Architects – Nightmares

Architects are trying really hard to impress me. The funny thing is, for the most part it works. Lets get this straight, as far as Dillinger Escape Plan copycats go, Nightmares is a surprisingly solid album.

Without hesitation, you are thrust into the immediate hurricane of To The Death which accurately showcases what Architects have to offer: ridiculously technical riffing, coupled with an eerie sense of melody that comes off as practically seamless. However, their biggest fault lies with their vocalist, he seems out of place. Don’t get me wrong, he has obvious mastery of his scream, but it’s far too tame and generic for the album’s decidedly crazier moments.

As the album progresses, you find that they continue with the same formula of overly technical spazz-outs intertwined with enough melody and catch that they stick in your head for brief moments, before plunging you back head first into the fray. They even incorporate the dreaded melodic singing in few places, such as They’ll Be Hanging Us Tonight, or In The Desert however it works well with the mood of the songs, creating a sort of ambiance, which many bands of this genre try to achieve but rarely attain.

Lyrically, they don’t deviate from the standard fare of dark imagery used to describe normal situations, yet, while there are moments of annoyance (“Come home tonight / so I can slit your throat / every time you discard my heart.” – You Don’t Walk Away From Dismemberment), they aren’t that embarrassing to sing (scream?) along with.

Overall, Architects could have released an album of much worse quality and easily have blamed it on their youth (they’re only between 18 and 19), however; thankfully this is not the case. Nightmares is a drop in the tech-metal bucket, which spawned countless of uninspired bands since the release of Calculating Infinity, yet it’s a pleasant one none the less.