Band:	The Armed
Album:	Ultrapop
Style:	Post-hardcore, Noise rock
Release date:	April 16, 2021
A review by:	RaduP

01. Ultrapop
02. All Futures
03. Masunaga Vapors
04. A Life So Wonderful
05. An Iteration
06. Big Shell
07. Average Death
08. Faith In Medication
09. Where Man Knows Want
10. Real Folk Blues
11. Bad Selection
12. The Music Becomes A Skull [feat. Mark Lanegan]

It might not really be "pop", but it definitely is "ultra".

A few weeks ago, Genghis Tron released Dream Weapon, an album that stripped away that cybergrind sound into an electronic math rock one. The Armed also do something quite similar, but unlike Genghis Tron, who had over a decade of hiatus, The Armed had already planted the pop seeds with 2018's Only Love. So Ultrapop comes as just a bigger push in that direction, but also one that still keeps the heavy noise ethos, even if the hardcore has been twisted out of form. And looking at the cover art, well, it's really not something you'd expect to see on a metal band, more in line to the shock that was Sunbather's cover art all those years ago. But, you know, "shock" is kinda what I'd call Ultrapop anyway.

This is the kind of album where the "all caps tracklist" feels quite fitting. To say that the sound of Ultrapop is overwhelming is quite an understatement, especially with the "ultra" in the name. It's like an adrenaline overdose, but a blistering psychedelic hardcore one. But it's also hardcore that is full of glitter, molded into something upbeat and left out to bathe in the sun. It's indie pop ran through a meat grinder. An out of body experience through a loud amp. Sunshine hardcore? Perhaps. Psychedelic indie noise rock? Perhaps. Everything in between? Also perhaps. A mind-dizzying trip. Definitely. Hardcore bands going indie pop aren't anything new, I mean look at Bring Me The Horizon, but no one has done it as bafflingly as The Armed.

When it comes to name-dropping some bands whose sound is infused in this record, it feels more natural to name bands outside of the metal/hardcore sphere than from within. Some early 00s indie pop / post-punk revival like The Killers, Death From Above 1979, The Strokes, some alt rock like The Smashing Pumpkins, some math noise rock Lightning Bolt and Dinosaur Jr., some industrial rock like Nine Inch Nails, some neo-psychedelia like Dan Deacon, some noise pop like My Bloody Valentine. So all of them with just some more or less tangential connection to the metal world. But all of them sound as if passed through a strong Converge filter. No wonder that the anonymity of The Armed so far lead some folks to speculate that this is all Kurt Ballou with some anonymous collaborators.

This is a loud album. Like both in terms of how big it feels, but also how ridiculously compressed it feels, to the point of parody. With eight people in the band, a shitload of guests, this album is stacked with noise, guitar feedback upon twirling synths , twirling synths upon pummeling percussion, pummeling percussion upon chaotic screams, chaotic screams upon sugary choruses, sugary choruses upon guitar feedback. On and on. There's a lot of it that feels way to over the top, but them knowing to pull back some of the time, and also just how much finesse there is in how all these sounds are cramped, give it a sort of noisy charm that would've been to fragile not to fall if in the wrong hands. This feels like pushing hardcore out of the door without much of a plan, but with full knowledge that it has to move on.

It feels like a big prank, why you'll find a strangely high amount of bodybuilding talk from the band, why they had a music video with Tommy Wiseau, why they had a song called "Ft. Frank Turner", but put Frank Carter on the cover, and so much more. So at this point I have to put all of this nonsense to rest. I am actually in The Armed. And so is the entire MS staff. And so are you, reader.