Review Summary: A Rare Band That Has The Guts Not Just To Chug For The Sake Of It. Fantastic Debut.
Architects are a 5 piece Metalcore/Hardcore band from Brighton, who specialise in jarring rhythms, off beat time signatures and foot to the floor, knockout speed. It would be easy for someone to shove them in the same tidy little pigeonhole as Johnny Truant, Dillinger Escape Plan and anyone else remotely technical and challenging, but to do that would be sacrilege. "Nightmares" is their first and last album with previous vocalist, Matt Johnson. This album in particular could be categorized as a tech metal album more so than metalcore.
The album opens with a ferocious blast of dazzling guitar work and scattered rhythms, all tied together by vocalist Matt Johnson's shredding, visceral screams. This is literally the stuff nightmares are made of, discordant, unhinged, disorientated, flashes of clarity sounding more powerful for the chaos that surrounds them. A superb example of this comes about half way through "In The Desert", the albums sixth track. The song itself is all chugging riffs and pinch harmonics, albeit at lighting speed. But at exactly 1 minute 58 seconds it descends into the most amazingly beautiful guitar line with an "I'd do anything..." refrain that almost brought tears it was that touching. Not the sort of thing you'd expect from an album called "Nightmares". For fans of the band's later albums, expect a complete change in vocal style that is much different than present vocalist, Sam Carter's.
The comparisons to Johnny Truant were bound to come, both are Brighton based bands who have toured together, both peddling a similar kind of terror, but what sets Architects apart is the dynamics, the guts not just to chug for the sake of it. It's that determination that makes Nightmares an absolute marvel. Now that Johnny Truant is gone, looks like Architects will have to carry the torch for the U.K's best new metal band.
