By Dan Southall
Architects have been punching out material for long enough now that they forego introduction. They are also guilty, like so many other bands, of releasing material that arguably is of an up-and-down crowd (record company) pleasing variety with some pretty good mis-steps in their catalogue.
Fortunately for me I never really found much personally in them until their Holy Hell album that dripped with a deserved venom, and I found the live stream released earlier this year to be the best thing they have ever done (I am a sucker for the drive of live music with no studio trickery added on).
This album though, leaves a weird taste in the mouth. Architects have sailed as close as they can to the modern softer electronic rock driven elements of fellow mid-2000s alumni Bring Me the Horizon. Starting off with an electro motif before jumping into familiar territory, Deep Fake sets up the majority of the album, a back and forth between not quite heavy and an over reliance on electro elements.
Spit the Bone brings a little bit of difference with a Rammstein/Static X single kick swing beat that again is familiar enough that it could be drawn from 100 different tracks. The only real throwback that might be recognised is When We Were Young and lyrically it is as though the band are trying to let go of the heavy music stylings they have arguably excelled at. Born Again Pessimist is another attempt at a heavy track, and while it isn’t bad, I can’t call it original either. The only other original sounding track being A New Moral Low Ground.
That is probably the best way to wrap the album up in a headline style blurb: not bad, but definitely not original. This album will no doubt find a place for fans old and new and will divide the tribes of modern metal, but so far personally, after subsequent spins it fails to do anything other than sound too familiar with at least one other band doing this pop/metal pap.
