| CD REVIEW Architects |
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Band : Architects Wow man, I can say I was slightly surprised when listening to Architects' new album! I mean, I'd come across the band's two previous full-lengths, 2007's Ruin (Century Media re-issue, review featuring history-of-the-band up to that point posted 06/08/2008) and its follow-up Hollow Crown (review with update on band posted 23/01/2009), and through 'em (I'd gotten myself a copy of the band's 2006 debut Nightmare as well) had come to know the Brits as starting out with MathCore leanings in their first two albums, before going towards a more sophisticated MetalCore, but overall still quite heavy both in music and vocals! Well, it's almost like the band grew up so fast, they did a complete overhaul! But hey, before getting into more details about that, let's do our update on the band, eh? Oh, catching up, I was able to find out that the band was founded in 2004. Following the release of their Century Media debut Hollow Crown (Ruin not counting, as it was issued through another label first), Architects toured Australia in support of Parkway Drive's Parkway Drive DVD Tour in early 2009...then in October-November headlined the England-based gigs of the Imperial Never Say Die tour, with Dispised Icon headlining the continental Europe dates (other bands on that tour were Horse The Band, As Blood Runs Black, Iwrestledabearonce, Oceano, and The Ghost Inside). They were also openers to the 2009 Epitaph Records Tour, alongside Everytime I Die, Bring Me The Horizon, and Oh, Sleeper, and payed at UK's 2009 Download and Sonisphere festivals. The band started 2010 recording demos for the new album, the final recording sessions of which would be finished by June. Sessions interrupted for an Australia-wide tour (dubbed Soundwave Festival 2010) from late February to early March, which saw the band in support of such music industry greats as Faith No More, Jane's Addiction, Paramore and Placebo. In March the band was main support on A Day To Remember's UK headline tour. In October 2010 Architects headlined a UK tour with support from Norma Jean, Devil Sold His Soul and Rolo Tomassi, and in November they supported Atreyu on a US tour. So far the update on Architects...meanwhile This City (side-project of Sam, Ali, and Tom) is apparently still going, in fact the band also played the 2009 Download festival. Now goin' over to the new material at hand, Architects announced in late August 2010 that “Day in Day Out”, the opening track for their new album, would be the first single off the new album. It was premiered on BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe and Rock Show with a positive reception by their hosts, and is currently the only track available on the band's MySpace page (google “myspace” and “architectsuk” to find it). Stylistically, this track follows the previous album in heaviness, featuring both clean singing as well as a fair amount of screamed vocals. In the following “Learn To Live”, the vocals gear slightly more towards the clean, and also the musical style is somewhat different...more swirling progressive, and with calmer, occasionally Country-ish, passages. “Delete, Rewind.” then, is back to more aggressive antics with great breaks, stops, and a more aggressive vocal soundscape (with clean singing mainly in choruses), but for the ensuing “BTN” the aggro/ clean proportion is turned around in favour for the clean vocal dominance. Then comes the rather surprisingly calm opening “An Open Letter To Myself”, to which a vocal aggression is added only past halfway the track with the atmospherically swirling music picking up a notch as well. I mean, this is a new band altogether, and all that came before on the album was definitely a very appropriate warming up for this intimate and introvert moment. After this more clean/ aggro songs follow, mostly again with that swirling atmospheric touch to the guitars. Exceptions are the vocally entirely aggressive “Stay Young Forever”, the overall calmer ballad “Heartburn” (which even has acoustic guitar play in the opening and closing, and featuring some of Sam's most “Emo”tional singing, with even the backing vocals in such a style only once gong slightly fiercer). Closing track “Year In Year Out/ Up And Away” is a weird one, the first part aggressive with the swirling musical quality and mainly screamed vocals (also in the sparce backings)...and the second part (calmer musically, with a Country flavouring in the most prominent guitar, and an atmospheric background to the second, and with main vocals clean and screamed backing vocals – but they're actually in the far back) only surfacing after half a minute's silence. Not surprisingly, this is the longest track on the album with a length of almost 7 ½ minutes...but then I might be mistaken about the last bit, which may just as well be a hidden 2-minute bonus! I'm sure that those in need for more material before making up their minds about a possible buy of this album will be able to find a page on the album (featuring half-a-minute samples of all other songs) at any of the trusted online sames websites pretty soon, but really if you're into classy Metal, or know what the band's been up to on previous releases, you really shouldn't doubt, as The Here And Now is simply a notch up the Higher Class Metal acts list! It's no longer MathCore or Tech Metal, nor even MetalCore...but a real good album by a band come to age. Hum...first nomination to the “Best Albums Of 2011”, I guess! 98/100 Tony. |
