The Armed - Only Love (2018)

For their second LP "Only Love", Detroit punk/hardcore/experimental collective THE ARMED returned to GodCity Studio to work with Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou as executive producer. Continuing their signature process of collaborating with different drummers on each release, this time THE ARMED recruited Ben Koller (Converge, Killer Be Killed, Mutoid Man, All Pigs Must Die). The partnership led to an entirely new creative approach for the record, one that allowed them to achieve their most wildly innovative work to date. The goal for "Only Love" was to reach an overwhelming level of intensity without referencing the typical tent poles of the genres they're associated with. By imagining they had never heard punk, metal or hardcore and limiting references to pop and the music of their youth, THE ARMED were able to arrive at an incredibly intense, but wildly unique reinterpretation of aggressive music.

Three years removed from their debut LP, "Untitled" — an album that gained recognition from the likes of Fader, NPR, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Noisey, AV Club and many more — "Only Love" proves to be a nonlinear progression within the collective's catalog, and they continue to demonstrate that we will never know what to expect from them.