Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Altered States of America

I remember back in the day when I first heard of this album. I remember how ridiculously excited I was to hear something so musically challenging. 100 songs? Less than 20 minutes? Bitch please, you must be trippin'! And trippin' I was when I first got this record in it's original 3" CD package from some crazy-mainstream outlet like Virgin Megastore or Zavvi (I forget which). I now own this testament to insanity three times; on the original 3" CD, the double shaped/blank CD package featuring ANbRX II (which is a fuckton of Delta Nine remixes) and on white 10" vinyl. All pressed by Relapse, of course. The vinyl version conveniently plays track 0 for you right at the start, which was always a nightmare to hear on the CD version because you had to rewind from 00:00 as soon as the first song started. If you wound back too far it'd just fucking cut out, which was a pain in the ass. Agorapocalypse also has this cool but rather annoying gimmick with it's first track too.

 

 

When I first heard this at 15 years old I expected 100 micro-grind blasts to the face and was initially disappointed with the electronic passages. I felt like I was being robbed of precious grindcore, ha ha! Although I still think it's a bit shit that the electronics are cut up into little pieces and passed off as songs, I have grown to like these just as much as the grind on display here. Some of the samples here are absolutely timeless when blended with such harsh noise (there is a lot taken from the film Holy Mountain). I always thought that the 12 Days of Sodom section in the middle of the record would be excellent as an EP in it's own right, as something crazy like a 4" or something.

 

Which CD is cooler, the original pressing or the reissue?

The CD reissue comes with this nifty remix disc by Delta Nine. 

So yeah, I'll go ahead and cut this off now before I ramble for seven thousand paragraphs about every single micro-song on this record. I've kinda fizzled myself out on grind these days but Agoraphobic Nosebleed remain one of my favourite bands of all time and this record stands in the halls of awesome grind as proof that such sonically mindfucking music can exist. 

Agoraphobic Nosebleed - A Clockwork Sodom / Tentacles Of Destruction 7"

Very interesting EP from Agoraphobic Nosebleed, out on Garden Of Exile in a plethora of different colours. In the first pressing of 800 copies, 350 were made on black, 250 yellow, 150 white and 50 super rare yellow / white "fucked up" versions that were offered as a pre-order. These 50 are hand numbered and fetch up to £40 on Discogs. The entire release was repressed the same year (2007) on a 100 red copies. Oddly, in 2008 another 50 were pressed on red, but this time featuring radically different artwork (mayhaps they ran out of the original jackets - lol).

To me, the music on this 7" feels like the tracks that wouldn't fit / would be out of place on the "Altered States Of America" mini CD. Unless I am very much mistaken, the tracks are from the same recording period, sharing the same hissing, razor-sharp guitar sound and boxy, mile-a-minute inhuman drumming. It also shares the same clusterfuck of a three vocalist attack, making it a harsh yet satisfying listen. However, if I had to pick my least favourite ANb stuff, it would be the material on this record. That's not to say I don't like it, mind you!

This post is dedicated to the loss of my friend Gumpy's copy of the first repress on red. He left it on the bus back from Hellfest in France along with several other fantastic records and it was never seen again! A tragic day!