Album Review: Smash Into Pieces – ArmaHeaven (The Orchard)

Swedish rock heavyweights Smash Into Pieces are set to unleash their most ambitious album to date, ‘ArmaHeaven’, arriving October 31st, 2025. Picking up where their previous album Ghost Code left off, the new chapter throws listeners into a dystopian future where Ghostis, now unstoppable, seizes control of the world. As the resistance falls, a new force emerges: an AI-driven entity that sparks an all-out digital war for dominance. The clash escalates into global catastrophe, exploring themes of power, survival, and rebirth. Will humanity find salvation, or will the machines consume themselves in a final great reset?

Constantly setting rock trends, Smash into Pieces return with, arguably, their biggest record to date. Not only because it tells an elaborate story with exciting twists and turns, but because they express this story in anthemic fashion. Come for the rocking heaviness, melodic potency, and chorus-driven delights, but stay for the detail. That’s a simple summation of ArmaHeaven, but to really do this exceptional record justice, I need to explain more, a hell of a lot more.

It begins in grand fashion as the intro of Prophecy sets the stage (there is a theatrical feel to the record) before the first of many modern rock anthems comes with force. It’s Villain, it has got stadium vibes, and it sets a very high bar. Although it doesn’t take long for the bar to be matched and then topped as Broken Halo’s modern use of synth creates a refreshing vibe, Paradise features the stunning vocal talents of Amaranthe’s Elize Ryd, Maze of Fools goes from overt poppiness to powerful industrialised rockiness with ease, and both Hurricane and Rage deliver massive choruses with energy, passion, and belief. The former’s meaty breakdown is so awesome too.

What does belief mean? It means that this is a highly focused Smash into Pieces who have faith in their musical abilities and their characteristic nature to connect to a wide and varied audience. This is more than just your average level of charisma; this is stadium level charisma.

Are you getting it yet? It’s undeniable that ArmaHeaven is the sound of a band on course to be one of the biggest alternative rock and metal bands in the world, and it all comes from the universal appeal of songs like Wildfire, Man or Machine, and Flame. The latter of which features Swedish artist LIAMOO and will be one of Smash into Pieces most beloved efforts, even if the poppiness goes into overdrive. It’s so damn synthy though, and that puts a silly smile on my face personally.

Of course, I can’t promise you that you’ll love everything, I certainly don’t, but I can promise you that you’ll find something about it that appeals to you. Maybe it will be the heavy industrialisation and retro rock feel of Devil in My Head. Or maybe it will be the powerful collaboration with Swedish/Japanese media icon LiLiCo on the dramatic and expressive First Time. Heck, it might even be the emotionally potent A Sky Full of Stars or the vibrant Some Kind of Heaven. You will like something.

Credit to Smash into Pieces, they really have created something that puts them on a whole different echelon. Look out world, they’re well and truly on course to dominate, and they’re doing it in their own, interesting, way.

Smash into Pieces – ArmaHeaven Track Listing:

1. Prophecy
2. Villain
3. Broken Halo
4. Paradise (feat. Elize Ryd)
5. Maze of Fools
6. Hurricane
7. Rage
8. Wildfire
9. Man or Machine
10. Flame (feat. LIAMOO)
11. Devil in my Head
12. First Time (feat. LiLiCo)
13. A Sky Full of Stars
14. Some kind of Heaven
15. ArmaHeaven

Links

Website | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok