse sections draw the curtains into some electronic mixture with Searle searing through the songs. It still keeps the impact but shows a turn for the new Architects that will build. I really wondered what the journey would sound like for Broken Mirror. It is the kind of song that has a pop beginning, and you might search for the “metalcore” you have always known. Keep waiting, for the chorus finally brings you that heaviness with a reprise that is intense.
Tasting the metal
If the album has such a name, I assume they’re mixing 3 different styles or so. I might be assuming as well. In this entity, Architects pay ode to the kind of music they began with. The kind of music that they played last. The electronic fusion that they might want to bring into the picture. How do we know it’s not just a one time thing? Let the band breathe.
I always liked Tom Searle’s compositions and how they were equally aggressive and vulnerable. R.I.P. Tom. The band has moved into a new phase since his death in 2016 and has to be respected for the onward journey. The brother, Dan, maintains his obliterating drum axis for the band, accenting elements really well. Sam Carter has amazing backing from Adam, where you can hear tonality in voices change. Adam Christianson has been with the band as a touring member, he knows where the shit goes. The machine that Architects’ turn into now is a whole other engine. It runs on another fuel, and is interesting to listen to unveil.
In the end, this is an above-average album which still shows the band limping on its slightly weak points. There are great songs and compositions, but the album does have its water among whiskey. Finding and comparing their music won’t really lead to anything- I am talking about the songs within the album. I have other metalcore bands to go electro and add elements of the sort. Architects are known for crushing lyrics and heavier riffs- all culminating like a meteor (reference: wink wink).
They contain charge, though. The band is able to bring their new A-game, and after this tour, they might have a deeper chemistry in composing as well. For now, they have charted it all and made an album you can enjoy listening to a few times. More than a meh for sure, but not in their greatest:
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Self professed metalhead, moderately well read. If the music has soul, it's whole to me. The fact that my bio could have ended on a rhyme and doesn't should tell you a lot about my personality.
