10 Incredible Metal Albums You May Have Missed In 2021

More of a collective than a band in the traditional sense, The Armed’s eclectic nature affords them a great deal of diversity in their sonic output, with rhythmic indie sitting alongside blastbeats and IDM as natural, if unusual bedfellows. When the aggression does kick in, as it so often does, The Armed managed to harness it in a way which is distinctly danceable, and have a lot more fun with it than their often po-faced Metal brethren.

The opening title track would give you the impression that its not a Metal album you’re listening to at all, but rather some airy indie slow jam designed to sit in the background whilst you study or do the washing up. As the wall of noise builds up in the outro, however, you can tell that something’s not quite right, and whilst follow up ‘ALL FUTURES’ also does it best to hide the cannon its back pocket, its not long before you’re introduced to the sort of noise based assault you can come to expect from the rest of the album.

‘MASUNGA VAPORS’ and ‘FAITH IN MEDICATION’ do away with any pretence that this is anything but a noise album, whilst you could quite easily have a decent rave to ‘AVERAGE DEATH’ and ‘WHERE MAY KNOWS WANT’, harsh vocals and blast beats permitting. Penultimate track ‘BAD SELECTION’ surprises yet again by eschewing the preceding audio apocalypse in favour of a driving beat and clean singing which wouldn’t look out of place on a Top 50 dance chart - before going utterly mental in the outro.

The Armed have managed to form an album in a genre of one this year, and whilst you can find elements of everything, it’s frankly comparable to nothing.

Listen to: FAITH IN MEDICATION