In a genre as oversaturated as metalcore, finding a band with clear, unique ID is like looking for a needle in a haystack. That one, single needle is definitely the all-vegan UK juggernauts ARCHITECTS. Although they just released an equivalent or even superior duplicate version of their top notch 2014’s, universally acclaimed “Lost Forever // Lost Together”, you’ll be more than thrilled to blast your speakers with “All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us”.
Recorded in Gothenburg, Sweden, the seventh opus delivers aggression, ferocity, indignation but most of all it carries an earthmoving, geopolitican awakening message within lyrics. Sam Carter’s incredible vocal range abilities are blueprinted throughout the opening bombastic track, “Nihilist” (which is my album’s favorite both musically and lyric-wise), and reign effortlessly to all the following tracks. The redundancy of the use of electronic elements such as synths, adds in this dark atmosphere they wanted to create in this album, much alike their previous one. “A match made in heaven” is a good example to this; the combination of ethereal pads with downtuned pummeling guitars and heavy, groovy pounding creates that awesome Architect-esque refined sound. Much credit must be given to Tom Searle (guitarist and twin brother of drummer Dan Searle) who wrote and composed all lyrics and music of the album.
Nevertheless, a con that I noticed was that as the album progresses, you find songs tad repetitive, but who cares when awesomeness is multiplied, right? “Gods Have Abandoned Us” draws to a close with Memento mori, starting and ending with the motto: “as above, so below…as within, so without”, while the black metal part at 5:52 will definitely caught you off guard, witnessing them goes Kvlt.
All in all, the Brighton gentlemen have proven once more that a stagnant genre can be rejuvenated when heart is put where mouth is. Embracing sheer inspiration from the appalling world nowadays, ARCHITECTS urge us to raise our voice and sail against the tidal wave, regardless of whether our gods have abandoned us or we’ve abandoned them. Letting political justice aside, I’d easily rate this album an 8 out of 10 BLEGHS!
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