Agoraphobic Nosebleed / Armegeddon Nuclear System - Split 5"

To celebrate the recent "fixing" of my record player so that it now plays records smaller than 6", here is another 5" review! Where can one possibly go wrong with a 5" full of Gang Green covers? ANb's cover of "Alcohol" is punchy and bouncy, and is virtually flawless with Randall back on the mic. That'll do Hull, that'll do. I am unfamiliar at this point with Armageddon Nuclear System (more commonly known as ANS) but they do a damn fine version of "Let's Drink Some Beer", and also contribute a short original song to the proceedings, which is a bit odd but I'm cool with. Out on a smorgasbord of colours thanks to Tank Crimes.

 

 

Stream the whole thing below.

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 - Merry Crystmeth

Welcome to part 2 of my Christmas Day double post! Not sure how many of you will actually be reading this on Christmas but I hope the festivities have progressed satisfactorily for you all. I for one will be no doubt smashed off my face by now on my parent's free beer. Can't beat the Christmas visit!

This year's Decibel Christmas flexi is a follow up to last years cracking ANb EP, A Joyful Noise. This year however, the full modern ANb crew are utilized, sadly pushing Mr. Randall into the background again. Luckily then, the song is as fucking heavy as a protein rich turkey shitlog you can't quite squeeze out on Boxing Day. It seems a long time since I've heard the beautiful screeching demon Katherine Katz, and her throat-shredding, tonsil-raping cries are a welcoming sound. A Joyful Noise grinded and blasted, but Merry Crystmeth chugs and clanks like a motherfucker. It's a lethally angry song, pushed forward by Rich Johnson's (and to a lesser extent Randall's) livid vocals.

Merry Crystmeth falls firmly back into the territory that a lot of old ANb fans dislike, but I for one (and I'm sure a lot of others, too) absolutely love this white piece of wax that has the consistency of cling film. Imported from Californ-i-a by the legendary Gumpytron 6000.

Merry Christmas, you fucks!

Enemy Soil - Casualties of Progress

Sorry it's been a while since I've done a post, I've been working on other things including behind the scenes work for this blog (writing a lot of posts in advance is a new tactic I'm going for). Today we have a post for Enemy Soil's classic slice of drum machine grind; Casualties of Progress. The EP was put out on Relapse in April 1995 on a run of both black and grey marbled records. It has since been re-issed on CD, with a bunch of bonus tracks as per usual.

 

It's a excellent romp in the grindcore template; samples open songs before catchy riffs plunge headfirst into all out blastbeat carnage not dissimilar to Agoraphobic Nosebleed, who would go on to become rather popular (in more recent years). It was a logical progression then, I think, for Enemy Soil main man Richard Johnson to end up in Agoraphobic Nosebleed. 

 

I picked this up for dirt cheap off what looked like a private stall at Hellfest 2010. The guy only had a bunch of records for sale, and this was one of them; a steal at two Euros. It averages about a fiver on Discogs now so go for me bargain hunting. Ha ha

Agoraphobic Nosebleed / The Endless Blockade - Split 7"

Here we have Agoraphobic Nosebleed's 2009 split with The Endless Blockade, which was released on a 1000 copy press by Relapse Records. 500 were made on blue, and 500 were made on black. Strangely enough, there doesn't seem to be the usual 100 clear pressed on this Relapse release.

Agoraphobic Nosebleed's material sounds like a carry-on in the vein of their "Agorapocalypse" tracks. There isn't any hateful Randall vocals to be heard here, but Katherine Katz and Richard Johnson sure as hell make up for that. The grind is blisteringly fast and the final track is harrowing as fuck. Short, but sweet.

The Endless Blockade starts off almost with a doomy feel, before heading full throttle into endless grind terror (no pun intended) melded dangerously with snarling electronic passages and over laps. According to info on the sleeve, vocals on this release were done by a Mick Harris; whether this is the Mick Harris of Napalm Death / Scorn /Lull fame, I do not know.

There has been no repress and prices are generally high for such a modern grind 7", glad I nabbed this on the Bones Brigade stall at Hellfest when I did (it was sold out then, I believe).

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!