Artist Spotlight- Archers

Despite being unsigned, Archers has firmly rooted themselves in the metal core scene. They’ve been a repeat at several rock centric festivals like Louder than Life and being the fan voted opener at (the only full day of) Blueridge Rockfest 2023. And it’s not hard to imagine how they did it.

With their unbelievably catchy songs that balance not only the amazing vocals of their frontman but also unclean vocals from their guitarist, Archers does a great job of balancing catchy metal core songs with harder songs throughout their entire discography. They also have covers of songs like ‘The Hills’ by The Weeknd and ‘Levitating’ by Dua Lipa, both of which they manage to put their own unique touch on.

If you haven't started listening to them yet, I firmly suggest ‘Blanket Fort’ to get an understanding of just how catchy their songs are. From there, you can listen to their new single, ‘Smiling out of Habit,’ which is one of three singles they’ve released recently. ‘Smiling out of Habit’ exhibits all of their best qualities: their ability to make melodic songs, their ability to fit unclean vocals into a radio friendly song, and all while still being able to stay true to their own writing style.

I’d be remiss to not mention how their songs talk fairly consistently of mental health, as is the case with most midwest emo songs, but sound entirely like modern metal core. They combine so many of the great aspects of metal core into one band, it’s really a joy to see them get the recognition they deserve.