Architects Release New Album the classic symptoms of a broken spirit Out Now Via Epitaph Records
Today, Architects have released their new album, the classic symptoms of a broken spirit via Epitaph. The band’s 10th studio album and the follow-up to last year’s critically acclaimed album For Those That Wish To Exist, they barely had time to celebrate success when they began the process of writing the songs that make up the new record. Produced by Dan Searle and Josh Middleton, with additional production from Sam Carter at Deacon’s Middle Farm Studios and their own HQ, Electric Studios in Brighton, layers of electronic and industrial elements infuse the album with a blast of energy that sets the cinematic moodscape for the 11-track ride . The band were buoyed by finally being back in the room together after their last album was made mostly remote due to COVID restrictions, the result “feels more live, more exciting and more fun”, frontman Sam Carter explains. “This one – it has that energy.”
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Many bands might not be so keen to rip it up and start again, especially when they’re on to a good thing. Finding yourself with a Number One album and selling out arenas is enough for some to repeat a winning formula. Architects however, are that shark that dies if it stops swimming. “It was definitely validating and felt really cool for like a day,” recalls drummer, producer and songwriter Dan Searle of hitting the top spot with ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’. “For a lot of the bucket list things you reach in any career, there’s a momentary gratification then you’re like, ‘What next?’ You just move on. By the time the album came out, my head was already in the mindset of ‘Broken Spirit’. That was where I was at.”
Searle notes how it was their albums Lost Forever/Lost Together, All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us, and Holy Hell that really “cemented what the band was about” and “took them to a new level” as a rock powerhouse and leaders of the UK’s metalcore scene – making it all the more “daunting” to reinvent themselves on the records that would follow. “Especially after we re-recorded Wish To Exist at Abbey Road with an orchestra, I felt that we had to shelve the strings and all that stuff,” he says. “I wanted to make this album with a different aesthetic. We were enjoying working with the synths and doing stuff that we hadn't done before.”
As a band who never stop writing, the kernels of the songs that make up The Classic Symptoms Of A Broken Spirit were already in progress before the ink had time to dry on the artwork of their last record. Architects were on a creative roll, and the record was born of that creative freedom. The band were buoyed by finally being back in a room together after their last album was made mostly remotely due to COVID restrictions. The result was something altogether more “free, playful and spontaneous,” Searle explains. Read the full bio here.