Watch 2:33 Minutes of Blissful Fury from The Armed in ‘NEW! Christianity’ Video

There are songs and videos that rewire your brain, shock you with wonder, overwhelm you with spirit and the whoosh of time flying by in remarkable increments. Songs that connect sounds and ideas in shock-of-the-new ways. Songs without flaw.

The Armed has been blowing minds since they exploded out of Detroit in the mid-‘10s with a furiously singular mix of hardcore, noise and electronics. Known for their ever-evolving convergence of performance art, sound, image, and rotating membership — last year they toured with a new member, the great L.A. saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Shiroishi — their new song, and accompanying video, tosses everything they’ve ever done into a shredder and then flattens the pile with a decibel-fueled hydraulic press. In the clip, they actually tear up copies of their last album, Perfect Saviors, and toss them into a backyard fire.

Which is to say, if your supersonic high-fidelity stereo system can wrestle into submission the Armed’s new “NEW! Christianity,” it can handle anything that’s machine-gunned its way. Guest vocalists Sarah Tudzin and Meghan O’Neil, along with “Dan Greene,” sing lyrics about “a narcissist unrevoked, a diamond without flaw” in the chorus, of “a solemn mountain—above reproach/You climb away, I will wear you down,” elsewhere.

Is the band declaring itself the Lord of Lords? Probably not. Is it indicting unnamed narcissistic others? Perhaps. “The Armed are the reason why I haven’t given up,” testifies one commenter under the video. Adds another, noting the symbolism of the band burning its old work: “May this funeral pyre for Perfect Saviors be a glimpse of the future through the smoke. Amazing.”

Enough throat-clearing. Here’s the video, which is best experienced at full volume on a billboard-sized HD flat-screen.

“NEW! Christianity” is taken from their forthcoming EP for Sargent House. Called “Everlasting Gaze,” it features three new tracks, as well as three remixes of “Sport of Form” (a song from the album they burn in the video) by Water from Your Eyes, IDLES and Model/Actriz. The EP comes out October 18.

Video credits:

Featuring guest vocals from Sarah Tudzin & Meghan O’Neil
NEW! Christianity is a Worldfare Production
Director: Tony Wolski
DP: Jacob Mulka
Editor: Randall Kupfer
Color: Aaron Jones
Starring: Dan Greene, Dan Greene, Jade Lauren