HUGS flowed and smiles beamed across the packed groups that flocked to Resident Records as Brighton metal group Architects returned to the city for a signing session to celebrate their new record, Holy Hell.

Holy Hell is the band’s first release since the death of their friend and drummer Tom Searle, who passed away in 2016 following a three-year battle with skin cancer.

Architects’ founding member Dan Searle, Tom’s twin, said: “In those first months after Tom’s death, I didn’t deal with it at all and I felt so unhappy and anxious.

“I’d ignored it and just tried to cope but I knew that at some point, I had to learn from it.

“Ultimately, there were two choices.

“Feel sorry for yourself and believe the world to be a horrible place and let it defeat you.

“Or let it inspire us to live the life that Tom would have wanted us to live.

“I was very worried about people taking away a despondent message from the album.

“I felt a level of responsibility to provide a light at the end of the tunnel for people who are going through terrible experiences.”

All the members of Architects had been prominent in the Brighton music scene prior to forming the band in 2004.

The group’s frontman Sam Carter studied at the British Institute of Modern Music (BIMM), before joining the band.