As the conversation around AI use in music continues to rage and intensify, a very specific case has emerged, showing that things are slowly but surely getting out of hand.
It concerns Architects, who this year released their 11th album, The Sky, the Earth & All Between, and recently finished a UK arena tour, which included an appearance at London's The O2. Very much in down tools mode as they rest and assess their next move. Which makes it all the more surprising that fans spotted a track appear out of nowhere on the band's Spotify account. That song was called Ashes of the Kingdom. The thing is, that one look at the artwork attached to the release, a picture of four individuals that kind of look like the band standing in the ruins of a burning skyline, revealed that this was AI-generated. Then, listening to the song cemented that it was absolutely all AI.
The song itself doesn't even sound that much like Architects, especially in their current iteration. From the robotic blend of melodic guitars and headache-inducing riffs, with no real rhythm to either, mashed with a vocal that sounds absolutely nothing like Sam Carter, it is more an amalgamation of what a computer thinks that modern metalcore sounds like, without any of the passion, power or purpose. If that was the intent, then it succeeded.
YouTube account Ohrion Reacts has released footage from his livestream where his chat informed him of the track, and he unravelled it in real time. "Yeah, I'm kinda fucking mad, I'm kinda pissed," he remarks whilst listening back to the track, before openly laughing at the chorus. "I can't listen to any more of this, this is a fucking disgrace," he finally states, finally switching the song off when it reaches new levels of disillusion.
Thankfully, very soon after it went live, the song was taken down and wiped, thanks to members of the band's Reddit community, who debunked and reported it to Spotify. But the fact that it was able to be posted on the band's official profile on Spotify feels like a massive red flag. As it stands, it seems very easy for anyone to drop off anything they like with distributors and have it make its way through to being live for the public to see. If there are no checks in place to stop this, it will only continue.
