The Armed announce new album ‘ULTRAPOP,’ share “ALL FUTURES” & live performance video // BROOKLYN VEGAN

Experimental punk collective The Armed have been one of the most unique heavy bands around for a while now (we named their last album, 2018's Only Love, one of the 100 best punk or emo albums of the 2010s), so it's very exciting news that they've announced a new album, ULTRAPOP, due April 16 via Sargent House (their first for the label). The once-mysterious band are now entirely open about their lineup (pictured above, though Converge's Ben Koller is also a member and not pictured), and the album also features high-profile guest appearances from Mark Lanegan and Queens of the Stone Age's Troy Van Leeuwen. Guitarist/vocalist Dan Greene co-produced the record with Chelsea Wolfe collaborator Ben Chisholm, and as usual, Converge's Kurt Ballou was executive producer.

"Crafting vital art means presenting the audience with new and intriguing tensions—sonically, visually, conceptually. Over time and through use, those tensions become less novel and effective—and they become expectations," Dan Greene says. "The concept of 'subgenre' becomes almost the antithesis of vitality in art—itself a fetishization of expectation. ULTRAPOP seeks, in earnest, to create a truly new listener experience. It is an open rebellion against the culture of expectation in 'heavy' music. It is a joyous, genderless, post-nihilist, anti-punk, razor-focused take on creating the most intense listener experience possible. It's the harshest, most beautiful, most hideous thing we could make."

Full feature via Brooklyn Vegan