Architects – “Lost Forever // Lost Together” [Album Review]

Architects: a band. Before I began listening to this particular album by said band, I had maybe only listened to a few songs in the past and somehow always manage to confuse them with the litany of rock/metal bands that are named after plural nouns relating to natural law. But, I digress. This album is Heluva Good Dip. Def. an album where if you’re not careful, you will double dip and get the stink eye from people around you as you get carried away with air drumming.

I don’t know if you’ve been listening to modern rock slash metal lately, but if you’re reading this, chances are that you have, and by now, you recognize there are a handful of trends that once some bands are able to get a handle of them, such as breakdowns or grooves, their entire writing tends to revolve around it, lacking the creative portion of what makes an album memorable. These British cowboys, if England had cowboys, seem to have really taken their time in writing these riffs. They don’t overkill w/ the complication, nor do they stick with chugging a single open string. With a nice amount of tonal movement, they are able to create hooky guitar lines that evolve as songs progress, including some tasteful breaks where lone lead guitar lines trail briefly before slamming into some delicious jen-jen-jen-jen.

Vocals. Vocals are nice, and nowadays, they are more crucial than ever before in a genre that used to be characterized as just some ill-tempered man-child making peculiar sounds with his throat. There are some really sweet vocal arrangements on this album ranging from the harsh yells of “Naysayer” to the melodic, harmonized moments of “Colony Collapse.” Something specific to the Architects’ vocalist that really gets my weenus to stretch is his ability to take yells that are border-line screams and transform them into pitched, singing lines.

I know that we’re only in March, but this album is shaping up to be a best of the year release, at least in the Henry Maneuver Collection of Music That’s Solid as Ballz. Well done, mates!

Track Listing:

01. Gravedigger
02. Naysayer
03. Broken Cross
04. The Devil Is Near
05. Dead Man Talking
06. Red Hypergiant
07. C.A.N.C.E.R
08. Colony Collapse
09. Castles In The Air
10. Youth Is Wasted On The Young
11. The Distant Blue

Run Time: 43:27
Release Date: March 11, 2014

Check out the song “Broken Cross”