From the off it's clear the album marks a complete reinvention from 2008's Escape/Restart (Perhaps the title of that album might be more apt for this one) an album I heard briefly last year and find myself listening to again in the interest of comparison. It's clear from the first track of Architects of Yesterday that the band is very much over their turbulent noisy beginnings and is ready to settle down and bring a less angst filled sound to the table. Fans of the band's previous album need not worry, as Radius System can still bring the heavy. Take 6th track 'Vacant Before' which starts off slow, fragile vocals bring the track in, which continues the hymnal feel much of the album has, but then as the track progresses it becomes clear that it's going to go off at any minute and a hi-hat four count signals the explosion as a wall of distorted guitars and crashing drums, for lack of a better expression, tears you a new arsehole. Awesome.

As mentioned previously, the album has this very echoey hymnal feel, with vocals buried under humming ambient noise, calling to mind the recent release 'Relayted' by Gayngs, first song Autopilot is a perfect example of this, and in the instance of an album opener works well. It occurs in a few other tracks also but fortunately is balanced by loud passages and beautiful melodies. The band have also largely abandoned the screaming vocals, which occur only briefly in the Isis feel of second song Curators, instead focusing on the more melodic sound, at times you find yourself wondering if it would help bring out the heavier sections in a more exciting way. 

Although the Architects of Yesterday is a largely more restrained album, the band really shines when they let themselves embrace their wide range of musical abilities and spread their wings, it's in doing this that they can create the stand out title track, opening to discordant acoustic guitar before turning up the volume with jagged guitar lines and precise and frantic drumming, at the longest track on the album it fully demonstrates Radius System's talents, now the echoey vocals slot in perfectly among delicate guitar lines and cinematic noise as the song builds to climax after climax. If you only hear one track from Architects of Yesterday, make sure it's this one. 

While the band has changed sound quite dramatically on this album, they pave the way for new fans to enjoy the band, equal parts beautiful and terrifying, fans of bands like Opeth (especially the 2008 record Watershed) will really connect with this collection of songs. While this is not in any way a bad album it's probably worth checking out Escape/Restart before you delve into Architects of Yesterday.