Review: For Those That Wish To Exist - Architects

 Review: For Those That Wish To Exist

All the reviews and media surrounding this album continually talk about the fact that this is a departure from the previous three Architects outings in that it is moving past their grieving of Tom Searle. The previous LP from the Brighton group, 'Holy Hell', explored this to great acclaim and success, forming one of the bleakest yet beautiful metal records to come out in recent times. You could even see in their live performance how much of an affect Tom's death had on the band, not just in Sam's speech but in the sorrowful and furious out pour when they play 'Gone With The Wind'. So it's no doubt that such strong emotion made for such good music, begging the question of quite how the group would move on and follow this up on the new album? Well, the answer seems to be that instead of swapping this fury, grief and sorrow for other emotions, they've simply put them onto a new platform, adding in a touch of hope for good measure. 

Although Architects have never shied away from talking about their passionate defense of the environment and the urgency of the climate crisis, this took a bit of a backseat in the last few years. So back they come, one of the few groups or public figures who are still making the climate an important feature in news feeds and timelines, with most moving over to Covid and topical issues. Not afraid to say it like it is, Sam screams 'This world is dying in our arms... You wanna make hell a reality?', saying it a bit better than some others have tried, which is the benefit of metal's brutality. But Dan Searle, now in charge of songwriting for the group, doesn't leave the band out of the conversation and accusations: 'Will we ever learn our lesson? We all fall in parallel'. It's easy enough to call out authorities for inaction on climate change, but it takes a bit more to realise we are just as much a problem, and even more to write about it.

The band manage to look a bit deeper than the simple issue of global warming. On 'Discourse Is Dead', they show the difficulty of unity, 'We're all sisters and brothers/ But if you're one of the others, then fuck you'. 'Little Wonder' speaks of the ambivalence of the masses, the way in which most people turn a blind eye or simply virtue signal their support for change because of how much needs to happen for the change. 'Animals', one of the best tracks on the record, looks at the personal feelings towards trying to make change, 'I do my best, but everything seems ominous', taking the discussion away from impersonal politics. As much as the band try to write about solutions and look for hope and optimism, even they get bogged down in the hopelessness of it all, 'Meteor' is the closest the band have got to an anthem or Arena Rock and yet it's just about how we're all going to die... nice. 

It's hardly a one-note record though, still tackling mortality, existence and the human experience just like its predecessors. 'Dead Butterflies' feels as if it would fit very well thematically in 'Holy Hell' looking at the sort of day to day depression that makes us struggle to find happiness, something a lot of people experienced as a result of the pandemic. 'An Ordinary Extinction' takes another stab at the personal view of collective extinction, the feelings of impending doom that cause so much anxiety. Dan's writing speaks to a lot of young people who feel cheated and betrayed by the older generations, not just because of the climate crisis but in all aspects of their authority, 'Black lungs for the young if they dare to breathe'. There are a couple classic looks at mortality, the heavy as hell 'Impermanence', asking questions such as 'Do you really want to live forever?' and the beautiful acoustic closer essentially being poetry over soft instrumentals. Searle even looks at a bit of religion on this record, with frequent references to God on 'Dead Butterflies', religious imagery on 'Black Lungs', 'Libertine' and 'Goliath', giving a really rounded and complete lyrical feel.

Musically, the album is a partial departure, closer to the second half of 'Daybreaker' in some sections than it is to the rest of their discography. On the longer side at 58 minutes the LP manages to touch in on most bases, with booming metalcore on tracks like 'Impermanence', 'Goliath' and 'Discourse is Dead', showing that the band still has some real heaviness left in them. 'An Ordinary Extinction' goes one further, with some of the heaviest instrumentals on an Architects for a while, even if the vocals are mostly clean over it, but Sam still shows off he can scream and growl with the best of them. Having said that, Sam's vocals are very different to the previous works from the band, with much less screaming and growling, not a single signature 'blegh' and really showing off some vocal range in his clean voice. Dan's drumming is as incredible as ever, blast beats dispersed throughout with some fantastic and inventive fills, complimenting the guitars' ranging intensity. 

But the band show that they're more than just a riff-heavy, breakdown fest, with three of the fifteen tracks being nigh-acoustic soft ballads, 'Do You Dream Of Armageddon' and 'Dying Is Absolutely Safe' serving as soft bookends. The opener is somewhat unremarkable, with the closer being a genuinely beautiful and fantastic look into mortality and the human experience whilst being the most musically delicate the band have perhaps ever been. 'Flight Without Feathers' sits in the middle of the track list, giving a bit of respite, adding some electronic and synth elements that the group have only previously experimented with. They take this further with 'Giving Blood' and 'Animals', to varying success. Some tacks manage to perfectly blend the mix of classic Architects with the newer sound, such as 'Little Wonder' and 'Demi God'. 'Meteor' is what sounds like the band's attempt at a hit single, getting in to the realms of arena rock and will probably be used to open a lot of their live shows, not that this is a bad thing, it's a fantastically constructed track that will fuel plenty of pits.

The features on the record were the main topic of conversation before the release of the album, and I genuinely think they're some of the best to exist within heavy music. Not only are the songs fantastic in their own right, but they show off elements of the featured artist's style while having them lend their voice to some fantastic Architects-esque moments. 'Impermanence' is one of the heaviest on the record and features some absolutely incredible growls, something the album was sorely missing until that point. The calm instrumentals between verses perfectly build up to the massive breakdowns, truly one of the biggest. On 'Little Wonder' you can once again hear Mike Kerr and Royal Blood's influence, synths and electronic elements scatter the track, but with Mike's vocals falling into a style similar to that of Sam's and adding a nice backing element giving the vocals more texture. Finally, the best feature of the three, and up there with the best songs on the album, is Simon Neil's from Biffy Clyro. The rapid-fire drum beats, Biffy-esque vocals and song structure all come together in such a fantastic way. Most importantly, Simon's feature is just incredible, his screams are in the league with some of the best and match Sam's so perfectly yet still so uniquely his. 

However, there are definitely some issues with the album as a whole. Despite the handful of truly excellent and heavy songs, it does feel at times as though some of what makes Architects so fantastic has been lost, feeling a bit like a band impersonating Architects alongside their own material. The new and different stuff is good, but as a part of the record it doesn't quite fit and can make it feel a bit disjointed, with a couple of the tracks such as 'Demi God' feeling like it's going nowhere without much of an idea of what it's trying to do. A few tracks also just don't really work, 'Giving Blood' has a couple of production issues, the beginning sounding overly crowded and muddled to the point where the vocals just sound bad. 'An Ordinary Extinction' is a song that should work on every level, but the mix of overly heavy instrumentals and soft clean vocals at the opening doesn't work the best, and comes to too little too late. 

Having said that, Architects have once again come through with an absolutely fantastic record, with so many stand out tracks and such a sense of cohesion throughout. The lyrical themes I've looked at tie all the tracks together so well, with enough variety to stop it going stale and a sense of progression throughout, largely helped by the acoustic tracks, that make it feel like it really goes somewhere from the start to the end. 

All in all, 'For Those That Wish To Exist' closes the previous chapter of the band's discography with an almighty bang, with hopes for more in the future. 

8/10

Favourite tracks: Dead Butterflies, Goliath, Discourse Is Dead, Impermanence, Dying Is Absolutely Safe, Animals, Black Lungs 

Least favourite tracks: Giving Blood, An Ordinary Extinction, Demi God

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