Review: Architects live at Alexandra Palace

The Metalcore band from Brighton play a sublime headline show which establishes Architects as a significant arena band and shows that have the potential to be something even more prominent.

Architects have been one hell of a journey in their long careers. Formed in 2004, the band have slowly but surely been playing bigger and bigger stages and climbing up the lineup of festivals to the point that they are selling out Alexandra Places in London. The show would serve as an example of how comfortable Architects are playing to such as huge crowed and how they could follow in the footsteps of their friends in Bring Me The Horizon and become a Metalcore band which can transfer into the mainstream, all while maintaining their heavy sound which they are well known for.

Before we dived into Architects show, we were treated to a fantastic set from Sleep Token, who was one of the supports for the night. After their fantastic headline show in London at the end of last year, I was very excited to see what they could do on a bigger stage and it seemed that a lot of people were too. The hall was rammed with so many people which was easily the biggest crowd I have seen for a support act at Ally Pally. While the light coming through Ally Pally's windows did not help their usually gloomy and dark set-up, The band still brought their mix of trap beats and heavy breakdowns and squeezed in fan favourite songs such as 'Jaws' and more recent tracks such as 'Hypnosis'. It's a shame the band did not have a longer set but it was delightful and shows that Sleep Token don't mind bringing their "worships" to the big arena stages and with Download festival being their next tour date it's very exciting to be a Sleep Token fan right now.

As darkness fell around the palace, it was time for Architects to bring their long-awaited tour to London and it's safe to say the band did not disappoint. The setlist was near enough perfect with a mix of older songs such as 'Gravedigger' and new songs from their latest album 'For Those That Wish To Exist' which got some big reactions from the crowd. A great example of this would be 'Impermanence ' where Sam points his mic to the crowd and with a roar, the crowd shouts "Do you really want to live forever!" which sent chills down my spine. It was great to see these new songs live and see the incredible reaction of the crowd.

It has to be said that the visuals on stage for the show were absolutely stunning. The graphics for the songs off 'For Those Who Wish To Exist' gave off an apocalyptic vibe which perfectly fits the themes of the song. The visuals for 'Doomsday' was my favourite as they were very similar to the ones in the epic music video and gave me the feeling as if I was travelling through the time vortex in a Doctor Who episode. The visuals for the rest of the set were also breathtaking and were well set up. It seems that the visuals at concerts, in general, have been dramatically improved and this show was no different.

There were also some very emotional moments in this gig with one of them being when the band performed 'Gone With The Wind' being dedicated to late Guitarist Tom Searle. It was a beautiful moment with lead singer Sam Carter poring all of his emotions out in his vocals while the rest of the band blasted through the song with pure skill and precision which I don't think many metalcore bands can pull off. Another moment like this is when Sam introduced the crowd to one of his friends' children and explained the kid had been suffering from cancer (just like Tom) which started a chant of the kids' name from the crowd. All of this really tugged on the heartstrings which is not a feeling I get a lot at concerts but something about Architects music just hits differently and in a live setting this feeling is only amplified.

The encore brought the concert to an epic conclusion with the band playing their new single 'When We Were Young' and 'Animals' which act as massive arena sing-alongs and gives fans an insight into where Architects are going next.

It's clear that this is a very significant concert for the band. Architects have got to the point where they can step foot into the mainstream music scene and it's clear that the band have the potential to do so. The fact the gig was sold out tells you the size of Architects fanbase. I was speaking to some fans on the bus home. Many had seen them multiple times and a lot of them told me how proud they were of the band and how far they had come. With this proud set of fans behind them who sang along to every song and created an incredible atmosphere, this allowed Architects to put on an incredible show which puts out a statement that the band are destined to only get bigger and louder!