CREDIT: ARCHITECTS
The band, hailing from the United Kingdom, will be in London September 18.

I write about random things a lot. I write a lot about random things. If you’ve ever found yourself remarking about the ridiculous web of music genres and categories that have sprung up over the last couple of decades, you might find the volume of metal categories and definitions to be a bit dizzying.

The latest corollary to the great genre debate that has sprung up for music fans over the years is the re-cataloguing that can occur in shops when artists are reclassified due to genre trends changing over time. Just think about the last time you were in a record store and couldn’t find that new country album you wanted because the artist is classified as pop, or that fusion jazz single you searched for that got mixed in with regular jazz. We’ve all been there, but none have been so frustrated as fans of metal and its varying and overwhelming subsets.

None of this is to say that Architects – hailing from Brighton, UK and so often denoted here in Canada as Architects UK, it’s worth pointing out – are a metal band, but it’s easy to see why people around the world might think so. If you give their latest album Lost Forever // Lost Together more than just a fleeting glimpse, you might find that they have more in common with your other favourite Warped Tour alumni than you think.

The band will be on tour across Canada this week, accompanied by Stray From The Path, Being As An Ocean and My Ticket Home as they headline in concert September 18 at the London Music Hall.

Released here in Canada in March by New Damage Records, Lost Forever // Lost Together is a powerfully heavy record, a technically and sonically impressive work that displays imagination and restraint –that makes Lost Forever // Lost Together most resemble a metal record. Before recording, the group took great care to prepare for the project physically as well as creatively, even working on vocal preproduction up to a month in advance of rolling the tapes.

“We’d never done anything like that before,” said Carter in a press release. “I’d always gone into recording just kind of feeding off the thrill of not really knowing what I was doing, but this time around we decided it was important to spend a lot of time on phrasing and getting things right.”

For all the energy apparent in the music – opening singles “Gravedigger” and “Naysayer” provide an explosive beginning to the album – the band have balanced substance and texture, and crisp production throughout by Fredrik Nordström and Henrik Udd ensure that every note of every movement is present in the fold, which will certainly appeal to fans of rock and pop that appreciate big hooks and compelling melodies.

However, the real appeal to see them live is in their fiery delivery – Architects prove on record to be masters of the transition, evident as the crushing “Broken Cross” leads into “The Devil Is Near” without missing a beat, the latter featuring a breathtaking string arrangement outro that makes “Dead Man Talking” all the more devastating, like a heaving fall into a hole.

And if that wasn’t reason enough to take in the show, an entourage of American bands we wouldn’t regularly see in London will accompany Architects. Stray From The Path and My Ticket Home are still strongly supporting albums released last fall, while Being As An Ocean released their latest How We Both Wondrously Perish back in May by Invogue Records. The bands have all had a busy summer, and this gig is going to be one to remember.

For more on Architects or their album Lost Forever // Lost Together, visit architectsofficial.com or follow along on Twitter @architectsuk. The show this week at London Music Hall is slated to begin at 7 p.m. Tickets are $17 available through ticketfly.com.

And for more of the latest music news and concert previews, follow this column on Twitter @fsu_bobbyisms What are you listening to lately? Send me a tweet and recommend something new, I’ll give you a shout-out in print. Until next week, I’m out of words.