Architects tell us about ‘Whiplash’ and new album ‘The Sky, The Earth & All Between’: “If we’re not going to fulfil our potential now, when are we?”

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Architects have announced their new album ‘The Sky, The Earth & All Between’ with rampant new single ‘Whiplash’. Check it out below along with our exclusive interview with frontman Sam Carter and drummer Dan Searle.

Set for release on February 28, ‘The Sky, The Earth & All Between’ follows the Brighton metalcore outfit’s 2022 album ‘The Classic Symptoms Of A Broken Spirit’, also marking their first LP since the departure of guitarist Josh Middleton.

The announcement follows last Thursday’s confirmation of Architects’ first four live dates for 2025, where they will be supporting Linkin Park in Germany.

‘Whiplash’ is the third single to be taken from Architects’ forthcoming album, after confirmation that April single ‘Curse’ – which, like ‘Whiplash’, was produced by former Bring Me The Horizon member Jordan Fish – and last December’s ‘Seeing Red’ will feature on ‘The Sky, The Earth & All Between’.

Its apocalyptic, fiery music video was directed by Specter, who has gained notoriety for his work with Rammstein. Featuring Carter caged up in the back of a police car, the video was filmed in Slovenia over the summer.

Speaking about the ferocious new single, Carter recalled the song’s origin story. “We were talking about having a bouncy, Limp Bizkit-type party riff, and making a heavy song- in the world of Slipknot’s ‘Iowa’ era – that had a catchy chorus,” he told NME. “Dan came up with the big boy riff.”

“It’s really overtly aggressive,” continued Searle. “For us, it’s always a challenge doing a heavy song that has melody, trying to get a chorus to sit in a tasteful way in that context.

He added: “You sometimes get these ‘metalcore memes’ about how nice the chorus is [versus] how aggressive the verses are. We’ve written songs that we thought were total bangers, which didn’t connect live in the way that we had imagined. But ‘Whiplash’ felt like a real sweet spot.”

Check out our full interview below, where Carter and Searle unpicked the lyrical meaning behind ‘Whiplash’, their drive to hit the next level and their thoughts on Download Festival’s 2025 line-up.

NME: Hello Architects. Lyrically, what were you going for with ‘Whiplash’?

Dan Searle: “The last couple of albums have been more introspective – there’s still some of that on the material that we have coming – but it’s more about the world around us. People like to think that every single song of ours is about climate change, even when we’re writing songs about mental health. ‘Whiplash’ is about the way we treat each other, tribalism and our inability to get along when we have a difference of opinion. It’s a little bit tongue-in-cheek, because of the potty mouth lyrics…”

Sam Carter: “Sorry, mum! It’s so ‘matter of fact’ as well, the first line of the chorus is not hiding behind any poetry. It’s like a conversation: “Is the world done fucking around?”.

Angry Sam Carter has returned…

Carter: “I think Architects at their best is me being really pissed off. That’s something we’ve really locked in, our unique thing [is that] nobody sounds quite as pissed off as I do when I’m yelling. That’s been apparent since I was a kid – I’ve always been yelling, I have a potty mouth. You have that character throughout, which helps lead to the intense nature of the song. I think we had visions of KoRn and Limp Bizkit at Woodstock ’99 when we were coming up with that breakdown.”

Searle: “People build up an image of who we are and what we believe. For me, the video – and the song, in general – was just about challenging what people thought Architects represented.”

Did you let Metallica know you had a song called ‘Whiplash’ in the works?

Carter: “We didn’t.”

Searle: “I’m not gonna sit down with Metallica and play them tunes – fuck that!”

Carter: “But they were so cool to us [on tour]. Lars [Ulrich, drummer] in particular was so chatty, maybe we were one more chat away from mentioning it. Dan was having a conversation with him about how many albums we both have, which was pretty funny considering how long they’ve been going.”

Searle: “They’re one ahead of us. I said to Lars, the reason why they could take their time is because their fifth album was ‘The Black Album’!”

How did you arrive at ‘The Sky, The Earth & All Between’ as the album title?

Searle: “When you hear the album, it’ll make sense.”

Around ‘The Classic Symptoms Of A Broken Spirit’, you told NME that the only rule was “to jump away from the last record”. What was the ethos this time?

Searle: “We wanted the album to translate better live. There was a period of refocusing our attention on our strengths. The great thing about the last two albums is that we carved out a new space, we pushed the parameters of what the band could be. This album was about taking the best qualities of the last couple of records and what we did 10 years ago, trying to mix them together in a brand new way that didn’t sound like anything that’s come before.”

How do you assess Architects’ strengths in 2024?

Carter: “We’re a very good live band. We are a great unit, and that actually stems from our friendship as well. We all pull in the right direction and want to push this rock up the hill together. We care about it more than any of our fans do. I think the strength of our band is that we’re actually fans of our band. We know when we get it right… and this [album] does feel special.”

Searle: “Life can feel mundane for a lot of people, and you want to feel something bigger than that. Our music, it’s trying to allude to something bigger… there’s this feeling of grandiosity and vastness. I’m making big statements here, but I think you understand what I’m talking about. I’m not a big fan of the word ‘epic,’ but that’s what people want to hear in an Architects song. It’s about making people feel alive.”

‘Classic Symptoms…’ arrived very quickly after its predecessor, ‘For Those That Wish To Exist.’ Did you need to be patient to recalibrate your focus, this time around?

Searle: “It took a bit of figuring out. Every album feels important, but this is our 11th album, and a lot of bands fizzle out. We felt strongly that we hadn’t – even at this stage in our career – completely fulfilled our potential. Sam and I had lots of conversations about this. If we’re not going to fulfil our potential now, when are we?

“That’s easier said than done. We lost Josh [Middleton, former guitarist], so all of a sudden I’m finding myself writing riffs and playing guitar – that’s not my instrument. To step into that role was a challenge, especially when you set out quite lofty ambitions for the record. We had to set the bar really high, and thankfully, I feel very sure that we’ve achieved that now.”

Is Jordan Fish involved with any more tracks on the album?

Carter: “You are going in on this album, you are trying! Jordan was great. Next question.”

But surely you didn’t stop after how well ‘Curse’ and ‘Whiplash’ turned out!

Searle: “We’re friends with Jordan, so we were aware of what was going on with him and Bring Me [The Horizon]. When his time with Bring Me came to an end, he was really keen to get involved. We started writing stuff together very, very quickly.”

Carter: “We worked with him on [2017 single] ‘Doomsday’ as well, and that was obviously a fantastic moment out of a sad moment for our band. He really opened mine and Dan’s eyes to what we needed to do to try and take it to the next level, vocally. ‘Curse’ came out of that [initial] session, and another song on the record.”

Download Festival have three brand new headliners next year – what was your first reaction to the line-up?

Carter: “I’m very happy for Sleep Token. I’m very proud of them.”

Searle: “My first reaction was ‘How much are they paying Green Day?’ I’ve had these conversations with friends who work at Live Nation – when are you going to give KoRn, Deftones and Limp Bizkit their shot at headlining? It’s 20 years late!

“But Sleep Token absolutely should be headlining… I’ve said to those friends, ‘You would be idiots not to [book them].’ KoRn must be looking at it going, ‘Oh, we’re finally headlining Download, only took us 20 years! Who are Sleep Token? They’re already headlining it?!’”

Carter: “We saw KoRn this summer in America, and they definitely feel re-energised.”

Searle: “That whole nu-metal thing is re-energised.”

You’ve toured with Sleep Token in the past – how heartwarming is it to see them hit these heights, as friends?

Searle: “We’re not actually that close, to be honest, they’re very quiet guys. I don’t know how they’re processing it. I was speaking to a promoter, and he’s not seen a rise like it since Slipknot in the early ’00s. The fact that their biggest tune is a six-minute prog song [‘The Summoning’] is extraordinary in this day and age, when songs [apparently] need to be succinct and get the listener’s interests in the first 30 seconds.”

Carter: “The singer [Vessel] is such a nice guy, he’s so quiet. At the end of tour, we’d come into the dressing room and he was so gentle in nature.”

You can watch Sleep Token headline Download then fly to Germany to support Linkin Park on the Monday…

Carter: “Growing up, Linkin Park were hugely influential on me and my vocals. If you told me when I was 13 that I’d be doing stadiums with Metallica and Linkin Park, I would have never – in my wildest dreams – believed you.”

Will you be touring the UK in 2025?

Searle: “It’s certainly overdue, it’s been nearly three years since we last headlined. We’ve got a strange relationship with playing the UK, because we spend so much time touring abroad. I think we forgot where we stood in the UK… you can lose touch with what the band means here.”

Carter: “Headlining Bloodstock Festival was such a nice moment, it got us excited for what’s coming.”

Searle: “Bloodstock reminded us, ‘Oh yeah, people want to see us here, we should probably do that again.’ I don’t know when the dates are, but we will be back in the UK to do a big headline tour.”

Architects announce 'The Sky, The Earth & All Between'

Architects will release ‘The Sky, The Earth & All Between’ on February 28 via Epitaph. Check out the tracklist below

‘Elegy’
‘Whiplash’
‘Blackhole’
‘Everything Ends’
‘Brain Dead (feat. House Of Protection)’
‘Evil Eyes’
‘Landmines’
‘Judgement Day (feat. Amira Elfeky)’
‘Broken Mirror’
‘Curse’
‘Seeing Red’
‘Chandelier’