ARCHITECTS HIT BACK WITH 9TH RECORD "FOR THOSE THAT WISH TO EXIST"
Brighton metal giants, Architects, are back with their 9th record, For Those That Wish To Exist. This marks the first record without influence from Tom Searle, who died in 2016 after a long fight with cancer. Even at their 9th full length album, the band finds a way to reinvent themselves with songs that will sound huge in both clubs and arenas. The singles were all very different, although electronica based, which is a new flavor they’re trying and they hit it out of the park.
The album opens with “Do You Dream of Armageddon”, which drummer Dan Searle says was influenced by Hans Zimmer (film composer of soundtracks such as Pirates of the Caribbean). It very much sounds like it with instrumentation which flows nicely into the second track, “Black Lungs”, one of the latest singles.
This is a song that gets stuck in your head with a huge hook and vocalist Sam Carter hasn’t sounded better. This is one of the songs that deals with the impending doom of the climate crisis facing the world. Sam Carter is in your face, immediately sounding the alarm on how desperate it is.
“Black lungs for the young if they dare to breathe/ Sure sounds like heaven to me/ You’ve got to cut the roots to kill the weeds.”
The band has never shied away from talking about current issues head on, such as on “Modern Misery” off of the last record, Holy Hell, which also dealt with climate change and shortage of resources for humanity.
For Those That Wish To Exist has several huge features such as Winston McCall from Parkway Drive on “Impermanence”, “Little Wonder” featuring Mike Kerr of Royal Blood, and Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro on “Goliath”.
“Impermanence” is on the darker side with the visceral voice of Winston right after the breakdown. It talks about the downsides of religion and of the general “higher being” that religions like Christianity have used as ways to frighten people about living because you’ll be judged when you die if you can get into Heaven. It’s best summed up in the verse that Winston McCall takes:
“Do you really want to live forever?/ Cuz those afraid to die will never truly live.”
The track “Little Wonder” with Mike Kerr is from the position of using things to distract from what is really going on in the world and believing in an easy life.
“I want to sing you a different song, one that’s easier to swallow/ Everything is fucking fine.”
The repetition of “everything is fine” is haunting, especially now because at the beginning of the pandemic, the United States government was telling the American people everything was going to be okay and we would be out of this “by Easter” (which almost a year later we know wasn’t true).
The third feature is Simon Neil from Biffy Clyro. The song immediately hits you in the face with chaotic guitars and drums, and the bellowing scream of Sam Carter. This song seems to be about religion and governments being predatory, with the analogy of snakes in the gutter hunting rats to eat.
“Bury your head in the sand/ soon you’ll be feeling the fangs/ so sleep with two eyes open.”
The first single from the record, “Animals” appears later in the record and it’s still as much of a stand out track as it was when it was first dropped. It is also is one of my favorites, and I cannot wait to experience this song live. This is another wake-up-call type song saying humans are nothing more than just “a bunch of fucking animals. But we’re afraid of the outcome.” This song again addresses that humanity’s actions have real repercussions on the Earth. There are literally sirens in the song to address the emergency we’re living in and how dire the situation is.
The song “Demi God” is incredibly satisfying, as is the sweet lyric
“I must’ve forgot, I’m a demi God”
with the rush of sweeping instrumentation behind the vocals. Regardless of any criticism, I fell in love with “Demi God”, especially when the rumbling percussion joins in and the dreamy sweeping instrumentation returns. This song is again about humanity, but also feels like an internal fight over the impact humans are making on the Earth and the impact you make in your own bubble. The lyric
“It feels like a glass half empty/ is more than I’ll ever have”
is really powerful.
A lot of these songs will sound huge in an arena or in a large venue that Architects are clearly aiming for. We can only hope touring comes back ASAP so we can see these songs translate into mayhem in crowds among other songs like “Holy Hell” and “Doomsday”.
Overall, I’d give this album an 8/10. Although some songs fall flat, there are important messages in a lot of these and the world really does need our help to try and save it for the next generation.