Having spent most of 2013 away from the UK with only one appearence at Download Festival a lot of people have been looking forward to Architects returning tonight. With their latest album Lost Forever // Lost Together about to be released there was not a better way for Architects to celebrate this than with a sold out show in Manchester tonight. And to make things even better they brought along three fantastic support bands to make tonight one of the best gigs of the year so far.
Openers Landscapes (8) might have been playing to a gradually filling room due to their very early set time but this didn’t stop them from getting tonight off to a great start. Songs off of their brilliant debut album Life Gone Wrong sound absolutely huge live, with D.R.E.A.M. in particular being an early highlight to their set. Landscapes continued to put everything they could into their performance with vocalist Shaun Milton making his way into the crowd to join fans for their closing song, it’s just a shame that the majority of the audience didn’t give Landscapes the reaction they deserved.
This was not a problem with Northlane (9) who got the kind of reaction most support bands dream of getting. Before they’d even played a single note the pit was open and the opening combination of Genesis and Scarab sent the crowd into a frenzy of jumping, moshing and screaming every lyric. This reaction is even more impressive when you consider that this is only Northlane’s second time to the UK and they have already built up a large fan base. You can tell from the look on vocalist Adrian Fitipaldes face that he was genuinely blown away by this reaction. By the time they wrap up their set with Quantum Flux it’s very clear that it won’t be too long before Northlane are headlining venues of this size.
Main support came from Stray From The Path (9) who waste no time getting this crowd going, with vocalist Drew York demanding the crowd bounce along to set opener Badge & A Bullet and then continues to demand more from the crowd as their set progresses without giving the audience a moment to relax. Halfway through he asks for at least 10 crowdsurfers during a song and tonight’s crowd surpass this total with ease. Again like Northlane this is the kind of reaction that most support bands would dream of getting and it was the perfect way to get the crowd warmed up for Architects.
Finally it was time for Architects (9.5) to take the stage not before plenty of “Architects” and even “BLEH” chants from the crowd. When Architects eventually do take to the stage the entire room explodes as they open with Gravedigger off of their newest album, considering this album has only been streaming for a week it’s incredible that every fan already knew this song like it was a fan favourite. This happened with every brand new song Architects played tonight and really helped to show just how good their newest album is. This clearly meant a lot to the band as Sam Carter was constantly thanking the crowd for how they were tonight. Despite this tonight’s performance seems angrier than Architects have ever been with Sam Carters vocals sounding particularly vicious and the rest of the band sounding as tight and polished as they’ve ever been. This anger just added so much more to their performance and even drove the fans in the pit to mosh even harder than they had been. Colony Collapse gave the crowd a brief rest but this didn’t last long as Black Blood and Devils Island whipped the crowd back into a frenzy. There Colours Don’t Run finished the gig in style with easily the biggest wall of death of the night. Tonight’s gig showed why Architects are easily one of the best metalcore bands around and why it is so great to have them touring the UK again.
