Architects
Daybreaker

As Architects heads in to their fifth era they've tried to get home with a truly mastodon sized project in 'Daybreaker', but to get it home successfully might be harder than it seemed - or so it seems - as 'Daybreaker' is far from an easy album to get home working. It might not be radically different compared to anything else they've done so far with their first four constructions, but this is clearly more ambitious and the feeling of something grand and epic is always present but constantly fighting their clear foot within the screamo and hardcore areas. And to be completely honest, they're fighting a big battle agains the edge of failure with this one but as far as I see it they succeed to not fall down.

For those with lacking knowledge in architectural history I'll give you a short history lesson here: It all started back in Egypt many thousand years ago with the pharaohs constructing impressing structures like the Sphinx, the pyramids and the catacombs. As the slaves fought daily battles against heat and thirst building these wonders they used to have drums beating and go humming on hymns to raise their morale. In time the humming became singing and later screaming and the drums turned to blastbeats. The watchmens viping became an other kind of string torturing as they started to use guitars to complete what became their signature music for the debut album 'Nightmares' and all though times have changed the foundation of the architectural music has remained and only had some development for every new upcoming structure they've built until we've reached this fifth creation - 'Daybreaker'.

The album begins with The Bitter End and the track opens with some clockwork and hence giving the album a soft and smooth start until it kicks of for real about three minutes in with Alpha omega. The very shouty verses they do are interspersed with softer and often clear sung choruses and this goes not only for this song but the entire album. In my opinion the music isn't that hard, actually, but some parts of the album - particularly in the verses - are very heavy and rough creating a sort of sound you'll only hear when buildings collapse or scaffolding falls to the ground (or perhaps explosions) but these are mostly short parts. Overall I'd say the music on this album is pretty nice and moody in some sort of bizarre sexual way.

I think the main reason for why they come to balance on the edge of failure instead of success is due to their vocals, particularly in the verses, as well as the music in the verses, to some extent. The result of how they're doing things is that the verses tend to get a bit dreary and stuck in some sort of long shouty thing that really isn't motivated at all. When 64 days of screaming finally has passed we can finally get to the real deal as the choruses begin and they are all very good, in a good way. Sometimes the band tries to hold the moment while doing a few seconds of only bass guitars rolling - or some other kind of heavy and thundering noise - and I think these parts work pretty good, at least a lot better than when they get stuck in a whole lot of AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!

The three calmer songs, called Truth be Told, Behind The Throne and Unbeliever, are all mostly done with clear vocals and I think they are all capable of attracting a much wider audience as they're actually very nice (and good) songs without leaving their heavy stuff to all those metal heads out there who think ballads are anti christ. As the other seven songs concern (not counting the intro) they are clearly more suitable for only fans of really heavy metal, screamo or the people that thinks Chester Bennington and his psycho mad screaming is what makes Linkin Park good.

Overall I think 'Daybreaker' is a good album, but I think it would have been even better had they only narrowed down their mad shouting a bit, or if they'd find another way to prevent the verses from stagnating the way they do in most songs. I think the album passes our decent mark quite easily but if you're the kind of person that think people make a pretty annoying sound when you drop an anvil on them I think you'll find this album to make some annoying sounds as well, despite the many nice and well played things on the album. The problem, as far as I see, lies mainly in their AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!

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