- Country: UK
- Style: Metalcore
- Label: Epitaph Records / UNFD
- Release date: 9 November 2018
There was never going to be an easy way to make this record. It’s the first Architects album since founding guitarist Tom Searle died of skin cancer in 2016, and it was produced by his twin brother Dan, the band’s drummer, together with guitarist Josh Middleton. Grief runs through every song, but Holy Hell never wallows. It hits back.
“Hereafter” shows the shape of the whole thing: a dropped, lurching riff and a vocal that flips from full-throat roar to a chorus sung like every word costs something. “Royal Beggars” is the obvious festival anthem, while “Doomsday”, first heard as a standalone single the year before, finally finds its home here and lands even harder in context.
The production is huge and very polished, maybe too polished on “Modern Misery”, where the groove goes a bit mechanical. Still, “Death Is Not Defeat” and the closing “A Wasted Hymn” hit as hard as anything modern metalcore produced that year. A heavy, honest record that earns its big moments.
Best tracks:
Hereafter
Royal Beggars
Doomsday
Death Is Not Defeat
A Wasted Hymn
Author’s rating: 9.1/10
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