Metal Underground.com

"The Here and Now" is the absolute best title possible for the latest full-length from U.K's Architects. Once a band that had the entire math and tech metal underground scenes buzzing with its debut release "Nightmares," Architects has now fully completed its transition into an accessible, near radio-friendly metalcore act. Longtime fans who have been begging the band to return to its chaotic and progressive sound, of which the band teased at with its previous full-length "Hollow Crown," have finally had the door slammed shut on them with this revolving door of generic metalcore sounds.

The fourth album from Architects is seen by few as an evolution to a more “mature” sound, but viewed by most as more of a regression than anything else. And that is quite a fair assessment. The majority of the tracks featured here, with the exception of the incredibly generic and cheesy ballad "Heartburn" and the radio-rock worthy "Red Eyes," follow the definitive metalcore formula of including catchy clean sung choruses packed in between angst-filled harsh vocal verses. The familiarity of the record is too strong to ignore with nothing standing out or making itself identifiable from all of the other bands in the same field.

It’s not so much that the songwriting is bad, because the band is actually half-decent at times at what it does. Some of the choruses do stick in the mind and the occasional riff is memorable enough. "Day In Day Out," the album's first single, has a great energy to it and does stick in the mind for a short while. "Stay Young Forever," by far the album's heaviest cut, is also a decent trip back into the band's more hardcore oriented roots that features the most extreme vocals that are to be found on the record. But aside from those very few moments, "The Here and Now" really doesn't offer up much.

If you are a devoted metalcore fan still clinging on to the trend then this album should be a must have for your collection; because let’s be honest - there is much worse 'core music out there. But for those who are either casual listeners of the genre, or especially to those who refrain from it altogether, there is nothing that would make this a required listen. "The Here and Now" is a revolving door that recycles and regurgitates the metalcore formula enough times to make it just another album in that genre's deep landfill of albums past.