Architects has had a wild ride through their metalcore career, through rage and tragedy and everything after. A lot of "diehard fans" claim that All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us is their best work, and that everything after is them "going soft" and "selling out". If I'm being honest, I didn't really like All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us at first because of this, having really enjoyed all the albums since, but I've since learned to ignore their opinions and appreciate every album for what it is.
When it comes to 2010s metalcore, this is definitely up there. All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us is a relentless and aggressive experience, even as they tread very emotional territory. Being one of the last pieces of work Tom Searle made before he sadly passed, it understandably has a lot of weight on it. When it comes to their iconic metalcore sound, what some people call "architects-core", this is the pinnacle of that sound of theirs, only closely challenged by their subsequent Holy Hell. Heaviness reigns throughout the tracklist, with every track boasting their own piece of unbridled, seething rage.
The guitarwork and riffage is energetic, the drumming packs a punch and is constantly pumping, and the screaming is undoubtedly angry. The lyricism and messages woven throughout the album are clear and unwavering, channelling their rightful and justified anger at the world into a concise piece of violent art. Despite its constant anger, there are moments of sadness, sentiment and seriousness. Besides the cynicism of Nihilist and unforgiving rage of A Match Made In Heaven, there is much else to be found in the despair of All Love is Lost, the subtle hopefulness in Gravity and the acceptance in Memento Mori. And when it comes to indescribable grief and pain, Gone With The Wind tears me up every time I think about how Tom was facing death and wrote such an unbelievably raw piece of music while fighting cancer.
This album's baseline of rage and heaviness has it's pros and cons. A metalcore record like this needs this much violent passion to do justice to the emotions it's trying to evoke, but it also dulls the experience a little bit. I'll be honest, my initial indifference to the record was largely due to how similar the songs sound on first listen, when I had yet to dig into the smaller and more subtle parts of each song that really sets each song apart. Despite brilliant guitar riffs and vocal melodies, there is only so much I could find memorable in so much rage. It took me a lot of attempts at listening to the record over the course of a year to finally get settled in.
I'll give credit where it's due, it is a brilliant, powerful and emotive record. I can see why it was so critically acclaimed, and I wouldn't want to disagree even a little bit. It just happens to be that, having heard Holy Hell first, it was a little harder to get into, but that's alright. For me, records are rarely special on their first listen, especially considering the kind of records I've fallen in love with, and this is no exception, it just isn't too special either.
Rating: 9/10