Architect - Ghost of the Saltwater Machines (2008)

Ghost of the Saltwater Machines is the sophomore effort by the New York (or Pennsylvania, or both) based metallic hardcore band Architect. In a contrast with their modern metallic hardcore contemporaries like August Burns Red or Parkway Drive, this type of metallic hardcore hearkens back to bands like Botch and Coalesce. Fretboard gymnastics have been replaced with a tide of vicious belt-sander riffs punctuated by slithery one-string sections ala Intronaut or anything Dimebag had ever played on. The guitarists Timothy Seib and James Bailey don't do any clever little tricks, no switch-off solos, no alternating rhythm and lead. They wrench sledgehammer riffs out of their guitars and mash them together, creating a substance not unlike C4 frozen in time, mid-explosion. It's jarring, it's meat-and-potatoes, but it fucking works... for the most part.

This is an unrelenting album. From start to finish the jagged-edged and varied song structures crash into each other with the ferocity of plate tectonics. In a contrast to most modern bands of the “core” persuasion (even Converge these days), Architect has no desire to incorporate melody and shys away from its use like it has leprosy. The closest thing they include here is the opening 32 seconds of the album and an off-key, satirical bit of “America the Beautiful” at the end of the monster track “I Am Become Death”, and even that ends with what sounds like a gunshot. Oh yeah, like most hardcore bands they're political.

The unbridled brutality and thick-sounding songs of Ghost of the Saltwater Machines are aimed squarely at the pit. This is bruisecore without the tough-guy bravado of Lamb of God or the obvious Pantera worship of Throwdown, propelled by the competant-but-not-great rhythm section of Thomas Calandra and Anthony Michel. The vocals from Keith Allen are a bit one dimensional, going from a mid-tone scream to a slightly higher mid-toned scream, but fortunately these never deteriorate into “cookie monster” vocals, bree-brees or pig squeals. There are occasional group-chant moments, but even those seem to be coming directly from an open hole in the ground that leads straight down to hell.

While the dedication and focus on making some of the most flat-out brutal metallic hardcore I've heard for years is appreciated and refreshing, the album starts to all kind of blend together after a while. There are a lot of variants, and a lot of nice riffs to be found, but the dynamics are a little flat. And while there are numerous ways to shred someones skin off, in the end all you're doing is shredding their skin off. These guys have massive potential, and they're a band to definitely watch.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.myspace.com/architectkills