Heavy Ambition: The Evolution of Architects

Photo: Ed Mason

The fact that news of Architects’ latest arena-conquering plans doesn’t come as a surprise is testament to the way they have cemented their spot at the top over the past two decades.

On their recently-unveiled 11th album ‘The Sky, the Earth & All Between’ the Brighton band’s sense of ambition is undimmed, with Sam Carter’s usual haul of skyscraping hooks matched by churning heaviness dredged from their early days as pioneers in the UK’s burgeoning mid-2000s metalcore scene.

Later this year they’ll pitch up at Manchester’s Co-Op Live, the Utilita Arena in Cardiff and London’s O2 Arena alongside Wage War and House Of Protection (tickets go on general sale at 10am on March 14), so here we take a look back at five stepping stones on their way to their blockbuster present day, navigating a discography that takes in crushing, complex metal, glimmering synths, eco-activism and harrowing grief.

Early Grave - ‘Hollow Crown’ (2009)

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Metal history is littered with third albums that delivered the goods — ‘Reign in Blood’ meet ‘Master of Puppets’ meet ‘White Pony’ — and Architects’ ‘Hollow Crown’ is part of that tradition. It’s also a capper on the early part of their career, with the mathier aspects of their first LP (with original vocalist Matt Johnson) relegated to the background along with the almost-there metalcore brutality of Sam Carter’s first outing with the band, 2007’s ‘Ruin’. Songs such as Early Grave are absolutely ruthless, dialling up forward-thinking riffage and throat-wrecking intensity in a manner that they never would again. This is still a high watermark for a noisy subset of fans.

Gravedigger - ‘Lost Forever // Lost Together’ (2014)

Nothing happens all at once and, much like albums one and two being representative of a band casting about for the right blend of influences, post-‘Hollow Crown’ Architects needed a couple of swings to really connect with the sound that would carry them forward. ‘Lost Forever // Lost Together’ followed two rapid-fire outings (2011’s ‘The Here And Now’ and the following year’s ‘Daybreaker’) that broadened their horizons melodically and texturally without ever really finding firm footing. You only have to give Gravedigger a cursory spin, though, to catch their drift. In its meshing of hooks and horsepower it is bolder and more authoritative than anything preceding it, thrashing and biting even as Carter pushes the band into uncharted pop-leaning territory.

Memento Mori - ‘All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us’ (2016)

Released a matter of months prior to guitarist Tom Searle’s death from cancer, ‘All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us’ is a monument to all he achieved as the creative fulcrum in Architects. It is always tempting to reappraise art after the fact, to understand it better when it catches the light differently due to new information or circumstances, but there’s not really any need to do that here. Searle’s writing is weighty and unflinching, pulling together some of the most coruscating sounds in the band’s history (see the opener Nihilist) and also the most complex. That’s never more apparent than on the mammoth closer Memento Mori, a quasi-industrial epic so weightlessly melodic that you almost don’t notice the grinding, gut-level riffage underpinning it.

Dead Butterflies - ‘For Those That Wish to Exist’ (2021)

A lot of bands spend so much energy getting to where they want to go that they’re hollowed out when they finally arrive. Not Architects. Their rise to arena mainstays has been gradual and considered, just like the tweaking of their approach that has accompanied playing massive rooms on the regular. Their changing palette might have proven divisive — see the noisy ‘Hollow Crown’ subset — but it doesn’t come from a place of complacency. They have continued to toy with new arrangement styles and, increasingly, synths to fill out these grand halls, where churning, 100mph guitars are often swallowed whole. Records such as ‘For Those That Wish to Exist’ are packed with moments precision-tooled to do a particular job — take Dead Butterflies, for example. Its soaring brass hook is designed to reach all the way to row Z. You might not dig it, but you can’t deny its effectiveness.

Elegy - ‘The Sky, the Earth & All Between’ (2025)

The urge is always there for an old fighter to step through the ropes again. It’s part muscle-memory and, more pointedly, about proving to yourself that you can still hang. ‘The Sky, the Earth & All Between’ is Architects reasserting their arena-metal credentials, but that doesn’t mean they don’t also want to throw down from time to time. Opening the record, Elegy is a bait-and-switch, where a pristine pop hook and twinkly synths are quickly crushed between the wheels of frantic, gnarly riffs and death growls. It comes full circle with the chorus before a spinkick-worthy breakdown. Architects clearly know who they are, but here they show that they still know who they were back in the day.

Architects Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:

Wed March 12 2025 - NANTES Zenith (France)
Fri March 14 2025 - LYON Halle Tony Garnier (France)
Sat March 15 2025 - ZURICH Hall (Switzerland)
Tue March 18 2025 - MADRID Palacio Vistalegre (Spain)
Wed March 19 2025 - BARCELONA Razzmatazz (Spain)
Sat March 22 2025 - LISBON Meo Arena (Portugal)
Wed October 01 2025 - MUNICH Zenith (Germany)
Fri October 03 2025 - STUTTGART Porsche Arena (Germany)
Sat October 04 2025 - DUSSELDORF Mitsubishi Electric Halle (Germany)
Sun October 05 2025 - FRANKFURT Festhalle (Germany)
Tue October 07 2025 - AMSTERDAM Ziggo Dome (Netherlands)
Wed October 08 2025 - HAMBURG Barclays Arena (Germany)
Fri October 10 2025 - MANCHESTER Co Op Live
Sat October 11 2025 - CARDIFF Utilita Arena Cardiff
Sun October 12 2025 - LONDON O2 Arena

Compare & Buy Architects Tickets at Stereoboard.com.

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