For years, Detroit’s The Armed have been the strange, shady oddballs of the US’s bubbling hardcore scene. They’ve operated anonymously for their last three albums, up to 2021’s ‘Ultrapop’, which merged the feral mathcore of their earlier releases with arena-rock hooks — helping to set the stage for the current hardcore scene to become the dynamic, diverse force it is now. Even as press attention on them blew up with its release, they still played tricks on journalists and fans, using fake names and photos of people who weren’t even in the band. With the release of their fifth album ‘Perfect Saviors’, The Armed have dropped the mystery, admitting that it had started to take over their public perception. We now know that their frontman and key songwriter is Tony Wolski, who previously went by the fake name Adam Vallely.
But never ones to make a predictable move, The Armed have shifted away from hardcore completely with ‘Perfect Saviors’. Instead the touchpoints for this album are noughties garage-rock and ‘70s glam. They’ve also beefed up their address book; among the many contributors to the album are Queens of the Stone Age’s Troy Van Leeuwen (who co-produced the record), Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Pearl Jam’s Josh Klinghoffer, Beck and Nine Inch Nails’ Justin Meldal-Johnsen, David Bowie drummer Mark Guiliana, and Julien Baker.
Listening to ‘Perfect Saviors’, it’s no surprise that these big names jumped to be a part of of the collection. While their sound has become more accessible, it’s also as forward-thinking as we’ve come to expect of The Armed. They warp their influences and push them to the brink; beneath incredibly catchy hooks are complex layers of sound, giving each song unique scope and intensity. If their previous albums sounded like hardcore on steroids and deranged, this is the same for their brand of rock-and-roll.
The album’s best moments are when The Armed get brazen with their genre experimentation. ’Modern Vanity’ has a sleazy, swaggering, glam-rock feel, which only makes it pay off more when Wolski breaks into screams in the chorus. ‘Liar 2’ is a groovy electronics-driven cut which is probably the album’s poppiest and the sonic result is ecstatic.
Tying the record together is ‘Sport of Form’, which comes halfway through the album. This is the only one that doesn’t toy with any kind of accessibility or pop structure. Jarring, violent electronic noise is intercut with serene vocal and acoustic interludes. Wolski explores the idea of a public figure whose perceived correctness and poise is impossible to live up to. For the last minute of the track, Wolski and Baker harmonise the words, “Does anyone even know you? Does anyone even care?” over and over, building into a dramatic, desperate finish. It’s a haunting moment, one you come back to after the album has finished. While The Armed’s bold shift in sound is a great success in itself, it’s this song that makes it feel complete. Why build something great if not to strip it all away?