Architects: Holy Hell [EPITAPH]

Why you'll love it

Holy Hell is the album Architects made after losing founding guitarist and songwriter Tom Searle, and it's one of their most powerful. It scored 90 on Metacritic, and Kerrang! gave it a perfect score.

This edition

• Original 11-track album
• Cover art by Dan Hillier

About the album

Some albums are made to prove a point; this one was made to keep a band alive. When guitarist Tom Searle died in August 2016, Architects lost their founding member and main songwriter, and singer Sam Carter admitted he wondered if they'd ever play again. Then came "Doomsday," built on a riff Tom had started, and a sold-out night for 10,000 people at Alexandra Palace, the biggest headline show of their career.

Tom's brother, drummer Dan Searle, produced the album with guitarist Josh Middleton, who became the new songwriting engine alongside him. "Hereafter" is streamlined and huge, "Royal Beggars" and "Modern Misery" hit with surgical precision, and "Death Is Not Defeat" sets the tone from the first bar. The record weaves in more electronic and atmospheric touches, and Dan Searle described its theme as pain, and how we learn and grow from it. Dan Hillier drew the cover art.

Dead Press! and Wall of Sound both gave it 10 out of 10, and Kerrang! called it gut-wrenching. It's a heavy record in every sense, and on the shelf it weighs about the same as any other LP, which still surprises us.

Also at Kops: more Architects on vinyl · browse Metal

Tracklist

Listen

On Epitaph / UNFD, a reissue of the 2018 album.