The Armed are a band that operate with a philosophy, or if not that, a stipulation. With the ghillie suits, smoke and lasers that were common before revealing their identities for their last album (and not lying about it), the bodybuilding guides that came along with ULTRAPOP, the calls to refract, building everything on the foundation of an impossible love, there was never a time when it was just the music. The last album, Perfect Saviors finished with needing to rip open the vinyl sleeve to find the presave code for an extra EP. With identities revealed, and die hard fans destroying their old releases, what’s next?
THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED is still The Armed, but with them covering so much musically, what isn’t? The calls for musical destruction have been present for much of their work, as well as their combination of noise, pop, and hardcore. Coming from their most polished album, the opening track and lead single ‘Well Made Play’ sets the scene. This album is here to be a soundtrack to burn everything down, if not doing that itself.
“The Armed can’t and won’t sit still.”
The Armed have kept up their large & obscure list of collaborators and contributors, so it is hard to know who’s playing on what – except for front person Tony Wolski FKA Adam Vallely taking centre stage on most tracks. Whoever else was involved with the album has taken it in a more chaotic, possibly even scramz like direction. The vocals from the secondary lead vocalist cut through even when they are playing backup, but when they come centre stage on tracks like ‘Grace Obscure’, they cut through like a razor, giving the contrast that benefits all bands with multiple lead vocalists.
Talking of ‘Grace Obscure’, the noisy half time breakdown hits hard, but is not something the band has committed to as much. Despite the aims of complete destruction, this feels like the album from a band rather than a studio project, or a group of laptop producers & musicians. Songs like ‘Broken Mirror’ sound closer to a crossover between The B-52s and industrial music, but there’s still the beating heart of a hardcore band going through them. The drums are still as chaotic and virtuosic, blending blast beats with catchy rhythms.
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The outsider wish to consistently challenge what a band is common. Whether it’s coming from a electronic production background such as Moin, or the queer performance and virtuosic noise rock of past tour supports Model/Actriz, there’s been an increasing push for deconstructions of the form – even if it’s commonly from the direction of Pitchfork approved bands. The closest comparison to this album would seem to be Foxing’s self-titled from last year – self produced, abrasive, unmistakably the sum of their influences, and couldn’t have been made by a group of people that hadn’t had the band experience. With Justin Meldal-Johnsen returning to contribute having been involved with Perfect Saviors, there is still a view to what makes a band record tick in 2025.
Despite this; the album still chucks all its influences into a blender and sees what comes out. The distorted gabba kicks halfway ‘Purity Drag’ hit so good, and with the same looping coming back for the “Nothing is my fault” mantra in the outro keeps to a vision that pervades the track, regardless of genre divisions. The more pop leaning tracks like ‘Sharp Teeth’ with its Tera Melos-esque harmonies and ‘I Steal What I Want’ with its monster hook still reverberate around your head long after the album closes. The atmospheric saxophone synth-pop of ‘Heathen’ would continue that feeling, if not for the huge layered closer, and it leading into the albums last burst of mathcore energy with ‘A More Perfect Design’. There’s saxophone shredding on it as well. The Armed can’t and won’t sit still. The album ends with a wall of noise.
The stage and media antics felt matched for the sound of Only Love and ULTRAPOP. They are confrontational records, whether it’s the loudness wars style mastering, or the pop melodies for the fans of heavy music, but nothing felt unintentional. The marketing around Perfect Saviours had its heart more on its sleeve, and sounded like it too. THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED is a refresh of the band, but it is not a revolution. The Armed have been destroying everything for many albums now, and there is no future that will stop that destruction.