The Architects - 'Border Wars Episode II' album premiere, graphic novel preview

More than a year following the first installment of Kansas City's the Architects' Border Wars five-part graphic novel and album series, Border Wars Episode II is nearly here. The album boasts catchy Spanglish anthems, punk-rock Gospel and plenty of swagger (in the classic rock 'n' roll sense of the word), transporting fans through their second exercise in artistic defiance.

For those unfamiliar, you can get your BW primer with our preview of Border Wars Episode I

“We live in an age of amphibian attention-spans, rampant stupidity and an economy for music and art that oppressively forces everyone from the artist to the fan into grotesque contortions of gutless compromise,” vocalist Brandon Phillips. “Border Wars is our Declaration of 'Go Fuck Yourself' to all the candyassed charlatans who would tell us what we can or cannot do with art, with music or with stories.

“Punk taught us to be ourselves—aggressively ourselves, in the face of all opposition. So, this is the Architects being the Architects in a way that we feel is both really cool for our fans and is not at all imitable by some 'King-for-a-day' TV Talent show singer or some Copy/Paste Tantrum-core outfit. Those vacuous assholes may well be outselling me in tickets and albums for the rest of my life, but they will never ever out-create me.”

Check out an exclusive early sketch from Border Wars II (left) and one of the novel's final pages (right) below. Click to enlarge.

Architects - Border Wars Episode II preview sketch Architects - Border Wars Episode II preview

Border Wars Episode II album stream

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