THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED

The Armed has been around for a while, but was a new discover for me. I first heard of the Detroit band, it was discovering that Dearborn band Prostitute was opening for them at The Roxy. I am a HUGE fan of Prostitute (their debut from last December was my #4 album of 2024), so I instantly bought a ticket. As I listened to the singles The Armed was dropping, I grew ridiculously excited to see them as well. Every song was a complete banger.

Now, the full project is out , and it will not exit my head. I am consistently stunned by the insane adrenaline of this thing. The ferocity, the speed, the depth of texture. Plenty of music hits the noise – even though The Armed do it some of the best of anyone out there – but they also combine that noise with such a fascinating, endearing mix of explosively colorful interjecting noises: whether a catchy chorus, or a pop of instrumental bliss that floats out of a cacophonous storm of fury.

Let me give an example of what I mean: I was very clearly smiling, shaking my head to the music, while listening to this album on headphones in my garage. My friend grabs my headphones, puts them on, and actually starts to bob her head. She tells me “this is actually a lot better than what you normally put on.” So I put another track on for her (“Broken Mirror”), and her face soured immediately, before asking me why it was just static and noise. These are the depths of variety that The Armed bring in this project: there are moments on this album that are downright joyous, but there are just as many (likely more) moments of grating, pummeling, powerfully cathartic noise.

I want to go into some depth on a few of these tracks. Firstly, the fabulous opener: “Well Made Play.” Right from the start, The Armed make sure their fury is abundantly clear, and they accomplish this to stunning effect with immediate yelling that is set to a careening tsunami of noise. Around 0:45 – 1:12, they venture on this noisy, spectacular instrumental breakdown that perfectly sets the scene with some wrenching, mechanical whining.

This then segues beautifully back into the return of the shredding vocals.

Machine-like mania meets organic, cornered ferocity.

The tempo does not let up going into track two: “Purity Drag.” This song follows a really satisfying arc, and it is, consequently, one of my favorites. Specifically, the song starts out just as noisy as the last ended: high-fucking-energy. But then, at 0:25, we get the first hit of a tranquilizingly melodic yelling chorus that one can’t help but burst out singing along with.

Then, at 1:15, the screeching instrumentals give away to a lower tone, but still powerfully pulsating beat that underlays the least yelled section on the track.

At 1:35, it explodes back into wondrous chaos.

My favorite part of the song is then from 2:33 to 2:50, when we get this frantically earnest repetition of “Nothing is my fault,” over and over, before then combusting back into the chorus in a downright compulsory head-banging fashion.

It is tempting to go through the whole project like this, song by song, but I have many more projects to write on, so let me just jump ahead to another favorite of mine: the aforementioned “Broken Mirror,” featuring Prostitute. I want to specifically highlight the electrifying opening of this track.

This song opens with a visceral, staticky intro that feels akin to hacking through a veritable jungle of dense, sonic foliage.

On the other side? Prostitute hearkening the end of the world, punctuated by backing screams of rage from The Armed.

Finally, I will turn to the one “reprieve” – for lack of a better word – on the track list: “Heathen.” The penultimate song, “Heathen” is the longest track by far, coming in at 5:38 when most of the other tracks are in the 2-3ish minute range. Far more delicate of a track, it represents a really well executed beat of tenderness on this album. For being a project so full of (righteous) pain and fury, it is really refreshing to have this moment that is easily recognizable as the same band, but is so starkly different in execution, and yet, while still being dead-on tonally. This is just a more subdued manifestation of the same visceral response The Armed consistently shows themselves to be feeling in the wake of this fucked up world.

The Armed end on the more familiar, noisier side of the spectrum their sound encompasses, with the incredible closer, “A More Perfect Design.” My favorite part of this track is 0:55 to 1:13, the part of the track right before it spectacularly combusts into an intoxicatingly compelling soup of noise.

As this soup comes into focus, it is at 1:54 that the noise both ratchets up, and is joined by this delightful guitar whine that brings me right to heaven’s door.

The whole track is a fantastic close to a stellar, stellar album. And it also loops beautifully back into the immediate fury of “Well Made Play.” Repeat listens of this record go hard, especially in the current context of country and world within which this album solidly resides. I will be returning to this one for many years.

Favorite Song: A More Perfect Design