Lost Forever // Lost Together＜Blue Vinyl/限定盤＞

Though the label made their bones with driving punk rock, Epitaph continues to explore the brave new world of metalcore with an outing from Architects, who return with their first album for their new label, Lost Forever, Lost Together. While the U.K. band has always taken an accessible and melodic approach to the genre, their sixth album finds their sound taking a turn for the grandiose. Heavier and more expansive than any of their previous work, Architects' sounds feel more dynamic, incorporating elements that are both more ambient and more extreme. By creating more soaring highs and crushing lows, Architects break the creeping homogeneity of metalcore, instead delivering a sound that shows the band at their most visceral. On tracks like "Youth Is Wasted on the Young," the song slows down and opens up in the middle, creating a glacial, gut-churning heaviness toward the end of the song that feels like a welcome change from the rapid-fire aggression of its beginning. It's in these slower moments that Lost Forever, Lost Together really shines, especially on closing track "The Distant Blue," which feels like the perfect marriage of the band's melodic past and monolithic present. Like the label they're calling home, Architects have embraced change, and although they're still mindful of the sound that got them where they are, their refusal to be beholden to it makes Lost Forever, Lost Together one of their most exciting records to date. ~ Gregory Heaney