It says everything about the breadth of artists that Bloodstock are open to nowadays that Architects have been invited to headline the Ronnie James Dio Stage on the festival’s Saturday night. The Brighton metalcore innovators have been exploring far more melodic, mainstream sounds over the last few years: something that would have been in direct opposition to Bloodstock’s interests in the not-too-distant past. But, with the Derbyshire weekender openly embracing the likes of Parkway Drive and Killswitch Engage in recent times, Architects certainly don’t feel like a wildcard booking as they surge into bouncy 2023 single Seeing Red.
Although some online grumblers have bemoaned Architects now having the gall to sound different to how they did in 2009, the truth is that the songs from their divisive 2022 album The Classic Symptoms Of A Broken Spirit sound huge here. The likes of Deep Fake and When We Were Young do the exact thing that they were designed to do when the band wrote them: inspire mass singalongs in a packed festival field. And, if those anthems aren’t for you, Architects dipping back into Doomsday, Royal Beggars and a savage Nihilist (all unquestionably classics in the band’s canon at this point) would surely have been enough to make this set a triumph.
With that all in mind, then, why does this feel slightly underwhelming?
There are a few reasons why this evening is a good Architects show as opposed to a legendary one. The main one is that the band themselves don’t seem to be as openly excited as many thought they would be.
Frontman Sam Carter is, as always, personable, likeable and funny. However, you never get the feeling that this is a show he and the band have earmarked as a special occasion. You wouldn’t expect him to gush about being in the crowd for W.A.S.P.’s headlining set in 2011 and it changing his life, but this does very much feel like just another show.
It’s something that is reflected in the choice of setlist as well. Last year, a clearly overwhelmed Killswitch Engage acknowledged the name of the stage they were on with a much-loved but rarely played cover of Holy Diver. You’d have thought that Architects would have gone out of their way to plan something like that: something a bit special, marking their ascent to the summit of a UK festival for the first time. Maybe bringing former guitarist Josh Middleton (who played earlier with Sylosis) out for a song? Maybe a banger from an early album like Hollow Crown? Just… something? But it never comes.
Architects are a great band – not to mention a propulsive live force, especially as they end with a massive-sounding Animals. But, by underplaying the sense of occasion that tonight deserves, they’ve missed out on creating something that will be lionised in the future.
Architects setlist: Bloodstock Open Air, Derbyshire, UK – August 10, 2024
Seeing Red
Giving Blood
Deep Fake
Impermanence
Black Lungs
These Colours Don’t Run
Hereafter
Gravedigger
A New Moral Low Ground
Curse
Royal Beggars
Doomsdays
Meteor
When We Were Young
Encore:
Nihilist
Animals
