Architect-Ghost of the salt water machines

Black Market
2008

I like spicy foods and I also occasionally enjoy adding more hot sauce to make foods even spicier. The thing is that the food needs to be good for the sauce to enhance the existing flavor. If the dish isn't that good to begin with then adding hot sauce just seems it trying to cover up something. What does all this food nonsense have to do with Architect? Well it applies to Arcitect's sophomore effort. There are definite moments where it sounds like the music is going to take off as they hit upon some brief, but effective swirls of stoner rock and hardcore. However they tend to just tantalize us with these sounds because all too quickly the music become loud, but mundane. Then they wheel out some hardcore vocals that growling, relentless and unfortunately lacking in spirit. Architect seem to be firm believers in the idea that mounds of volume make up for any other shortcomings. Of course all this approach is severely limit what this band can do. It's a shame because down below the surface I could catch glimpses of what this band was capable of. The ability is there, but they seemed so intent on the idea of playing a very limited brand of hardcore. So they push out their chests, suppress their ideas and scream and storm their way to the end of the song. The result is an album full of missed opportunities and a headache for me after sitting through it.