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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
It’s an impossibly beautiful dedication to a life like few others. Long may Architects live on.
100
A masterpiece. A long-playing tribute to a life cut tragically short, and a genius whose influence will live on for decades to come.
100
An album that's by turns gut-wrenching, hauntingly desolate and emotionally devastating.
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8mo
90
Holy Hell is not just for themselves as part of their healing process, it’s also to honour a man who will go down in metal history as one of the finest and most underrated axemen of the 21st century.
80
Holy Hell is both a teardown and a rebuild, and while it isn't always an easy listen, there is some hard-won catharsis to be found in its attempt to distill the messiness of grief into four-minute blasts of sonic demolition.
80
‘Holy Hell’ acknowledges loss as a journey, rather than presenting itself as either an ending or a beginning of any process. It’s powerfully honest and refreshingly unfiltered, beautifully crafted and distinctive. Most importantly of all it carries the legacy of Tom Searle, and of the remaining Architects members, forward.
80
Having lost one of their primary song writers, many feared Architects would change and ditch their technical brand of metal for one more commercially palatable, but, in the spirit of perseverance manifested by this eighth full-length release, Architects have proven that they are just as strong as ever, and that death is not defeat.
80
There’s no doubt that grief hangs over this record, ugly, uncomfortable and overwhelming, but healing waits at the end of the tunnel. Tom’s legacy has been treated with fierce, fierce love and in doing so Architects have been able to draw strength from their sadness and ultimately triumph from tragedy.
80
The songs’ difficult birth has given them a bracing, anthemic, heartfelt and occasionally even eerily dreamlike quality. Architects aren’t a band for anyone with sensitive hearing, but it’s hard not to be moved by this loud, cathartic howl.
80
Holy Hell isn’t the best Architects album, but it doesn’t have to be. It deviates away from the previous two albums into something more fractured, missing the mark at times, but still able to deliver knockout blows when it counts.
80
It's as an articulation of grief that this record speaks most powerfully.
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3y
70
In some ways, Holy Hell is a sort of morbid mulligan, an excusable placeholder while the band figures out where to go from here.
65
With all the talent Architects have at their disposal, a more innovative than emulative approach will do them better.
REVIEW REPOST #007. I repost my old reviews, which got no attention, with updated thoughts. Posted this review last year but I'm posting it again.
Holy Hell is in my opinion the 2nd best Architects album. What a way to follow up All Our Gods. At first, I wasn't really crazy about this album, it was actually the first album I've heard from them, but it grew on me SO MUCH. It's very close to perfect for me, honestly.
The instrumentals here are fantastic, the riffs are absolutely incredible, the ... read more
Shoutout to @Dax_Wilder for the recommendation!
Architects are a metalcore band whose name I've seen being thrown around in some discussions about the genre, mainly about All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us (their previous album to this one).
I've never been quite into the melodic side of the genre since it tends to ride on familiar grounds from time to time in terms of its production aspects, but I can't say that about this album because holy hell (no pun intended), this one goes so damn hard, ... read more
This is Architects magnum opus. There is not a doubt in my mind. The raw emotion on display is something they will never be able to touch again. While I still do prefer "Ruin" and "Hollow Crown" for their more extreme aspects, this is the one that has left the largest impact and the one I would say is their absolute best.
The choruses here are godly. They all follow a similar formula, which could be their only flaw; simply not being unique enough. This idea is quickly ... read more
Much love for Holy Hell, it' probably my favorite metalcore album right after my beloved Sempiternal. Architects were in a continuous crescendo in their discog and this album is certainly their peak, it has every positive thing that All Our Gods had but with more remarkable songs (all the 11 songs are different enough from each other) and with an amazing flow. All of this gets even more special given that the album is extremely emotional due to the tribute to their late guitarist Tom Searle, ... read more
Shoutout to @Dax_Wilder for the recommendation!
Architects are a metalcore band whose name I've seen being thrown around in some discussions about the genre, mainly about All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us (their previous album to this one).
I've never been quite into the melodic side of the genre since it tends to ride on familiar grounds from time to time in terms of its production aspects, but I can't say that about this album because holy hell (no pun intended), this one goes so damn hard, ... read more
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Track List
| 1 | Death Is Not Defeat 3:45 | 88 |
| 2 | Hereafter 4:15 | 92 |
| 3 | Mortal After All 3:39 | 84 |
| 4 | Holy Hell 4:13 | 88 |
| 5 | Damnation 4:08 | 86 |
| 6 | Royal Beggars 4:01 | 89 |
| 7 | Modern Misery 4:13 | 86 |
| 8 | Dying to Heal 3:50 | 84 |
| 9 | The Seventh Circle 1:48 | 84 |
| 10 | Doomsday 4:08 | 94 |
| 11 | A Wasted Hymn 4:34 | 90 |
Total Length: 42 minutes
Year End Lists
| #3 | / | Kerrang! |
| #3 | / | Upset |
| #11 | / | Rock Sound |
| #19 | / | BLARE |
| #33 | / | The Independent |
| #37 | / | God Is In The TV |
| #60 | / | NME |
| / | Alternative Press |
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5mo
I like how you can sometimes hear clean vocals in the background for some of Sam's screams on this album, it's a nice subtle detail.
7mo
Really good album but I will say the vocals aren’t the easiest to click with, they were a little annoying and edgy to me at first but I enjoy them now
Added on: September 13, 2018