The Armed have announced a new album, Ultrapop, and it will be out on April 16th via Sargent House – their first album with the label. Featuring work from Mark Lanegan and Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, this is the first album co-produced by the band’s own Dan Greene in collaboration with Ben Chisholm (Chelsea Wolfe). Kurt Ballou remains at the helm as executive producer.
With the announcement comes a live video for the first track, “All Futures,” explicitly revealing this album’s band member lineup for the first time. The video is a live take of the studio track. Listen to “All Futures” and watch the video for it below:
“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.”
Ultrapop artwork & tracklist:
1. All Futures
2. Masunaga Vapors
3. A Life So Wonderful
4. An Iteration
5. Big Shell
6. Average Death
7. Faith in Medication
8. Where Man Knows Want
9. Real Folk Blues
10. Bad Selection
11. The Music Becomes A Skull
The Armed Lineup
Jonni Randall – Vocals + Bass
Chris Slorach – Vocals + Guitar
Dan Greene – Guitar + Vocals
Adam Vallely – Guitar + Vocals
Dan Stolarski – Guitar + Vocals
Clark Huge – Synthesizers
Urian Hackney – Drums
Ben Koller – Drums
Cara Drolshagen – Vocals
EU TOUR DATES
09/10/21 – Bristol, UK – The Exchange
10/10/21 – Birmingham, UK – Dead Wax
11/10/21 – Dublin, Ireland – Whelan’s
12/10/21 – Manchester, UK – YES
13/10/21 – Glasgow, UK – Nice N Sleazy
14/10/21 – Leeds, UK – Boom
15/10/21 – London, UK – MOTH Club
16/10/21- Brighton, UK – The Green Door Store
18/10/21 – Antwerp, Belgium – TRIX
19/10/21 – Reims, France – La Cartonnerie
20/10/21 – Lorient, France – L’Hydrophone
21/10/21 – Nantes, France – Stereolux
22/10/21 – Rouen, France – Le 106
23/10/21 – Paris. France – La Boule Noire
Photo credit: Trevor Naud