Taking their name from a World War II weapons depository located next to their studio in
Brussels, Belgium, Hendrik Willemyns and John Roan started out with their debut EP
Release issued in 1999 on the Antwerp-based Wally's Groove World label and subsequently licensed by the Ibiza label
Café del Mar for their
Chill-Out House compilation. Arsenal's follow-up single, "A Volta", was the first of several collaborations with the Brazilian-born singer Mario Vitalino Dos Santos. "A Volta" was subsequently used in the final episode of the American
HBO series
Six Feet Under. Arsenal's debut album
Oyebo Soul was released in 2003 on the Belgian independent label Wha? Roots, and Kriztal Entertainment in the United States. Despite its eclectic nature,
Oyebo Soul was well received by critics around the world, and described as "focused and unpredictable at the same time" by
AllMusic. Within two years, approximately 10,000 copies were sold on the Belgian market. Meanwhile,
Oyebo Soul was also released in The Netherlands, Japan, Spain, Portugal, and USA, where they were playlisted on
KCRW,
KUCR, and others. Following
Oyebo Soul, Arsenal signed to Belgian independent labels Playout! &
PIAS for the release of their second album
Outsides in 2005. It featured a cast of vocal collaborators from around the world including Aaron Perrino from the Boston band
The Sheila Divine, Puerto Rican singer
Gabriel Rios, Italo-Belgian singer Domenico Vaccaro, Brazilian Mario Vitalino dos Santos, and Chinese rapper Chi Zang. To accompany the album, Arsenal made a DVD, documenting the background of some of their collaborators. The album was shot on location in Boston and Buffalo, United States, Puerto Rico, and Salvador, Brazil.
Outsides went
Platinum in Belgium. Following the success of
Outsides, Willemyns and Roan traveled to Norway to work in isolation (‘And to get rid of the sunny vibes’, according to Willemyns), and as on their previous albums, they featured a wide range of collaborators (including
Grant Hart of
Hüsker Dü,
Shawn Smith of
Brad and
Pigeonhed,
Mike Ladd,
Cortney Tidwell, and
John Garcia from
Kyuss) on their next record,
Lotuk. Characterised by a much more upbeat pop sound,
Lotuk saw Arsenal championed in the United States by the likes of celebrity blogger
Perez Hilton: "Like A Fine Glass Of Merlot: It's pretty. It's cool. It's perfect for your next mix-CD!", and rapper
Kanye West, who kept it short and simple: "Amazing!!!". As with
Outsides,
Lotuk was accompanied by a documentary on DVD, filmed and edited by Willemyns, that follows the band on their road trip across the United States to meet up with Shawn Smith, John Garcia, Cortney Tidwell, and Grant Hart. The documentary was showcased at
Docville, a European documentary film festival, and led to
Paper Trails, a documentary series on important books of the 20th century, which was filmed and edited by Hendrik Willemyns, while John Roan captured sound. Together they provided the series with an Arsenal soundtrack. In six episodes, six books were featured:
Tender Is the Night by
F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Solaris by
Stanislaw Lem,
Norwegian Wood by
Haruki Murakami,
Things Fall Apart by
Chinua Achebe,
The Savage Detectives by
Roberto Bolaño, and
Burmese Days by
George Orwell. The series was aired on
Canvas, a Belgian art channel, in 2010. Recorded in the Breton village of Locquémeau (Breton name : Lokémo), Arsenal's fourth album,
Lokemo, was released in 2011 and featured the return of some of the band's previous guests, including Shawn Smith on the single "Melvin" and Mike Ladd on "One Day at a Time". The album also featured new collaborators such as
Johnny Whitney (from
The Blood Brothers and
Jaguar Love),
Mélanie Pain, and Belgian performance artist Depotax, and ranged in style from beatless ambient tracks, house music, shoegaze, to rock. Reconnecting the band with the dancefloor, the album’s singles were remixed by several prominent electronic music producers including
Joakim,
Com Truise,
Optimo, and
Compuphonic, and Melvin was named ‘Track of the Month’ in the UK dance music magazine
Mixmag. The five-star review in
MixMag on "Melvin" went as follows: "This is ticking so many boxes my biro has run out. Belgian duo (the best kind): check. Falsetto vocals: check. Spine-tingling key changes: check. The ability to send you and your chums into a pilly group hug on a dancefloor: checkmate!" DJ Mag praised the single "One Day at a Time": "Arsenal are a big deal in Europe: this has clearly nothing to do with the North London football team. Fans of Indie-disco like Mitzi and Phoenix should check the original track." In 2011, Arsenal received the award for Best Dance at the
Music Industry Awards in Belgium. Arsenal's fifth and sixth studio albums, released in 2014 and 2018 respectively, are titled
Furu and
In the Rush of Shaking Shoulders. In 2021, the duo released the album
The Rhythm of the Band. ==Live performances==