The duo’s debut album is packed full of uncompromisingly authentic and bleak moments that characterise their sound
Armed with a murky, atmospheric sound that feels as uncompromising and ambitious as it is dark, Arms & Armour are a duo that have crafted a sound that ties together genres like doom, EDM, post-punk and industrial in a gothic and intense package that feels completely and entirely their own. Their debut full length album The Hunted is a collection of tracks that showcases the full breadth and weight of their vision, and it makes for a really compelling and interesting listening experience throughout.
The slow-burning and fiercely intense ‘Star’ sets the tone for what is to come in memorable and unflinching fashion, unfurling and sprawling gradually against hypnotic rhythms that are punctuated by Lauren Voss’ haunting vocals, while ‘Terror By Night’ goes for a more dissonant and unsettling feel that gets under your skin and makes a home there in no time at all.
The harrowing ambience of ‘Pretender’ continues to push you down this corridor of uncertainty and ambiguity, while a the vocals on ‘Chafe (Breaking Our Hands) have forceful and urgent feel to them while feels more confrontational and unnerving while still grappling against a sinister soundscape. These moody and bleak textures to me evoke the same kind of feelings that some of the more ambitiously dark and atmospheric moments from bands like Nine Inch Nails and early Slipknot inspire, creating a sense of dread and horror that lingers with you for long after your listen ends.
It is a sound that is steeped in tragedy and hardship throughout, with every track feeling like it is abducting you and abandoning you somewhere cruel and unforgiving in its own distinctive way. There is a vacant feel to ‘Crusher’ and the soft, slow way that it trudges along that immediately feels contrasted by the more violently dark ‘Grinder’, making for a really interesting contrast in styles that demonstrates the gripping way that the duo can create these feelings of uncertainty and unease in different and conflicting ways while the core feels the same.
The creative ‘Everybody’s Song’ is a track that unfolds almost like you’re in a trance or an otherworldly experience, with increasingly guttural shrieks and screams added in for good measure, just incase you forgot the impending feeling of doom and gloom that the sound is inflicting on you in each passing moment. It is a track that feels like it rises in intensity and sounds until it starts to resemble a chaotic wall of noise, and it does a really effective job of keeping things feeling uncomfortable and showing that they’re no shorter of ideas to keep you on edge.
The sludgy ‘Orion’ offers the last taste of these atmospheric assaults from the band, as ‘Ash’s Song’ closes things out with a track that has a lightness and a softness to it that has been few and far between elsewhere on The Hunted. It offers a moment to reflect on the sounds and themes that have come before it, with the tracks surrounding themes like recovery, illness, tragedy, contemporary politics, motherhood and fatherhood, all though the lens of this bleak, yet artistic sound that looks to push boundaries and really challenge you as a listener. Their self-produced style has allowed their sound to be as unsullied or unsanitised as possible, and it makes for a really potent and distinctive piece of artistic expression that feels like it is lacking in a modern world that is obsessed with algorithms and chasing numbers. It is an album that stands on its own, and is as true as it can be as a form of expression and honesty, and that is why it will stand the test of time in its own bleak and beautiful way.
