Words & Photos by Keeyahtay Lewis
UK-based Metalcore legends Architects released a new record back in February. Titled The Sky, The Earth, & All Between they proved that even after 2 decades playing music, the band can still offer up something new and interesting for their fans. To celebrate the fantastic record, the band embarked on a North American headlining summer tour. On Thursday August 22, that tour came to The Fillmore in Philadelphia. It was the second to last stop of the tour, and the Philly crowd was ready for them.
Opening the show was the relatively new band Holywatr. The band has been around since 2020 and have spent the last year making waves on TikTok and the rest of the internet. It didn’t take long at all for the audience to make them feel welcome. When the singer Holy asked the crowd how many had seen them play before, honestly it didn’t even matter. Holywatr had everyone moving, moshing and crowd surfing the whole time. They ended the set by mentioning that Creed was one of Architect’s favorite bands before ripping into a cover of “One Last Breath”. Thousands of voices joined them, proving that dad rock isn’t going anywhere.
Next up, hailing from Alabama was another metalcore favorite, ERRA. The lights dimmed and lights began flashing on stage to a beat, until the audience was completely fired up. One by one the band entered the stage and they opened with their hit “Snowblood”. ERRA has been steadily making a name for themselves, and it was pretty clear that they were no strangers to this Philly crowd. The combination of flashing lights, brutal breakdowns, clean vocals, and guttural screams was clearly loved by all – I don’t think the crowd surfing stopped once during the whole set. If the job of the opener is to get everyone ready for the headliner, ERRA did that in spades.
Shortly after 9, the lights dimmed again and the crowd screamed. Stage lights began to flash, faster and faster, until Architects took the stage. The band opened with “Elegy”, the opening track to their latest record. “Elegy” starts with a melodic intro before becoming an absolutely brutal ripper. The song itself was a good indicator for the whole set- balancing between absolutely stunning vocals and absolute chaos.
Architects have spent 20 years honing their sound and their live show. At one point, singer Sam Carter pointed out, because this was the almost the last show of the tour, they had worked out all the kinks. We were seeing them at their very best. I can attest to that. The set list included songs like “Whiplash”, “Curse”, “Brain Dead” and “Blackhole”- all super heavy songs. But they didn’t shy away from songs like “Everything Ends”- a melodic new one that had everyone holding up their cell phones bathing the band in soft light.
20 years into the game and it is clear that Architects have not missed a step. Carter was able to dance between screams and soaring vocals, effortlessly. Backing Carter was Adam Christianson on guitar, Ali Dean on bass, and Dan Searle on drums. The band knows how to move the crowd and the crowd responded with constant head banging, moshing and surfing up to the stage. The energy never stopped, front to back. Before their final song, Carter thanked the opening bands, complimented Holywatr on the Creed cover, and thanked all of us for watching. He said they had one more song, dedicated to “all you animals” before launching into their biggest hit, “Animals”. An absolutely fantastic end to an incredible night for heavy music in Philadelphia.
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