ULTRAPOP, the new album from The Armed, is a Rosemary’s Baby of Depeche Mode-esque synth pop, shoegaze, and death metal. The fangs barely retract for a moment across the project’s 12 tracks, with the intensity peaking right at the middle on “BIG SHELL,” track number six. The track begins with regal electronics and distorted vocals screaming with intensity of a star in Alice Glass’s orbit going supernova. A pure mass of noise follows, swelling and threatening to crush anyone foolish enough to stand in front of where it’s going. — JD