A Christian's Heartfelt Review: Architects "Hereafter" // Lyrical Analysis

[@artjensen994]

I am a Christian also. The point of this music isn't religious. It's emotion, feeling, pain, and so on. I listen to lots of music way harder than this. Just because people are upset or angry or downright screaming in their songs doesn't make it wrong or "unholy". Emotion was our punishment and our gift. How can you experience joy without sorrow? How can you experience happiness without sadness? How we live this life, the good and the bad, prepares us for the next life

[@MetalSharpensMetal]

@@artjensen994 I don't fully disagree, but did you watch the video? It doesn't look like you're speaking to the points I made

[@officialproteus]

I really appreciate your willingness to talk about these things so openly! You’re addressing the suffering in this song in an appropriate, loving way, and I hope that it’s received well by those who hear it.

[@MetalSharpensMetal]

Really appreciate that!

[@kleinefuchsdrachen3621]

6:25 I don't get the punk comparison... Maybe I haven't listened to a lot of punk? It's definitely not as great as Holy Hell forward but I might be biased; I love everything Daybreaker and onward.

[@MetalSharpensMetal]

Ya I find the intro of Delete/Rewind and The Blues to be pretty hardcore, blended with punk. I can't really think of a classic punk band off the top of my head, but even like a darker Blink 182 or New Found Glory would fit here

[@Joellbruce]

React to “Devilcry” by Crystal Lake, Japanese metalcore band 🤘🏼

[@MetalSharpensMetal]

Your wish is (half) my command. I just wrapped up a video for their song Apollo. Devilcry is a sick song, but I've never looked at the lyrics super closely. I may have to tackle that one in the future too. Thanks for watching!

[@jamessheppard8402]

i just saw these guys live and they were great lol

[@MetalSharpensMetal]

Nice man, they do seem really locked in live

[@echofalls6400]

When I started listening to architects I really liked them until I heard songs by them like 'Broken Cross' and 'All out gods have abandoned us' . Then I heard about their memeber passing away due to cancer . Im a Christian , I strongly believe in Jesus and I felt sad after hearing their lyrics . I pray to god that he work in their lives and make them believe in him. Till then i just ignore thwir lyrics and focus on the riffs more in their songs

[@MetalSharpensMetal]

It was enough to keep me from supporting the blatant stuff too, but I bought Holy Hell and will continue to keep an eye on new releases

[@alexkenley1]

Metal is real. Metal is life. It transcends religion.

[@MetalSharpensMetal]

Metal is definitely real. Do you agree that people put their beliefs and religions on display through their songs?

[@Fez135]

I lost my best friend to cancer around the time this song was released. I'm also not a theist and so a lot of the songs Architects wrote around this time and a little before resonated with me and still do. I'm curious about something you said, that the reason we value life is that somewhere inside of us we recognise that there's a creator. I don't understand how those two things are linked at all. I valued my friend's life because of its rarity and the joy he brought me but at no point did the fact that perhaps he was created by anything other than miraculous chance enter my mind to justify it. It didn't matter where he came from, or why he was here. The fact that he was was more than enough. It feels like a very large leap to imply that even though I don't believe in divine creation that somehow that's the conclusion I'd come to. The fact that we die is what makes life special in my eyes, not God.

[@MetalSharpensMetal]

Thanks for checking out the video, but I'm sorry to hear about your friend. That's tragic. To your question - the connection I was making was that we have objective value because we are made in the image of God. I don't mean that every person secretly thanks Him for being our Creator, but it's more of a question of foundations. People have meaning in a world where we were created for a specific purpose by a specific God, but in a materialistic universe, nothing has a foundation for mattering at all. Sure, you may have loved him and enjoyed your time, but once you and everyone who knew your friend die, his memory would be forgotten and it would be like he never existed. Even if you think of the butterfly effect of his life, once humanity dies out his existence would be meaningless. He could have existed or not and reality wouldn't ultimately be different. Not so in Christianity, where God specially makes us all with value and dignity. Even if you don't agree, hopefully my position makes more sense.

[@Fez135]

@@MetalSharpensMetal I appreciate your condolences, and your reply. I understand how having a belief that human life is fundamentally valuable gives a particular perspective as opposed to what I believe, say. But it doesn't logically follow that the outcome of my existence or lack thereof will be any different than yours once our names and deeds are lost to time. We will both be forgotten by the living. I don't say this to try and poke fun or be disrespectful. I'm broadly agnostic to the idea of religiosity, and we'll all find out whether we were correct in our beliefs in the end. I just like to try and understand how people came to their beliefs and why they think they're on the right path, especially when it often requires such large leaps of faith. Something that, as a skeptic, is virtually anathema to me.

[@MetalSharpensMetal]

@@Fez135 I sense no disrespect, and I appreciate the conversation! I agree my name will be lost to human minds here on earth after enough time goes by. So the value I'm describing comes from something outside of humanity, and that's the God of the bible. (I'm not trying to prove Him by saying we have value, just that it's an outflow of my worldview) The bible does say that everyone knows God exists, but that we all suppress that knowledge in favor of our sin. When God breaks in and changes hearts, that's when we can really start to live in the way we were made to live. So I don't think I cleverly found the right path by accident - it was the grace of God. I just hope you think on these things and consider that we all have faith to believe anything in this life. I don't have more or less than you; we're just placing it in different things.

[@Fez135]

@@MetalSharpensMetal I think you're selling yourself short. I'd put money on you having far more faith than I do, which I find myself envying more and more as I age. I was raised somewhat Christian (church of England so it's slightly different to the way the Yanks tend to do it 😉) but fell out of touch with it as it couldn't satisfactorily answer questions I needed answering, I imagine that's the case for most non-religous types. I wish I was able to just put my faith in things I can't know for certain, it seems like a more pleasant existence on the whole if I'm being honest. But I'm afraid I'm a little too far down the path of objective truths to want to turn back now. However much the idea of a perfect creator giving me a valuable life with the promise of eternal bliss in the hereafter sounds wonderful.

[@MetalSharpensMetal]

@@Fez135 haha Yanks. It seems like you've had a lot of questions and maybe feel like Christians either haven't thought about them or haven't wrestled with them honestly. There are probably many people like that, but I think anyone who dives into the deeper things of the world will realize there is so much we don't know, and that anything we do claim to know requires a foundation of faith in something (other people's words, the consistency of nature, our understanding of our own senses). My knowledge claims have faith in a self-revealing God who gave us the answers because He actually knows the answers and created things this way. You mentioned objective truth, which is funny. Usually it's the Christian who brings that up first haha. The reason being, we can't have anything objective without an objective truth giver. Non Christians can recognize these things, sure, but we as a species can't build our way to objectivity truth, logic, and morality. I'm guessing you may have heard some of this before, but probably not from the Church of England?

[@wanderer7337]

I'll find peace buried in the ground. Your god doesn't exist and you claiming Toms lyrics for religious propaganda is sick. Go heal, go figure out the truth.

[@MetalSharpensMetal]

Thanks for checking out the video. I'm curious though, if dirt is the only way we can find comfort, how can I heal while I'm still above ground? And why does anything I say matter?

[@xxxprincessxxxjay7104]

This comment is so late, but I feel your comment to/about ‘God’, is very disingenuous to Him, and also to Tom. It’s not about comparing the two. It’s always about your ‘PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP’ to either. I was raised Catholic, and I’m not a Catholic now, but I still respect people’s decisions to believe what they want ‘as long as they don’t enfringe’ on other people’s right to live their lives.