The Armed: once-mysterious hardcore collective strive to “give less of a shit”

Are they a cult, or are they just an eccentric metalcore enigma hailing from Detroit? Having spent the best part of 14 years toying with the prefix of their identities: performing in masks, hiring actors to cover numerous interviews, and enrolling countless anonymous contributors onto each project, the anonymity of The Armed has for a number of years left fans both puzzled and equally engrossed in their story. Although successfully maintaining a low profile since starting out in 2009, the group have over the years proved to be an unstoppable force within the music industry with each gripping release.

Wolski, seemingly, is also unstoppable. When NME calls, he has just come off tour with alt-rock titans Queens of the Stone Age and is pumping iron as he takes our questions over Zoom – a connoisseur of multi-tasking you might say.

For the next 45-minutes Wolski rather gracefully and cohesively takes us through the group’s forthcoming album, ‘Perfect Saviours.’ With a fresh line-up of 12 post-hardcore, poppy anthems, the group are bouncing back with an LP that’s definitive of their sound, personal growth and range. It’s stuffed with frisky riffs, addictive hooks and thought-provoking ballads with emotionally-penned lyrics. Confirming for the first time a full list of contributors, the LP features honourable mentions from former David Bowie drummer Mark Guiliana, QOTSA guitarist Justin Meldal-Johnsen, former Red Hot Chili Peppers member Josh Klinghoffer and many more.

“The Armed is The Armed, it changes all the time. What you can expect from us is hopefully a surprise, magic and confusion,” Wolski says. One thing The Armed fans may have in common with new followers is that neither of them know for definite who this project are. Rumoured to be a mysterious band fluctuating between genres and experimenting with unique visuals, even to a die-hard fan, it’s hard to put into words who exactly this collective is, but despite this, that secrecy has never swayed their fanbase.

“We’re good at drawing people in, because I don’t think there’s a lot of stuff that looks like us. We got a couple of hecklers, but I think for the most part, we had people react really positively,” Wolski says, whilst reminiscing on their tour with QOTSA.

Experimenting with a range of musical and visual dynamics over a series of several avant-garde projects, throughout their career the group have never shied away from stepping outside of the box or showcasing their humour. From their multifaceted discography, to their vivacious costume design and their witty outspokenness, like the time they made a diss at Frank Turner with their parodic single ‘FT. FRANK TURNER’ – that did in fact, not feature Frank Turner. Forever creating and reinventing themselves, The Armed are a project who take a great deal of pride in curating and are living proof that art isn’t linear. Whilst for some artists identifying and developing a public image is a major must from the get to, for The Armed, their artistry is something that needs little to no introduction and often speaks for itself.

“We’re here to challenge you and your ideas of what art is or what it is that you like, and maybe introduce you to some new stuff.” Wolski says. “I don’t know if [our music is] going to resonate every time with every person individually, but I think overall, the trend will be something that you go to because you want to be challenged.”

“Art changes, just like society, or standards of language,” Wolski says enthusiastically as he subtly addresses why the group are now opening up to the world. “We never really anticipated a moment in which having anonymity would actually make it more of a focus on the individual. Whilst I’m very happy with it, and I love all the content and concepts that have arised from it, it was never supposed to be a total mystery to be solved. It was just supposed to be an open ended thing that if you like The Armed that was it. As the collaboration has grown so huge, it seemed to make sense to now be like: we’re just gonna tell you what’s going on.” 

Whilst their secrecy has kept many of their fans completely infatuated by their story, Wolski says that the group have always “been very honest with our actual heart” and their last album, 2021’s ‘ULTRAPOP’ proved that. It was one of their heaviest and unconventional projects yet, launching themselves into the depths of metalcore and also toying with their usual anonymity by confirming eight contributing members, as well as Mark Lanegan, QOTSA’s Troy Van Leeuwen. Fans got to see a heavier side to The Armed whilst getting a closer look at the magic behind it all.

The upcoming ‘Perfect Saviours’ concludes a three-part series exploring society’s obsession with the consumption of pop-culture. “We wanted this to be the prettiest, shiniest, most accessible version, because we’re trying to utilise the format of pop music as a way to get some weird and interesting ideas out there,” says Wolski.

‘Sport of Form’, featuring Boygenius member Julien Baker, encapsulates that best, and features a cameo from Iggy Pop. “He played a song of ours on his BBC show, which was awesome,” Wolski says excitedly, as he goes on to explain Pop’s feature on their latest record. Although they had scripted Pop in for a lyrical feature, the end result of this video was just too fitting for their storyline. “That’s how a lot of stuff for us tends to work out, through these weird series of accidents. A lot of people ask ‘how did you?’ about collaborators, but there’s not exactly an Iggy phone-line you know? It was a lot of emails.”

Throughout ‘Perfect Saviours,’ the group amplify their genre-fluidity as they explore variations of sub-genres of rock, experimental electronica and pop. “The Armed has always been about radical inclusion. The people who identify with the deepest sub genres are the people who tend to create some sort of identity for themselves that’s rooted in some superior version of authenticity,” Wolski says. “The point of these albums is to emphasise that it’s silly to find authenticity in any of this, because all it ultimately is now is superficial gatekeeping.”

As the group enter a brand-new chapter Wolski enthusiastically says that if there’s one thing he commends, it’s to “give less of a shit.” Life is far too short to not be brave enough to take those risks and ‘Perfect Saviours’ is the perfect project propelling this. Representing the importance of trial and error and having the confidence to try things out that you might not have before.

“A lot of the stuff that we’ve done in the past had been maybe a little bit more vague or, or speaking in a third person a lot,” Wolski says. “We were making music that was more instantly accessible. Right now, we want to be unafraid to get corny, but in the most simple and sincere way possible.”

The Armed’s ‘Perfect Saviors’ is out August 25

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