Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
I’ll never forget the first time that I saw Arlen Gun Club. It was a few years back at the (unfortunately now defunct) Chicago venue Golden Dagger, where they were playing on an October show dubbed “Emo Halloween.” Before things got started, one of the members of the band (I’m not positive which one—they were all dressed as cowboys) approached me and offered up a free pair of earplugs, which I—a no earplugs at concerts guy at the time—turned down. “Whatever, hearing damage isn’t cool, dude,” they replied, shrugging as they walked away. I felt like a fool. A few hours later the band went up and absolutely ripped their set. They were incredibly tight and incredibly loud, everything you could want out of a live rock band. At the end of the night I was sure of two things: one, Arlen Gun Club were a band I needed to keep my eye on, and two, I’d never be earplug-less at a concert again.
In June of 2022, about a half year after I first saw them, the band dropped their self-titled debut LP. Everything I loved about their live show translated to the record; it was a great riff-filled collection of the type of songs that might make Beavis and Butthead shut up for a few seconds to headbang if they came across them on MTV. Since then things have been pretty quiet on the Arlen Gun Club front. The band has been active and playing shows, but outside of a remix of “Kickflip” released in September of 2022 we haven’t gotten any new music. When they announced a new EP was coming at the beginning of 2025 I was excited but a little trepidatious; two and a half years isn’t an unheard of gap between releases, but it is enough time for a band to seriously change.
Arlen Gun Club’s sound sits in a kind of middle ground between a couple of genres, some I enjoy more than others. Though it’s a descriptor often used to describe the band, one thing that I like about them is that they aren’t straight-up pop-punk. Their music definitely has punk influences and a strong focus on melody, but sonically they’re more Samiam or Bad Religion than they are State Champs or Four Years Strong. No disrespect to the latter two groups, but that’s just not a sound that I vibe with as much, and I was a little nervous that Arlen could move more in their direction on the new release.
Hitting play on An Unbearable Weight showed that any concerns I had were unfounded; if anything, the EP sees the band move farther away from the sound of contemporary pop-punk, especially on tracks like “Run of the Mill” where they get as heavy as we’ve ever seen them. That’s not to say there isn’t any pop-punk influence at all—it can certainly be found in places, especially on the hooks—but overall on the EP Arlen stay skating between genres and styles in the way that made them appealing to me in the first place. A key to their approach here seems to be the prioritization of cool sounding guitars above all else, a winning formula.
“Annie,” my favorite track, is a great example of this, especially with the interplay between rhythm and lead guitars. Like most Arlen Gun Club tracks, the rhythm guitar tone on the song is distorted but compact, giving the impact of a heavy punch rather than a tackle or shoegaze-style bearhug. It provides a substantial backdrop for the dancing lead that hits around the song’s 12-second mark, accentuating its agility and driving it to the top of the mix. It makes the lead feel like a character of its own; throughout the EP I often found myself thinking of the rhythm guitar, bass, and drums coming together to form a giant mech which the lead buzzed around like a drone to support, everything working in tandem even when not directly connected.
Lyrically An Unbearable Weight is incredibly existential, not a huge surprise given its title. “On the Mend” is particularly heartbreaking, focusing on the dread brought about by comparing oneself to others (especially those close to you). It starts out innocently with Leo Martini singing, “Pulled the grass out by the strand / started whistling as you blew into your hand / I said I wish I could do that but I can’t / I have tried to understand / it’s one of those things you either know, or you don’t,” before progressing to the blunt statement “Gonna be honest with you / think I wish I was you.” Fittingly for what may be the saddest track on the EP, this is one of the only places where we don’t hear the lead guitar flying triumphantly to the front of things; instead it sits back, presented as subdued arpeggios just part of the malaise.
On “Run of the Mill” we hear similar self dissatisfaction expressed with fury rather than melancholy, with Martini singing, “Man I just keep on getting older / and it feels like I am breaking down most days / I know because everything is harder / and it’s not the same.” Martini’s delivery really makes the words hit home, yelling the first two lines before dropping back and becoming resigned; as the world beats you down one can only rage so much, and that dichotomy really comes across here.
Ultimately what I guess I’d say is that I’m glad we have a band like Arlen Gun Club. They make great loud melodic punk music with cool guitars and don’t get in their own way trying to sound like any one other band or genre. It’s what they’ve always done and it’s what they continue to do across An Unbearable Weight. If you’re friends with one of those people who’s always saying stuff like, “Where did all the bands go?” show them this EP. It rocks.
Disappointing / Average / Good / Great / Phenomenal
An Unbearable Weight is out now.
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Josh Ejnes | @joshejnes
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