ARCHITECTS – RUIN (LP VINYL)

Digipak
ARCHITECTS have delivered their 10th studio album; an arena-ready opus entitled, the classic symptoms of a broken spirit , the follow up to their 2021 breakout album For Those That Wish To Exist, which hit #1 on the UK sales chart.

Finding yourself with a UK Number One album and selling out arenas is enough for some to repeat a winning formula. Architects however, are forever moving forward. “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. “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. Produced by Dan Searle and guitarist Josh Middleton, with additional production from frontman Sam Carter at Decon’s Middle Farm Studios and their own Brighton Electric Studios before being mixed by Zakk Cervini, 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, play-ful and spontaneous,” Searle explains.

Carter agrees: “This one feels more live, more exciting and more fun – it has that energy. We wanted it to be a lot more industrial and electronic. That was the main mission. They can sit side-by-side: Mr. Electronic and Mr. Organic.

Digipak
ARCHITECTS’ new album captures a historic live stream performance event at the iconic Abbey Road studios: spiritual home to legends like The Beatles and Pink Floyd. Dubbed For Those That Wish To Exist at Abbey Road, the album features a reimagined orchestral version of their masterpiece album For Those That Wish To Exist, backed by their friends in the Parallax Orchestra, the well-respected UK based orchestra made up of some of England’s best and most versatile classical musicians, arranged and written by Simon Dobson, Parallax Orchestra’s conductor and a three times British Composer award (BASCA) winner for his compositions.

Vocalist Sam Carter speaks to the cultural importance of Abbey Road Studios, “It’s such an important part of music in not only the U.K. but all across the world. Some of the biggest and most important records of all time were recorded there. It’s such a joy to even be allowed into the building, let alone to record there. It’s a very special place; I still c