Architects sound more deliberate than ever on The Classic Symptoms of a Broken Spirit

The once-metalcore turned rock heavyweights have become household names in the same breath as that of Bring Me the Horizon – from conquering arenas with their sing along gut punches, and an empty The Royal Albert Hall for a pandemic live stream, to performing with an orchestra at Abbey Road Studios. And for a band with an 18-year lifespan, a change of sound was inevitable, their tenth album being a verification of this.

On the classic symptoms of a broken spirit the five-piece, fronted by Sam Carter, sound more deliberate than ever. Alongside their intent to create intensity and emotion, drummer Dan Searle, guitarist Josh Middleton and Carter all have a hand in the album’s production. “Spit the bone” sounds almost unrecognisable as an Architects track in comparison to 2009’s Hollow Crown with its processed sounding vocals. “Burn down my house” takes a different direction with a slower tempo and more clean melody leads than ever. The strength of Carter’s vocal performance is undeniable, switching between shouts, airy highs to distorted belts. In an act of clever track listing, the flexibility of Carter’s voice is illustrated from the distorted “when we were young” to his effortless falsetto register in “doomscrolling.”

Latecomer “a new moral low ground” is one of the record’s defining moments. A drop into heavier waters, it dabbles in production atmospherics – the same type that made them arena headliners – making riffs even more impressionable and modern. Even a guitar solo is featured in a turn of events, but while some of the heaviness in there, the immediacy and intensity of single note riffs are missed. Closer “be very afraid” was always going to be worthy of note from the title alone, an explosive track that proves the band can surprise you at the last given moment. Twisting guitars, big drums and stops would make it the perfect live contender. Bird song closes the album, complacent to its pensive opening synth.

This is a band still keen to experiment – a flourishing ensemble ahead of the alternative music curve. Architects’ rivals might be hanging off their every word for the next instructions of what the future of metalcore looks like – and it just might be more controlled than what they initially expected.