HOLY MOTHER OF FUCKING FUCK!!!
October 18th 2022
Hey people.
I'm an idiot. I'm incredibly stupid. I decide "I'm gonna do a weekly schedule!" then that gets fucked on week one, then I decide "well from now on I'm ONLY reviewing albums" then realize "fuck nah, cos I need the single reviews for quick content" and therefore, here I sit, in my 9am 3 hour Research Psychology lecture, writing a review about what is almost certainly going to be in the top ten tracks of the year for me.
That track is "a new moral low ground" by architects, presumably the last single were getting before their tenth fuckin album, "the classic symptoms of a broken spirit", drops on Friday.
To catch you up to speed, they released "when we were young" first out of the blue, a wonderful track that I would almost describe as "For Those Who Wish To Exist but more metalcore and maybe even heavier?". It certainly goes for a more classic heavy riff, the "clean screams" for the verses (for me, Sam Carter has his scream, and then like a toned down scream thats like one step away from being a growling, snarling clean vocal [a clean vocal being what some australian reactors I watch would call "havin a singy - sing"] that I call his clean scream] a beautiful chorus that could easily fit on the last album, and a very simple but effective breakdown with a screamed bridge, maybe an A+. Then came 'tear gas' a track that is just as good as the first, but feels not as good due to its copious similarities, its got some cool drum work on the prechoruses, some like Bring Me The Horizon "amo" type shit, Sam Carter yelling out "No one can stand without a spine" in a way that scratches the back just right, and the breakdown double times the main riff to great effect, its maybe a B+.
Then "deep fake", which while referencing the previous album with the chorus lyric "But the rest of us wish to exist", but has some marked differences, and it hits all the right boxes, an almost 8bit melody gets us primed for the identically structured riff to break down the door, followed by a /sinister verse, the bittersweet anger of the chorus, a heavier verse that sees Josh Middleton contribute the screaming half of the vocals, and the low in the mix deathcore "We are one and the fucking same" in the slow and grimy breakdown this track brings right after a chilling apathetic bridge from Carter, definitely an A+, a 99, or 100 on that one.
This basically lead everyone I saw react or review the songs to assume that this album will be a "For Those Who Wish To Exist Volume 2", and while I still think this is a twin album, the other side to the coin if you will, the new track very much proves that its a progression not continuation.
The track comes in slow, with a few lines sung to a very chill, seemingly plucked clean guitar line. Then at about 20 seconds it rips your fucking head off with a hellfire verse of screaming and heavy guitar tones, breaking into half time for maybe only one or two measures before breaking into a chorus that starts in the register of the rest of the song but each time in the second half goes higher than any quasi-clean, non falsetto vocal the band would normally do, and by the time you get to this point of the song even, you are wondering: "Wait, is this just straight up a rock song?" and guess what? You're fucking right, and its just as heavy or heavier than the previous three singles. But wait, cos theres more: The song has a fucking guitar solo, something I guess Architects hasnt done since the first couple albums they released (Its almost hard to believe, but thats what people say). It brings back that mellow chill vibe for a moment after the second chorus - verse to do the bridge, then cuts to just synth and vocals, and yup, theres a big, brash, bold motherfucker of a guitar solo, which then breaks into one more chorus which culminates into a hard stop, bringing the track to its end.
This track is fucking perfect, if the rest of the tracks are this good, this album will surpass its predecessor. I give a new moral low ground a 100.
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