Though the Armed recently called off their fall tour plans with HO99O9, the experimental hardcore collective have revealed there’s new music to come later this year, in the form of a new EP titled EVERLASTING GLAZE. The forthcoming release is being teased now with a fiery new music video for its lead single, “NEW! Christianity.”
It’s explained in a press release that ardent Armed fans may have already heard the first three songs on the EP, as they’d been hiding in plain-ish sight within the record jacket for 2023 full-length PERFECT SAVIORS.
For whatever reason, if you’d ripped open the sleeve, you would’ve found a URL that directed you towards the songs “Puzzler,” “NEW! Christianity” and “Martyr Song.”
It’s further explained that the band felt these tracks acted as an epilogue, or C-side, to the album, while the just-revealed, media-blazing music video for “NEW! Christianity” nods to the hidden treasures inside those record jackets.
“In regards to its name — it’s less about specific, actual religion as it is about the culture thirsting for an avatar for it,” the band’s semi-fictitious figurehead Dan Greene explained of “NEW! Christianity,” adding that the song speaks to “the moralization of the amoral. A more overt repudiation of the concept of the ‘Perfect Savior’ than a mere reflection on it.”
The six-song EP, which sees release October 18th via Sargent House, likewise features remixes and re-imaginings of PERFECT SAVIORS songs, courtesy of U.K. post-punks IDLES, Brooklyn pop expressionists Water From Your Eyes, and U.S. outfit Model/Actriz.
While the Armed called off most of their fall dates — citing rising tour costs and a “domino effect” of behind-the-scenes challenges — the band do have a trio of fest appearances coming up, which you can find beneath the EP info.
EVERLASTING GLAZE tracklisting:
Puzzler
NEW! Christianity
Martyr Song
Sport of Form (Water From Your Eyes Remix)
Sport of Form (Model/Actriz Remix)
Sport of Form (IDLES Remix)
The Armed 2024 tour dates:
9/21 Chicago, IL – Riot Fest
9/28 Louisville, KY – Louder than Life
10/10 Sacramento, CA – Aftershock Festival