5 Bands That Are The New Faces Of UK Heavy Metal

From the sunny shores of Brighton comes the sonic thunderstorm known as Architects. Formed as a bunch of friends at college, Architects could've easily fallen into the realm of uncool, 'scene/emo' metalcore bands burgeoning in the mid-2000s with fringe-core heroes Bring Me the Horizon, US crabcore starlets Attack Attack! and OMG-core pioneers Asking Alexandria all being in the crosshairs for the internet's cruelest "not metal", homophobic remarks that plagued forums and articles.

However, Sam Carter and co. took any possible suggestions that they might not be good enough and decided to utterly eviscerate them. Their third album Hollow Crown tore the rock scene to shreds with a blistering display of fast, technical mathcore that garnered they claim of a "modern classic" by Rock Sound.

Not wishing to simply rehash the same sound over and over, Architects experimented with more melodic arrangements in the follow-up The Here and Now and while it didn't quite hit the same marks as its predecessor, it displayed the versatility and ideas of the band that they would hone and perfect in subsequent albums.

While musically Architects are in their prime, currently in a headline tour of Europe and on the back of their incredible All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us album, their status remains in the air following the tragic passing of founding guitarist and primary songwriter Tom Searle.

The band have vowed to fulfill their tour dates and decide in time whether to continue without their fallen brother, at a point with the world in their hands and endless support behind them, should they decide to continue, there doesn't seem to much that would stop them being the mainstay band for British metal.

Any other bands you'd add to this list? Share your own suggestions below in the comments thread.