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Critic Reviews
100
It’s an impossibly beautiful dedication to a life like few others. Long may Architects live on.
7y
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.
7y
100
An album that's by turns gut-wrenching, hauntingly desolate and emotionally devastating.
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3y
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.
3y
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.
7y
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.
7y
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.
7y
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.
7y
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.
7y
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.
7y
80
It's as an articulation of grief that this record speaks most powerfully.
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5y
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.
7y
65
With all the talent Architects have at their disposal, a more innovative than emulative approach will do them better.
7y
Hereafter has one of the best guitar riffs of all time I'm not even kidding
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 synths and pads in the background are amazing as ... read more
Holy Hell sounds like a reaction, a rush to pain, an explosion of desperate anger, a new dimension. However, the new path, rich in electronic flavors as In Flames attempted years ago before Architects, is still immature: the production of the electronics surpasses that of the instruments and above all the voice, which appears overly strained, ends up swallowed up by the rest when it is always was a properly a predominant key. The melodic openings, enriched by the electronic part, weaken instead ... read more
THE METALCORE GAUNTLET #73 - MODERN METALCORE
The final installment of Architects' big 3 came after the tragic passing of guitarist and songwriter Tom Searle, who lost his battle with cancer in mid 2016. This event turned the band's world upside down, right after they had just achieved their peak of popularity and critical acclaim with All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us. There were serious doubts about whether Architects would even continue as a band, but fortunately, they persevered and ... read more
CHALLENGE: Review a album everyday for a year
Day 025: Architects - Holy Hell
Genre: Progressive Metalcore
Released: November 9, 2018
Runtime: 42 Minutes
This was a great album and it definitely shows the pain and the emotion of losing their long time guitarist Tom. The emotion by Sam is just amazing and I think it is very very noticeable how painful this album is because of him loosing his long time band mate. I really enjoy that and the songs are very well written in this album and I ... read more
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Track List
| 1 | Death Is Not Defeat 3:45 | 89 |
| 2 | Hereafter 4:15 | 93 |
| 3 | Mortal After All 3:39 | 87 |
| 4 | Holy Hell 4:13 | 89 |
| 5 | Damnation 4:08 | 84 |
| 6 | Royal Beggars 4:01 | 90 |
| 7 | Modern Misery 4:13 | 85 |
| 8 | Dying to Heal 3:50 | 83 |
| 9 | The Seventh Circle 1:48 | 82 |
| 10 | Doomsday 4:08 | 95 |
| 11 | A Wasted Hymn 4:34 | 89 |
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 |
More Lists
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3w
the orchestral elements combined with how catchy every song on here is makes this their best album for me
11mo
Ngl, on 1st listen this grabbed me way more than AOGHAU did. Maybe it was the cinematic feel to it or the intros to each track, but this just seemed more musically diverse than its predecessor