Rolo Tomassi. All stitched together with the smoothest track flow of any
Armed release yet. Feeling simultaneously familiar but totally inspired and unique, the competitive hardcore and pop duality of this LP gel together beautifully. They’re not an anti-thesis, they’re whole. It’s deconstructivist hardcore; Maximalist pop music pushed to its breaking point; a commentary on how the current culture has made music and art so easily accessible that it’s all now “pop.” That everything is commodified, no matter how genuine; an album whose perspective is “everything is everything.”
The Armed love hardcore, hence why they’re lovingly tearing it down.
The Armed: “Heavy music is supposed to be about subversion… It’s become about finding a niche subgenre, then doing cosplay”
Ad agency alias? Tony Hawk side-project? Hardcore punk illuminati?! They’ve been one of the most fascinating forces in heavy music for over a decade now, but with new album ULTRAPOP, “anonymous” Detroit co-operative The Armed are out to reshape people’s perceptions of extreme music forever…
Words: Sam Law
Header photo: Aaron Jones
Who exactly are The Armed? It’s a question that’s bugged the hardcore scene since the anonymous, amorphous collective first emerged from the Michigan underground with 2009’s self-released debut LP, These Are Lights. Separating the artist from the art has, for better or worse, become a hot topic over the years since, but rarely has it been so integral to an outfit’s mission – or executed with such absurd, outlandish verve.
Album review: The Armed – Ultrapop
Hardcore collective The Armed embrace pop in all its forms for the hyper-intensity and all-out aggro of Ultrapop
Words: Luke Morton
To many fans of this thing we call rock, ‘pop’ is something of a dirty word, perceived as a genre of music somehow beneath the artistic skill and prowess of other musicians who play guitar and shout a bit. This is, of course, nonsense, and the melting pot of pop is brimming with boundary-pushing and inventive artists like Charli XCX, St. Vincent and Grimes to name a few. Sort-of anonymous art collective The Armed are acutely aware of the vitality and vigour pumping through 21
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