Stories of dread and despair: How Architects employ Christian motifs to navigate and negotiate existential crisis

This article examines how the British metalcore band Architects negotiate existential crisis in extended lyrical narratives that employ Christian symbolism from a non-Christian perspective. Rather than affirming or rejecting religious belief, they repurpose these symbols to articulate profound personal experiences, such as mortality and grief, thus illustrating the need to further investigate how Christian motifs are applied as abstract tools of meaning-making within the broad field of metal. Employing a framework of natural narratology, grief theory and existential philosophy, I investigate how these motifs shape narrative structures and serve as conduits between individual crisis and collective storytelling. I thereby base my analysis on examples grappling with terminal illness and bereavement to illustrate how the metaphoric use of Christian imagery adds profound meaning to the lyrics.