Architects (UK)

Brighton, 2004: twin brothers and a decade of groundwork

Architects started in Brighton in 2004 around the twin Searle brothers, Dan on drums and Tom on lead guitar. Matt Johnson sang on the first two records, 'Nightmares' in 2006 and 'Ruin' in 2007. Sam Carter took over as vocalist in 2007 and has fronted the band ever since. Alex Dean first joined on bass in 2006, stepped away in 2011 and returned the same year; he is still there.

The Century Media run built the audience an album at a time: 'Hollow Crown' in January 2009, 'The Here and Now' in January 2011 and 'Daybreaker' in May 2012, played out across the Never Say Die! package tours, Warped Tour and Download in 2013. Signing to Epitaph for 'Lost Forever // Lost Together' in March 2014 began a label relationship that has now produced eight albums. Adam Christianson came in on guitar in 2015 and completes the current line-up.

The death that reorganised the band

'All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us' was released on 27 May 2016. Less than three months later, on 20 August 2016, Tom Searle died of melanoma at 28. The album took Best Album at the Heavy Music Awards in 2017, by which point the band were deciding whether to continue at all.

They did. Josh Middleton joined on lead guitar in 2017, and 'Holy Hell' arrived on 9 November 2018 as the first Architects record written without Tom Searle. Kerrang! gave them Best British Live Act in 2019. Middleton left on 28 May 2023, and Architects have operated as a four-piece since — Carter, Dan Searle, Dean and Christianson — with Dan Searle now the band's dominant creative voice as writer and, on the most recent single, producer.

The records that moved them into arenas

'For Those That Wish to Exist', released on 26 February 2021, gave them their first UK number one album. Its single 'Animals' reached number five on Billboard's Rock Airplay chart and number six on MediaBase, and took Best Metal Record at the 2021 Libera Awards. 'The Classic Symptoms of a Broken Spirit' followed on 21 October 2022, a quicker, rawer record made in the same period of heavy touring.

The eleventh album, 'The Sky, the Earth & All Between', came out on 28 February 2025 on Epitaph, produced by Jordan Fish across three studios in 2023 and 2024. Its campaign was unusually long: 'Seeing Red' landed on 4 December 2023, followed by 'Curse' on 9 April 2024, 'Whiplash' on 19 November 2024, 'Blackhole' on 14 January 2025, then 'Everything Ends' and 'Brain Dead' in the release week itself.

It entered the UK chart at number two with 15,619 album-equivalent units, the band's biggest opening week, and topped the UK Rock & Metal chart. It reached number three in Germany and number five in Austria. Reviews ran positive without being unanimous: Blabbermouth gave it nine out of ten, Clash and Distorted Sound eight, Louder four stars out of five, AllMusic three and a half, for an aggregate critic score of 73 across nine reviews. The recurring observation was that the record finally reconciles the technical aggression of the Lost Forever era with the wide-screen writing of the last three albums rather than alternating between them.

Where they stand in October 2026

'Everything Ends' gave Architects their first Billboard number one of any kind when it topped the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart in the week of 27 September 2025. By that point the song had passed 25 million streams and the album had sold more than 80,000 units in the United States; it went past 90,000 during the following months. A 2026 iHeartRadio Music Award nomination followed.

'Broken Mirror' then repeated the trick. Its video appeared on 21 January 2026, and the song reached number one on the Mainstream Rock chart dated 29 August 2026 — two consecutive number ones from the same album, which no previous Architects record had managed once.

On 16 September 2026 came 'Machine', the first new music since the album. Dan Searle and Sam Carter wrote it, Searle produced it himself rather than returning to Jordan Fish, and Jensen Noen directed a video built around perception and control. No twelfth album has been announced, and the band have said nothing publicly about one; for the moment 'Machine' stands alone as a single released three weeks before a European arena run.

A touring year with three different shapes

Announced on 15 July 2025, the band's own European arena tour ran through January 2026 — eleven shows across nine countries, from Swiss Life Hall in Hannover on 13 January to Fabrique in Milan on 29 January, with LANDMVRKS and PRESIDENT opening. Those were full headline sets of roughly nineteen or twenty songs, weighted towards the new album but holding on to 'Doomsday', 'Animals' and 'Seeing Red'.

A spring American headline run followed with Holywatr, opening in Reno on 28 April 2026 and finishing at Sonic Temple in Columbus, Ohio on 16 May. Then came the offer that reframed the year: Korn announced their first full European and UK tour in more than a decade on 16 March 2026, with Architects as direct support alongside Youth Code and Pixel Grip. Tickets went on sale on 20 March at 8am GMT.

That trek is nineteen dates, from the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart on 18 October to the Unipol Forum in Milan on 21 November. The British and Irish leg is Leeds First Direct Arena on 26 October, Utilita Arena Birmingham on 28 October, Utilita Arena Newcastle on 30 October, AO Arena Manchester on 31 October, 3Arena Dublin on 2 November and The O2 in London on 4 November.

What the headline shows proved

The October 2025 British arena dates are the benchmark. At Co-op Live in Manchester on 10 October and The O2 in London on 12 October, with Wage War and House of Protection opening, the band played seven tracks from the new album alongside material from 'For Those That Wish to Exist' and 'Holy Hell', closed the main set by running 'Doomsday' into 'Blackhole', and came back for 'Seeing Red'. The London show carried a tribute to Miles Kent, a long-standing friend and guitar technician who had been due to be there.

Reviewers of both nights landed on the same point: Carter's range is the engine of the live show, moving between a clean upper register and a full scream without losing either, and the band play arena-sized rooms without thinning out the material to fit them. Australian shows in December 2025, including Brisbane Riverstage, drew the same verdict.