“Don’t let them question your love.”
Detroit’s premier merchants of chaotic and cathartic post-hardcore might be one of the most idiosyncratic bands around. Boasting a who’s-who rotating cast of rock and hardcore royalty, the brainchild collective of former advertising creative Tony Wolski have been steadily making a name for themselves with their dreamily ferocious brand of genre-bending experimental hardcore, brought to life with a tongue in cheek anonymity expounded in cryptic interviews and through ARG-style branding.
The Armed largely dropped this version of their image for THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED, the outfit’s 6th studio effort and the next chapter in the band’s evolution, with their less elaborate persona fitting for a leaner, meaner sound heavy on the outfit’s punk roots. This latest iteration of the band’s multifaceted identity feels like the closest approximation of the barely controlled chaos of their live shows yet put to tape. Almost entirely eschewing the more diverse structure of THE FUTURE…’s predecessors, The Armed serve up a 32-minute slab of single-mindedly noisy, post-punky hardcore smothered in the band’s trademark gazey atmosphere.
“Well Made Play” starts the proceedings with little doubt about the album’s direction. Spaced out electronics float over heavily distorted bass drops, guitars tinged with 80s punk and truly frantic drumming with a healthy dose of blast beats, while a blanket of thick, buzzy distortion envelops the instrumentals, turning the track’s screeching Ornette Colman-stylesaxophone into something at times closer to an airhorn. Over the maelstrom, Tony Wolski’s ferocious screams rasp out accusations and searching questions of self-identity, setting up the album’s themes of exploration around religion and personal alienation. “Purity Drag” features a Joy Division-esque bassline in the verses interspersed with one of The Armed’s typically maximalist choruses consisting of layer upon layer of texture, all decorated with Patrick Shiroishi’s twinkling keyboards. All the while, the saxophone rages on in the background, dipping out only after “Kingbreaker”. Grinding bass propels the latter track forward in a way reminiscent of classic punk, with a stomping half-time chorus thrown in for good measure. “Kingbreaker” also introduces vocalist Meghan O’Neil of Punch alongside Wolski, this time singing clean, with her piercing screams cutting right through the fray.
THE FUTURE …’s next three tracks, while lyrically more cerebral, are no less furious than the opening sequence. Album highlight “Grace Obscure” continues with the assault of manic drums, guitars drenched in fuzz, prominent bass and psyched-out synthesisers while juxtaposing references to French absurdist literature, wrestling’s artificial reality, Dragon Ball and even The Armed’s own back catalogue in a sharp critique of modern life’s pervasive vapidity. A seamless transition carries these themes over to “Broken Mirror”, where fellow Michigan punk outfit Prostitute make an appearance to rail against the state of modern politics over a crunchingly noisy rhythm section and biting synths, invoking the Dead Kennedys, vanlife and a Nathan Fielder show in the process. References further abound on “Sharp Teeth”, which leans ever further into the stacked vocal layers and sound design of the previous tracks to cap off this noisy, eloquent trifecta.
The record’s first side consists of songs split into 2 sets, each with common lyrical themes and a focus on heavy, expansive wall-of-sound style production. “I Steal What I Want”, “Local Millionaire” and “Gave Up” put a more contrasting side of the album forward, leaning into the collective’s melodic post-hardcore and shoegaze/dream pop influences, the latter most evident on “Local Millionaire”. No matter how much the sound design cleans up, the crunchy production is never far away; fuzzy, hyper-compressed drums and buzzy guitars constantly lurk in various degrees of presence. Wolski’s vocals also never let up in their ferocity, driving sections which would sound tame in the hands of other bands with The Armed’s trademark intensity.
“Heathen”, however, a post-rocky extended cut which largely ditches the noisy atmosphere in favour of crystalline ambience around the ever-pervasive fuzzy bass and guitars, not only provides a welcome break from the onslaught but acts as a link back to the first few songs. The saxophone is reintroduced, this time in a much more melodic capacity, and the lyrics once again return to deeply personal introspection. All before “A More Perfect Design” abruptly shatters the measured calm with a truly blistering rage. Bookending the album, the avant-jazz saxophone returns, shredding over Dillinger Escape Plan-esque mathcore bursts before giving way to heavy, sludgy hardcore. A returning Cara Drolshagen twists through Wolski’s angered howl with a teasing delivery entirely unsuited to the reflections on becoming numb to countless current atrocities, hammering home the unflinchingly honest and vicious outpouring of rage which defines the record.
THE FUTURE … is the The Armed’s passionate plea against the countless issues present in modern society and deeper social and individual issues inherently caused by these, delivered in a package of original, exceedingly well crafted and flawlessly executed experimental hardcore wrapped in intelligent and bitingly sardonic lyricism. As the future grows ever more dystopian, why not soundtrack it with something that implores you to destroy it?
8.5/10
THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED is out August 1st via Sargent House and can be pre-ordered here.