Words by Will Oakeshott
Pix by Dave Rubinich
“Turn around, turn around, turn around
And you may come full circle,
And be new here again” – Gil Scott Heron.
This statement from the famed American jazz poet, singer, musician, spoken-word performer and even author has an immaculate narration of this event that in reality, took over two years and two albums for the UK headliners to return to their self-professed second home, Australia.
Whether the words Turn around translate to the inability to travel which musicians faced for years during the pandemic – having to turn around their touring hopes and livelihood – or the entire statement could be deciphered to capture Architects‘ touring history Down Under, starting as an opening band for Parkway Drive in 2009 all the way to headlining the much adored Unify Gathering – with every visit showcasing a more refined and compelling version of the quintet (now sextet); a newer and amazing adaptation. On this night, at the band’s biggest show in Adelaide in their headline history, the full circle, an image that exists on incredibly six of the outfit’s LPs’ artwork to some degree, was in full force; and Holy Hell this show had more than just heavy music compositions, it had acts similar to a grand theatre production.
Returning to the “full circle” motif, prior to Architects Unify Gathering appearance in 2018, the then five-piece scheduled a show at the rather historic Adelaide venue The Gov. The support act was a relatively novel act by the name of Thornhill and how the pages of this theatrical script have turned and blossomed for the quartet and Architects themselves. Five years ago, Thornies blended the progressive djent metal formula of the UK’s TesseracT, the innovative post-hardcore of Saosin during their Translating The Name EP era and finally a hint of more modern melodic metalcore; that DNA is still engrained in the Melbourne band’s now formula, but only very partially. The four-piece have undergone their own creative revolution, especially with their second full-length tending more towards a Muse meets New Jersey’s Vexes combination.
With this sound development and the ‘Hill’s exponential growth, their stage persona is a different beast entirely; Lily & The Moon captured this flawlessly, and it was enhanced further by Where We Go When We Die – there is an undeniable charisma that projects from these four gentlemen, especially vocalist Jacob Charlton who could probably appear in the next Twilight film if there ever is one. The singer’s crowd engagement is one to marvel and respect; possibly not for every music aficionado, however, he does have an irrefutable magnetism.
After thanking the audience members who contributed to their recent GoFundMe project after suffering an awful occurrence of extreme theft, the band is soldiering on remarkably; the quartet ensured to leave their mark on Adelaide aggressively and Mr Charlton’s borderline stage gymnastics were invigorating. There is clearly much to celebrate for these Victorians, they have certainly climbed out of their Super Massive Black Hole.
The circle continues to be completed – Canadian hardcore outfit Counterparts have been frequent visitors to our shores for longer than some of this night’s attendees have been alive. Although, this would be their first proper venture onto a stage and venue of this magnitude in Adelaide (and arguably the rest of Australia); yet there was no hesitation for the Canucks in portraying their art. It wasn’t their zone as a group, if they were to be asked, they would probably much rather be performing in a basement venue.
However, their collective souls were in this without reservation and it was rather breathtaking. Whispers Of Your Death was their introduction and their progressive moshcore meets The Wave formula was enticing immediately.
Misery Signals, Comeback Kid and Frail Hands were notable influential sounds, yet Counterparts know their identity, and they are recognised for it. Monument evoked a passion that altered the entire venue in a delightfully delicate manner, which is strange to write considering their brash hardcore motivation.
Stranger and Unwavering Vow were immeasurably powerful and vocalist Brendan Murphy wore his heart on his sleeve the entire time, revealing his pains with his past but ensuring that the crowd knew he was there for them too if they had been through their own struggles.
The stage’s size was not even closely utilised in full by the four-piece, matter of fact, the Ontarians barely kept metres between themselves, because that is where they are at home and that boosted their intensity. Thankfully Mr Murphy utilised the venue’s walkway often, allowing the admirers to scream their hearts out and two-step on his command. In retrospect, Counterparts may have been the black swan of this show; let it be noted, similar to the film featuring Natalie Portman, they emphatically won many fans over with their message.
Beginning with a public service announcement about the awareness of sexual harassment in our day-to-day existence, it was reaffirmed how caring the lovely lads from Architects are about every damaging issue in our lives. The “toxic masculinity” existence requires attention and action every day; for a metal group of this magnitude ensuring that message is heard and appreciated – it is forever stirring and now, more than ever we need to look out for each other.
Then the bright lights blinded a rather full Entertainment centre – Do You Dream Of Armageddon overtook all senses as an opening statement. There was an immediate explosion; the now visible Charlie Chaplin figure with Freddy Mercury allure then deafened the audience with Do You Cross Your Hearts When You Hope To Die and we were collectively Lost Together//Lost Forever. Former drummer now front-man Sam Carter was scarily pitch perfect and even able to use his growls to devastating effects; the stage had two levels and an enigmatic light show; these Brits were not the metal mathcore of their past days, they were a stadium outfit, and it was slightly scary how well it suited them. Discourse Is Dead then
bellowed with uppercut breakdowns until Modern Misery allowed the audience to catch their breath momentarily, so they could sing-along with that defining line We Used To Run With The Wolves.
Suddenly darkness – as if the power had surged, a circumstance that had occurred with Incubus and The Offspring in the past. Understandable confusion stirred throughout the venue until to the side of stage behind a curtain, a clear altercation was occurring. A barely clothed man was then dragged out by security. It was discovered that a stage invader had climbed onto the stage and attempted to steal guitarist’s Josh Middleton’s microphone to scream about the lack of older material in their set-list and that it was disrespectful to former guitarist Tom Searle may he forever rest in power.
This scribe does not need to go into thorough detail about how foolish this action was; it put a rather terrible aura into the event and an unnecessary fear radiated from the situation that was impossible to ignore.
After a long few moments, Mr Carter described the situation, his words were “To turn around and see someone fucking run on-stage, and fucking run at Josh… And fucking grab the mic and start shouting whatever the fuck he was shouting – that is fucking insane”.
He continued – “This isn’t a fucking game; this is our fucking lives. I don’t know who the fuck that person thinks they are, to come up onstage and fucking try and assault Josh or fucking do whatever they were – but the other fucking thing is, when he was on the fucking floor, screaming in my fucking face, telling me to respect Tom and play some fucking old songs – I’ll tell you what, we were just playing the fucking oldest song in the set, you stupid fuck.”
Incredibly, the six-piece were not to be defeated, with the instruction of shake it off Architects obliterated the peculiar circumstance with These Colours Don’t Run – it was the metalcine (metal + medicine) we all required.
Deep Fake, Tear Gas, Giving Blood, Impermanence, Meteor, Little Wonder, Dead Butterflies, A New Moral Low Ground and more continued this momentum of erasing what had transpired – but, this was just an “act” of this theatrical presentation. A twist in this tale was about to eventuate.
After a brief stage exit the band returned acoustically with Memento Mori and A Wasted Hymn which were highlighted and re-imagined to very touching serenade renditions and Sam discussed the importance of each other’s mental health. The strength it takes to admit that you are not well and to get help if there are struggles present. An emotional delivery, this message could not be more important and now more than ever, we need to be there for each other.
The volcano then erupted, Doomsday had never sounded better or more sensationally savage and left Adelaide begging for more. An encore of Nihilist, When We Were Young and Animals concluded this epic theatre production, but before the “exit” occurred, the band thanked Australia for their devotion as their ninth album For Those That Wish To Exist was in fact an ARIA number one upon release only a year ago.
These Architects have used their compass to complete the full circle, perhaps they will continue their supporting journey of Metallica to the Southern Hemisphere when that is hopefully announced. On a closing note, in the words of Mr Carter, Don’t Be That Guy – turn around and be new again.
