HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: Lost Forever // Lost Together – Architects

After the negative critical and fan reception to their 2011 album, The Here And Now, English metalcore band ARCHITECTS reignited their love of music with 2012’s Daybreaker. The album saw them swap the balled-esque tracks of The Here And Now for their old-school metalcore sound. For their sixth album, Lost Forever // Lost Together, the band decided to move away from the political songs of Daybreaker and decided to focus on the bigger picture themes. The lyrics were written by vocalist Sam Carter and late guitarist Tom Searle, and covered everything from world issues, Searle‘s personal experience with skin cancer, and being scared of growing up.

The album was recorded at Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, Sweden, and before they went in to record the vocals, the band said that they were the most prepared that they had been as they had all the instrumentations of the songs ready. The album was produced by Henrik Udd and Fredrik Nordström. 

Across the eleven songs, the band sound like they haven’t changed at all since 2009’s third album Hollow Crown. Whether it is the fast-paced opener Gravedigger; the frantic guitars and spine-chilling sing-along chorus on Naysayer, or the fantastic Broken Cross, which explores religious fundamentalism, the first three songs on Lost Forever // Lost Together set the stage for a fantastic album.

There is also an interlude in the form of Red Hypergiant that neatly serves as a bridge between Dead Man Talking and C.A.N.C.E.R, which is a poignant song to look back on ten years later. Sonically, the album is more guitar-driven with tracks such as Colony Collapse and Castles In The Air. The band also explore elements of orchestral music as they add violins, violas, and cellos. However they are mostly buried under the guitars, bass and drums. This sets the stage for the band’s use of orchestral music on their later albums. However, it is a shame they didn’t emphasise the orchestral element more because it would have been nice to have some variety.

Pacing wise, the album is medium-paced, and all of the songs – apart from the interlude – average between three to four minutes long. This means that the songs get enough time to be fleshed out and make an impact. Whilst this album has a lot of fantastic tracks, there are a few that get overlooked. Youth Is Wasted On The Young for example, which features Murry Macleod of THE XCERTS.

Closing The Distant Blue is reminiscent of the title track from Hollow Crown. The instruments are toned down and kept to the background so that the vocals can be centre-stage. Whilst the song is heavier than Hollow Crown, there is an emotion to it that the band normally reserve for their closing tracks – the final gut-punch. What makes The Distant Blue different is there’s an interlude before the final verse. The final verse is a haunting one. It sheds away the aggression of the rest of vocals on the previous songs and reveals a raw and emotional voice which stays long after the album is over. It is the calm after the storm.

Upon release in 2014, the album earned positive reviews from critics, with Metal Hammer rating it 8/1o, Kerrang! giving it 4/5 stars, and Rock Sound 9/10. However, Shields Gazette rated it 6/10 and Gigwise 4/10. The only deluxe version of the album was released in Australia, which had two very short songs on it: The Shadow Of Doubt and Untitled II. The album charted at Number 16 on the UK Album Charts, and it won the Kerrang Award for Best Album that year.

On their most recent tour in Europe in 2024, ARCHITECTS only performed one song from Lost Forever // Lost Together: Gravedigger. Furthermore, in their European tour last year, they only played Broken Cross. It is a shame they don’t play more from this album because there are some fantastic songs that would sound amazing live. On the other hand, the band have released ten albums so far in their career, they cannot cover every single album that they have released.

Overall, Lost Forever // Lost Together is a fantastic ARCHITECTS album that has sadly been left in the dust. It saw ARCHITECTS return to their metalcore roots to deliver one of the most explosive albums of their career. It holds up, even ten years on, because the lyrics are timeless as they explore topics such as being scared to grow up, mortality, and religious fundamentalism. As the world has evolved over the last ten years, this album has become more relevant than ever. It proves that ARCHITECTS were not here to play around, and they returned to their metalcore sound with ease. This is reflected in the reviews from critics, despite some of them being negative. Whilst the band do not utilize the orchestral music, they more than make up for it on later albums. As for this album, it is a masterpiece of modern metalcore, and one that proves that ARCHITECTS are one of the defining metalcore bands of the 21st century.

Lost Forever // Lost Together was originally released on March 11, 2014 via Epitaph.

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