The new album by The Armed is presented in all capital letters for multiple reasons. Titled ‘THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED,’ this album is both beautifully intense and ferocious, making the bold title fitting. It also reflects a sentiment many of us feel like shouting into our devices daily. We're captivated by wealth-accumulating tech giants, witnessing a genocide unfold in real-time, and are simultaneously misled about its true nature. Meanwhile, the threats of escalating far-right extremism and devastating climate change loom ever closer.
Yet, amidst the strange future thrust upon us, there remains a glimmer of hope. Progressive movements are resurging, smaller and healthier online communities are emerging to replace dying major platforms, and despite its many addictive and algorithmic flaws, the internet has fostered some daring and innovative new cultural expressions. The Armed’s unique heavy music style (which is hard to describe easily) is one such fresh and inventive musical expression at a time when rock music often leans towards retro revivalism. Over the course of six albums, they’ve traversed genres from frantic mathcore to experimental pop to arena rock, frequently merging these extremes into dizzying, cohesive musical pieces.
Until recently, the Detroit-based collective was more recognized for their reality-defying obscurity and cunning than for their genre-defying music. Before their self-imposed ‘unmasking’ around the release of their 2023 album ‘Perfect Saviors,’ The Armed delighted in creating misdirection. They deliberately omitted clarity about their lineup (with numerous musicians contributing to their albums, including members from Queens Of The Stone Age and Converge), their visuals and videos resembled fashion advertisements (as several members presumably work in advertising, which might explain their mention in a Ford commercial), and they thrived on playing pranks on fans and journalists, building a complex (though often speculative) lore around their identity.
‘THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED’ pushes the band’s newfound clarity to its furthest extreme (even if it still features collaborations from an unspecified group of members). The music is heavier than it has ever been, imbued with almost startlingly accessible diversions. The lyrics are equally sharp, addressing a world that increasingly appears to be spiraling out of control, filled with individuals battling each other while a small elite watches with delight. After all, this is a band that recently performed at a Bernie Sanders rally. They are not merely empty postmodern jesters; their music is direct and incisive, presenting a vibrant and deeply humanistic belief that we can certainly achieve so much more than the chaos surrounding us.
Clash interviewed The Armed's vocalist and ‘creative director’ Tony Wolski about our swiftly evolving contemporary landscape, the current state of hardcore, the band’s past era of obfuscation, and their creatively liberated approach in crafting this remarkable new album…
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Right off the bat – this is my favorite album title of the year. What prompted the use of this more statement-style title compared to your earlier, more ambiguous album names?
It originated from the pre-social media era. There’s this proto-meme image of individuals recycling old tech materials, like hard drives. The accompanying advertising text stated that “the future is here and everything needs to be destroyed.” It’s so harsh and exaggerated. True to The Armed’s essence, it felt right. It conveys such a clear sentiment, and it’s amusing since it’s derived from a joke [laughs]. The music this time carries a palpable urgency, so it was ideal to choose a title that’s so hilariously direct.
I’ve always perceived The Armed, particularly in this chaotic phase, as a reflection of the wild and accelerating nature of our current world. What are your thoughts on that interpretation?
I appreciate that; it’s very accurate and something few mention. That’s definitely our intent. Nowadays, you can be fixated on an app and encounter lewd images, possibly AI-generated, receive your news, and also see images of children dying in a genocide. It’s an overwhelming experience, and this acceleration has occurred faster than our evolutionary capacity to cope with it. The Vietnam protests reached a breaking point when people saw photographs of the devastation, but now it’s like that magnified a thousand times. We’re constantly bombarded with so much, and this adaptation forces us to become desensitized.
The term ‘accelerationism’ carries some dire far-right implications, but there's also a forward-thinking school of accelerationist thought. Do you perceive your music as a means to propel music and culture forward in some capacity?
In our art, we view accelerationism positively. Good art mirrors the reality it inhabits. If there’s one thing we miscalculated in our thesis regarding the ‘ULTRAPOP’ trilogy [2018’s ‘Only Love’, 2021’s ‘ULTRAPOP’ and 2023’s ‘Perfect
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The Armed's latest album is presented in all capital letters for a variety of reasons. ‘THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED’ is a beautifully