![]() ![]() It’s subtle, yes, but when you start to notice it, it becomes infuriating. Nothing, and I mean nothing in this house matches, coordinates, flows, or makes sense. It’s like Mark Zuckerberg trying to be human. Here is my theory: the people who live in this house do not understand what houses are nor how one behaves in them. Now, you might be thinking that this house will be decked out in the cheesiest middle ages decor imaginable – yes, Kate, surely you shall be showing us a cromulent McCastle specimen. For such a pittance, one receives 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, and around 5,000 square feet. ![]() This house, built during the ripe housing bubble era of 2002, will only cost the good sir a marginal $3.2 million. The house on special is, one could say, fit for a king but like maybe one of those kings that sells used cars on tv in the wee hours of the night. In these dark, unsettling times, their art is genuinely something to cherish.Howdy folks! Today I’ve decided to return to a long-neglected place of terrible vibes, Oakland County, Michigan. When you’re settling down to listen to the brilliant music on offer here, remember two things: Holy Hell is a very special record and Architects are a very special band. It recognises human weakness but also human strength and resilience and by dealing head on with their pain, you get a sense that they have now arrived at a place that is a combination of redemption, of hope, of progress and, yes, dammit, of love. Choosing your favourite song from the surfeit of riches on display is going to be the earworm game you’re going to love playing for months.Įvidently, this is a record of catharsis and, you suspect, a record that Architects needed to make, but their collective self-examination is neither indulgent nor self-obsessed, but an album that addresses the challenges of coping with death, the truth of loss and the tribulations of life and personal grief, while also grappling with universal themes. They have matured as songwriters, and while this is often shorthand for better constructed but slightly duller tunes, on Holy Hell, their songwriting craft is at its most incisive and infectious – these songs get under your skin and stay there. In this instance, all the talk is going to be about what Architects have added and enhanced. Typically, when artists move forward, one often discusses what has been lost or mislaid. As Thomas Fuller wrote, it is always darkest before the dawn and, on Holy Hell, Architects may have found their own dawn following some of their own darkest and most personally challenging times. “There is a Holy Hell where we can save ourselves” sounds like the lyric for a generation: it is blisteringly angry and absolutely captivating. The album’s title track ramps the record up another level. ![]() ‘Mortal After All’, like much of this record, deals directly with death and mortality – their observation that, in respect of the complex symphony of life that “God is in the detail” seems apposite reflection for much of what this record seeks to deal with. It is followed by the equally effervescent ‘Hereafter’ which, despite its often intricate musicianship and breakdowns, feels completely effortless, dripping with power and with a chorus bigger than a metaphoric mountain range. It is exciting, dynamic and shorn of any traces of aural fat. If anything, they serve (if you will forgive the restaurant metaphor) as the appetizers to a very substantial and deeply, richly satisfying main event.īy way of example, ‘Death is Not Defeat’ is, perhaps not unexpectedly, a song of defiance, belligerence and determination and a dizzying way to start this album off. Whilst both of those songs have an abundance of energy, chutzpah and guile, they are by no means the standout tracks. There was an indication of some of the progress Architects have made on the lead-off single ‘Hereafter’ and their confidence and innovation was more than evident on follow-up track ‘Royal Beggars’. It is a natural but significant step forward from All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us, and you all know how brilliant that was. Holy Hell really is stupidly, outrageously good.įrom the opening bars of ‘Death Is Not Defeat’ to the closing moments of ‘A Wasted Hymn’, this is an album packed to its proverbial rafters with ideas, energy and creativity. ![]()
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