Architects Give London’s O2 Arena So Much More Than Whiplash

The O2 Arena is dark. A rumble transforms into what sounds like an air raid siren. Bass drones stab through, in time with bars of light above and below the stage. Shimmers appear further back, casting shadows. Electro beats kick in. Suddenly, just for a moment, the lights and sound cut out; a deep breath before the synths of Elegy begin. Spotlights hit Sam Carter as he starts to sing, the rest of the stage still murky.

Architects @ The O2

Architects @ The O2 (Abigail Shii)

While the song builds and more members of Architects take their positions, the light swells. Once more, just for a moment, everything cuts out. They return with the full force of the transformed Elegy; no longer a quiet plea, now a pulverising battle cry led by Carter’s flamethrower vocal. Visually, everything’s amplified on a central video screen flanked by a wall of lights that either flash to the beat of Dan Searle‘s apocalyptic drumming or, when the ever-evolving song hits its melodic chorus, bathe the arena in the glow of a thousand suns.

When the track momentarily drops back for a couple of lines of beautifully sung synthy fragility, the spotlights on Carter return, before all hell breaks loose again: pulverising riffs, barbaric beats, primeval roaring. Just as unexpectedly, the song’s final moments are visually and sonically a complete return to its tranquil beginning.

And that’s just the show’s first five minutes.

Yet, tonight’s performance of Elegy, also the opening track of the band’s latest album, says a lot about where Architects are today. In the three years since they last played the O2 Arena, they’ve supported Metallica in stadiums the world, opened up for the reformed Linkin Park on part of their recent European trek, and headlined festivals like Wacken. So they’re more than fighting fit: the band members actually seem to relish the instant time- and intensity changes that characterise their music; Carter somehow has no trouble switching his voice between gentle tenderness, full-blown rock god bellow, intense scream, and guttural roar. As a frontman, he also knows how to engage a crowd, from encouraging crowd surfing virgins to partake before Impermanence, to the introduction of Everything Ends (“It’s truly a gift to be stood up here in front of such a beautiful, amazing crowd”), movingly dedicated to fallen crew member Miles Kent.

The song itself turns into a heartfelt tribute — as the O2 is lit up by swaying mobile phones — and shows the mellower side of Architects‘ arsenal. It’s another track from The Sky, The Earth & All Between, an LP that, like tonight’s show, successfully blends the band’s various moods and features some of Searle’s strongest writing. Only kept off the number one spot on the UK albums chart by Sabrina Carpenter earlier this year, the album’s success has pushed the band further into the mainstream without betraying their metalcore roots, turning their run of the UK’s biggest indoor venues, including Manchester’s colossal Co-op Live, into a victory lap. Not that they’ve let this new flush of success go to their heads — not many artists would invite both support acts up to join them on a song each.

Wage War @ The O2

Wage War @ The O2 (Abigail Shii)

First up is Briton Bond from Wage War on Impernance (big on riffs and military beats), who joins Carter on the raised platform at the foot of the stage to roar through a verse as security guards lift crowd surfers over the barrier. And, after the frontman in his Oasis vest urges the crowd to turn the arena’s floor into a circle pit (“Move it or lose it!”), Stephen Harrison and Aric Improta of House Of Protection bound on stage to run, leap, headbang, and rage through Brain Dead.

By the time Architects reach the encore, they’ve run the gamut from Whiplash‘s rock anthemics to Gravedigger‘s all-out assault by way of Gone With The Wind, the haunting, keys-led tribute to late guitarist Tom Searle. They’ve even stopped the intro to the cataclysmic Blackhole because the moshpit’s not big enough. But the audience need no egging on for the night’s final moments: Seeing Red and (after a band photo) Animals are accompanied by the crowd joining in (almost) as loudly as Carter.

Clearly the “I went to see Architects and all I got was whiplash” slogan on T-shirts tonight isn’t just a bad pun. It’s completely inaccurate. Twenty one years into their career, the band offer so much more.