Architects at The Van Buren

Architects, a versatile metalcore group based out of Brighton, England, employ a lethal amalgam of breakdown-heavy hardcore, symphonic screamo, death metal, and ambient post-metal. That sonic malevolence is conducted from a platform built on veganism and environmental activism, with influences ranging from Hatebreed and Shadows Fall to Bring Me the Horizon. Emerging in 2006 as a punishing, no-frills metalcore act, the band expanded their sound on 2011’s The Here and Now, adopting a more melodic — though still punishing — and less predictably structured approach to the genre, which they perfected on 2016’s critically lauded All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us. Heading into the next decade, the group continued to refine their more varied sound, delivering immaculately crafted efforts like The Classic Symptoms of a Broken Spirit (2022) and The Sky, The Earth & All Between, rooted in expressive and expansive, stadium-ready metalcore.

Architects recorded their debut album, Nightmares, in 2006 with a lineup consisting of twin brothers Tom (guitar) and Dan Searle (drums), Tim Hillier-Brook (guitar), Tim Lucas (bass), and Matt Johnson (vocals), but the latter was replaced on-stage by new frontman Sam Carter in January 2007 during the last show of the band’s subsequent tour. Later that year, they recorded their sophomore effort, Ruin (introducing new bass player Ali Dean), and signed a worldwide deal with Century Media for its re-release in 2008. Their first American tour was next on the agenda, and saw the group joining Suicide Silence, Beneath the Massacre, and the Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, among other bands.

Upon their return to England, Architects recorded their third album, Hollow Crown, which arrived in 2009. They took their sound in a relatively subdued, post-hardcore direction on their fourth album, 2011’s Here and Now, but transitioned back to a heavier sound the following year on Daybreaker. The band continued to expand their limits, pushing things in both extreme and ambient directions on their sixth album, Lost Forever // Lost Together, which appeared in 2014. Two years later, they issued the critically acclaimed and uncompromising All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us, which they described as their “heaviest and darkest work” to date. It would be the final recording for founding guitarist and primary songwriter Tom Searle, who passed away in August of that year after a battle with cancer.

September 2017 saw the band issue the single “Doomsday,” which evolved from a song that was partially written by Searle before his passing. It appeared on the group’s eighth studio long-player, Holy Hell, that was released the following year. That album was the first to feature new guitarist Josh Middleton (Sylosis), who had filled in on tour. He co-produced and contributed to the writing on Architects’ ninth album, For Those That Wish to Exist, released in February 2021. The record deals with climate change and features guest vocals from members of Parkway Drive, Royal Blood, and Biffy Clyro. Unable to tour during the COVID-19 pandemic, the band filmed an elaborate livestream performance of the album at Abbey Road Studios and released it as a live album in March of the following year.

After having made their previous LP remotely during the pandemic, Architects were able to return to the studio as a unit, capturing a more spontaneous live energy on their tenth album, The Classic Symptoms of a Broken Spirit, which appeared in October 2022 and reached number one on the U.K. Rock & Metal Albums Chart. Looking to capture the discordant zeitgeist of the decade, 2025’s The Sky, The Earth & All Between marked a return to the punitive heaviness of earlier efforts, highlighting the era’s tribalism and divisiveness with a set of songs — including collaborations with House of Protection and Amira Elfeky — that played to all of their strengths.

Determination and steadfast dedication have defined ERRA’s path, forging a unique connection with an ever-growing audience, without the advantages of traditional recognition. On their career-defining, self-titled fifth studio album ERRA, the band confront depression, anxiety and desperation throughout. They take listeners on a near-out-of-body journey to Aokigahara, the infamous Suicide Forest of Japan; into episodic storytelling that would make Black Mirror writers proud; and into the literary works of Cormac McCarthy and Hubert Selby Jr.

As their music finds the balance between the crushingly heavy and the headily melodic, its members seek to find harmony between the needs of the individual and the natural flow of this shared reality. ERRA, as a band of brothers and creative force, strive to live in alignment with the present moment. ERRA, the album, represents redemption for the band, who emerged from the creative process with renewed focus, confidence, and certainty of self.