The classic symptoms of a broken spirit

 


The classic symptoms of a broken spirit was released in 2022

Track Listing
1. Deep Fake
2. Tear Gas
3. Spit the Bone
4. Burn Down My House
5. Living Is Killing Us
6. When We Were Young
7. Doomscrolling
8. Born Again Pessimist
9. A New Moral Low Ground
10. All the Love in the World
11. Be Very Afraid

Genre: Alternative Metal/Metalcore 

Architects returns with what is easily their worst album since The Hear and Now.  This time they've take all the wrong lessons from FTTWTE and just fall somewhat flat.

Now, this isnt a bad album, its just mediocre as hell.  They're still searching for a sound post-Tom and the definitely don't find it here.

What interesting is their almost industrial approach here.  Check out Tear Gas's beat driven verse, or the electronics to start Deep Fake.  I like the idea, but the execution isn't great.  Its just too plodding of a pace for them to do well.  It comes across as simplistic and shallow.  Its like theyre trying to spend a whole album trying to recapture the success of Animals badly.

And I think what really hurts here is that nothing seems to stand out.  Deep Fakecis a decent opener, when we were young is a good song, but everything else just is missing hooks or riffs or anything worthwhile.

The lyrics here are the only real saving grace.  Relatable and memorable, they definitely had a message they wanted to send here.  

With 4 green and 3 red, you'd think I'd rate this a little higher than I did, but honestly a few of the OKAY sounds are too forgettable to be actively bad.  I love industrial and usually love a good industrial tinged metal album, but they missed the mark here.  They either needed more depth in the sounds or more aggression.

3/5

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