HOSTILE ARCHITECTURE

Ashenspire

Tech/Extreme Prog Metal

4.11 | 26 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

This album hits home hard. The sound is gritty and nasty and so are the lyrics. Alasdair Dunn is angry and desperate, so he screams his words at you.

Having said this, I haven't heard many albums so relevant as this one. Thematically, it is close to Pink Floyd's Animals and Rage Against the Machine. But musically, this is something else.

The Law of Asbestos is one of the highlights of the album. "Always three months to the gutter Never three months to the top" is now as much fixed in my head as "... when they turn their backs on you, you'll get the chance to put the knife in" or "They say jump, you say how high". 10/10

B�ton Brut is another track that cries despair and hopelessness. The music perfectly fits the mood of the lyrics. 8.5/10

Plattenbau Persephone Praxis has some beautiful sax playing through the noise of despair. Is this the tiny glimmer of hope? The lyrics certainly don't convey any message of hope. 8.5/10

How the Mighty Have Vision is an unexpected slow point with a haunting choir. The lyrics continue to be grim 8.5/10

Tragic Heroin picks up the pace and the menace again. Some great gems to be found in the lyrics for sure 8.5/10

Apathy as Arsenic Lethargy as Lead has the same themes again, presented in a slightly different way. The ruling class is exploiting the workers who have no hope. At this point, it starts to get a bit repetitive to me. 7.5/10

Palimpsest is breath of fresh air. Slightly different musical themes and lyrics. 8.5/10

Cable Street Again is a very relevant song in these desperate days, telling us fascism is around the corner (or already here). It's gripping. Especially the part where Alasdair cries out "Desperate times call for desperate measures" 9.5/10

All in all, this album holds two masterpieces for me, the opener and the closer. And I was torn between 4 and 5 stars. However, the urgency of this album makes me decide to grant the 5 stars.

WJA-K | 5/5 | 2023-2-1

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