Single Slam – Royal Beggars by Architects (Holy Hell)

British metalcore band, Architects, have released a new single called Royal Beggars. Royal Beggars will feature on the band’s new album called Holy Hell. Holy Hell is set for release on the 9th of November via Epitaph Records.

Architects are Sam Carter on vocals with Alex Searle on drums and programming. On guitars we have Josh Middleton on lead and Adam Christianson on rhythm. Last but by no means least, it’s Alex Dean on the bass.

Holy Hell will be the band’s 8th studio album, following 2016’s All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us. It also will mark the first full release since the sad passing of guitarist, Tom Searle. Tom lost his battle with cancer in August 2016. Since then, the band have been slowly repairing and working their way back to being able to write and release Holy Hell. It started with the release of the single, Doomsday. A poignant song for the band as it was started by Tom but left unfinished. It took the band time, but eventually they found the words to finish it and release it. You can read our thoughts on Doomsday here. We also saw the band return to the live environment with a gig at Alexandra Palace with support from While She Sleeps. Check out our thoughts on that here.

So, Doomsday will now feature on Holy Hell as a track but there was also another powerful and emotional track released called Hereafter. Read our thoughts on that single here.

On to Royal Beggars, to see if it lives up to the extremely high quality already shown in Doomsday and Hereafter. Royal Beggars is another good song but doesn’t quite hit the same high standard. Royal Beggars is just barely over 4 minutes long and starts off well. A few seconds of sampling quickly gives way to satisfyingly heavy section with a thick, heavy groove and pounding drums. Sadly, this doesn’t hang around for too long as the vocals come in, softly, over mostly just programming and a decent tapped drum beat. The verse is the bit I am not keen on. It is a bit boring and I don’t particularly like the vocals, sunk heavily in electronica.

While predictable I guess, it kicks back in with much heavier vocals and the same slamming groove from the intro. It sounds great, enhanced coming off the back of the mild verse. There is also a really catchy chorus, sung passionately and with power. You get a more melodic guitar filling the spaces in the groove in the chorus making for a fuller sound overall. The second verse leads into a clean section with more atmospheric backing a cleanly ringing guitar. This builds into the heavier section again with the chorus coming back. You get a nice little treat at the end of the song though when the aggression ramps it up a notch. The vocals ramp up another notch with menacing roars and shouted lines while the guitars and drums go into full breakdown mode.

Royal Beggars is another top song from a band that are coming back at the top of their game. I don’t love the verses and I definitely think it is the weakest of the three songs heard from the album so far. Not weak though. Royal Beggars just suffers because of the deep meaning and quality of the two songs that came before. Holy Hell is looking like one hell of an album, though. I can’t wait to hear more.

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You can listen to Royal Beggars now on all the usual streaming platforms, like Apple Music and Spotify. Preorder a copy of Holy Hell at Architect’s website, here or from here. Find out more about the band at their website, on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.