This is the hardest type of review to write. There are some good things here, and while I have plenty of criticisms, I don’t want this to come across as a knee-jerk, reactionary review.
So let’s set the stage. Architects completed one of the best three-album runs of all time starting in 2014 with ‘Lost Forever // Lost Together,’ leading into ‘All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us’ in 2016, and ending with ‘Holy Hell’ in 2018. Some people (including me) even think ‘Daybreaker’ from 2012 should be included as part of this epic run.
In this light, the new album is obviously a disappointment. Architects is past their prime. People used to be in awe of their music. Songs like “Nihilist” and “Naysayer” were genuinely impressive. “Memento Mori” remains one of the most powerful songs I’ve ever heard. Architects tapped into something so incredible that they basically created their own genre of metalcore that countless bands tried to copy.
While I don’t want to focus too much on the past, the comparisons make it easy to see where things went off the rails. After all, for six years, Architects could do no wrong. So how have they fallen this far?
Their first mistake was that they didn’t learn from their own past. Architects started out as a mathcore band and had decent success but were overshadowed by other English acts like Bring Me The Horizon. After three albums, they abruptly changed styles in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience, and released a post-hardcore album, ‘The Here And Now,’ in 2011. Fans hated it. And the craziest part is that Architects didn’t do it to get on Octane or some other SiriusXM sellout channel. They just thought going soft was a good idea.
The results were catastrophically bad. Architects immediately tried to distance themselves from it. Tom Searl didn’t want to do interviews or promote the album, and the band later called it a car crash. They released ‘Daybreaker’ only one year later to turn the page on ‘The Here & Now’ as fast as possible.
So after almost accidentally ending their careers by going soft in 2011, you’d think they would have learned their lesson. And yet, after having one of the most insane eight year runs ever, they made the same mistake of going soft in 2021 with ‘For Those That Wish To Exist.’ And then they doubled down a year later with ‘The Classic Symptoms of a Broken Spirit.’ It’s almost unbelievable that they thought the fanbase that supported them because of songs like “Broken Cross” and “Downfall” would want to hear songs that you could play with a toddler in the car.
But they made the same mistake again, and this time around, their egos were a lot bigger than they were in 2011. That’s why they needed to do two albums of soft garbage this time – just to make sure we still really didn’t want it.
Of course, by going heavy again on this new album, Architects have somewhat walked back their 2021 and 2022 albums, just like they shamefully backtracked from ‘The Here And Now’ in 2012. But this constant flip flopping raises big questions about the band’s true motivation.
To me, Architects have lost a bit of their artistic integrity. Sure, they’re giving fans what they want, but it’s pretty clear that the band will go whatever way the wind is blowing. Heavy or soft doesn’t matter, they’ll play whatever helps them get bigger. We saw another version of this when Architects’ guitarist, Adam Christianson, retweeted a right-wing post on Twitter in 2024, showing that not all of the band members hold the same left-wing beliefs that many Architects songs (and arguably a huge part of the band’s identity) is built on. They shamelessly adopt the flavor of the month – embracing whatever style, identity, etc. that will help them get bigger. I offer all of this background information in order to present my biggest problem with this album: The raw emotion that drove their songs for eight years has been replaced with a reluctant, performative energy.
Yes, eight of the 12 songs are heavy. “Blackhole” and quite a few other tracks even have deep low screams that we haven’t heard from Sam Carter before. But it feels inauthentic, just another part of the formula to get back on track and appease fans.
Unfortunately, Architects’ partnership with producer Jordan Fish (who was recently kicked out of Bring Me The Horizon) only made this album more formulaic. Jordan’s influence is unmistakable, often over relying on electronic elements. His work on Poppy’s recent album resulted in “BMTH-lite.” And what’s worse is that Architects has always been two steps behind BMTH, living in their shadow. That problem has now been further exacerbated by the fact that from a certain angle, this album starts to sound more like Bring Me The Horizon b-sides – songs that weren’t good enough to make the cut on ‘Nex Gen’ – than actual Architects songs. It suddenly becomes clear why Sam Carter added so many uncharacteristically low screams. I’m guessing that with the encouragement of Jordan Fish, he is copying Oli Sykes’ style, ripping off the BMTH blueprint. Sadly, Architects has never been on BMTH’s level, and that continues to be the case. Architects have failed to transition to a softer sound twice while BMTH has had such success in every genre, including soft ones, that their fans actively look forward to what they’ll experiment with next.
In an effort to cut Architects a little bit of slack, they did lose Tom Searle, their lead guitarist, and the brains behind the whole operation, in 2016 to skin cancer. They had success with ‘Holy Hell’ in 2018 because Tom left behind a lot of unfinished ideas and recordings that the other members were able to incorporate and build on. But without Tom to steer the ship, they immediately crashed and burned, ending the eight year hot streak that they had been on.
It makes sense then that the band needed a new visionary to point them in the right direction. That person appears to be Jordan Fish.
The problem with this setup is that Jordan Fish doesn’t write lyrics. Typically, that wouldn’t be a problem, but it turns out that nobody in Architects can write lyrics. ‘The Sky, The Earth & All Between’ is full of juvenile, downright embarrassing lines. They’re even more appalling when you compare them to the lyrics Tom Searle wrote. It’s not a completely fair comparison because Tom was dealing with his own mortality, posing existential questions, and coming to terms with his impending death, but after building their identity around impactful lyrics, Architects isn’t even trying to live up to their past. Instead, this album gives us lines like “You dummies only live on the internet,” “You’re fucking lying if you tell the truth,” and “There’s nowhere to go when the sky is the limit” which is the exact opposite of what that phrase actually means.
I’m really not sure what happened. I think Dan Searle (Tom’s brother) is credited for most of the recent lyrics, but Sam Carter wrote lyrics for ‘Hollow Crown’ in 2009 which had some strong themes so I don’t know why he isn’t taking charge of the situation. Maybe he’s out of practice. Maybe he doesn’t have anything worth saying. Maybe this is the best they can do. Or worst of all, maybe they purposely made the choice to write these lyrics because they sell better than those with deeper meaning.
On my first listen, I immediately noticed that a lot of the themes are redundant and rely on the same shtick. “Elegy,” “Brain Dead” and “Seeing Red” all have variations of the words Christ, Jesus, and antichrist. When I looked closer, I realized that almost every single song on this album is a variation of the same thing. Almost every track at least partially revolves around some kind of death (blowing up in “Landmines,” drowning in “Everything Ends,” suffocating in “Evil Eyes,” and the list goes on). These death scenes are almost always paired with some kind of reference to Christianity, but not in a deep, religious way – more like a “pray to God I make it out” kind of way.
“Blackhole” references God and heaven. “Evil Eyes” mentions praying, God, and “a spear through the side,” referencing a soldier spearing Jesus while he was on the cross. “Landmines” and “Judgement Day” also mention God. “Broken Mirror” references praying, heaven, and crosses. “Curse” talks about heaven and praying to God. “Chandelier” mentions angels.
It’s kind of weird, right? Almost every song is about the same thing and has a shallow reference to a religious symbol. There’s almost no originality left once you realize this. It’s a huge crutch that the band is obviously leaning on.
Despite all of these shortcomings, I do find myself enjoying solid chunks of this album. Yes, it’s atrocious compared to their best work, but it’s still better than a lot of other modern metalcore.
“Elegy” is the most convincing track. It’s one of the only songs where I feel like the band is excited to play heavy music again. The choruses in the heavy tracks are also very solid. “Curse” gets stuck in my head, “Blackhole” is good as a “caveman likes heavy music” kind of song, and as much as it pains me to say it, I catch myself singing along to “Seeing Red” on occasion. That being said, it’s kind of a self-own because Architects said the band lives rent free in their haters’ heads…but they’re the ones that wrote the debut single of their album about people that hate their music. Seems like the haters are living in Architects’ heads.
Honestly, who knows where Architects will go from here. They took the criticism of their soft albums so poorly that I can’t imagine anybody actually believes that they made a heavy album because they wanted to. Architects’ decision to go soft again in 2021, double down in 2022 and entrench themselves further, hate on their own fanbase for the last several years, and then reverse course to create a heavy album again is bewildering. They’ve burned so much trust and goodwill among their fanbase that it’s going to take several albums to dig themselves out of this hole. I’ve never seen a band have to learn the same lesson twice like this.
On the other hand, Architects didn’t have much of a choice. It had become glaringly obvious that their transition to alternative rock failed and the only thing left to do was go back to the heaviness. I mean, imagine if they followed the 2021 and 2022 albums with a third soft album? It would have legitimately destroyed their legacy and reputation in the metal community.
Do record labels not have a band strategy person that plans out the future? Or at least somebody to tell these idiots when they’re about to blow up everything they spent 15 years building? Architects used to make metalcore so good that everybody tried to copy them for years. Nobody listens to Architects to hear them play alternative rock – there are a thousand other bands doing that. I’ll never understand why bands abandon the sound that made them famous in order to pursue a mainstream sound. And then they throw it in our faces and say they’re maturing and their music is evolving. Just kill me.
Architects // The Sky, The Earth & All Between
Categories: Reviews
