I can honestly say I’m not that big of a grindcore fan, unless you count Genghis Tron, although you probably shouldn’t. I do however like some Pig Destroyer, but I wouldn’t call myself a fan of them. It was just out of sure curiosity that I decided to check out Agoraphobic Nosebleed‘s new effort, (and in my opinion, their opus) Agorapocalypse. My first thought upon finishing the record the first time went something like, “HOLY SHIT WHAT IS THIS I DON’T EVEN”. The title of the album hits the nail on the head. This is the sonic equivalent of an apocalypse through the eyes of ANb mastermind Scott Hull. It’s nothing short of chaos fucking you in the ear. Lyrically, the album is all about drugs, fucked up sex, and violence. But this is a grindcore album. You knew what you were getting into.
There are a number of different things that sets this album apart from other ANb albums. The biggest one to me is that the songs are actually cohesive pieces. Every song but one lasts longer than a minute. If you’re pissed over this, then get the fuck out. I’d rather have a 13 track album with complete songs than a 50 track album with songs lasting a whole 5 seconds. The other thing that certainly stands out is the utilization of three different vocalists: Katherine Katz, Jay Randall, and Richard Johnson, each bringing in a different and discernible flavor and style to the table. Vocals are all harsh, you wont catch any clean singing here. At the most, you’ll get some talking, but it’s all snarls, blood curdling screams, and grunts.
The production on Agorapocalypse is perfect. It’s so tight, you could bounce a quarter off of it. You can pick out every little detail. You can clearly hear the bass laying a crunchy foundation, which is something you don’t hear all that often in a grindcore record. The guitar goes all over the place here. You get thrash tremolo picking, crushing riffs, grooves, general noise and feedback, and the occasional melodic guitar line, which are few and far between. I’m impressed by how great these drums sound. Hull used Drumkit From Hell software, which I’ve experimented with before. I have no idea how he makes it sound so good. You can tell Hull put everything into this album. He didn’t rush through this; He took his time and wrote, programmed, performed, and mastered this perfectly. His hard work definitely pays off. This album is a masterpiece.
Thanks to MetalSucks, I’ll be getting the longbox edition here soon. It’ll definitely be a prized possession. Listen to my personal favorite track Question of Integrity below. It features one of the most badass drum solos ever. Impressive, even if it was programmed.
Agoraphobic Nosebleed – Question of Integrity
-JR
4.5/5
Fleshgod Apocalypse are a technical death metal band, forged in Italy. They add a slight twist to their technicality though, an orchestral backing as the picture above suggests. Brutal up front violins and oboes and shit in the back. The band’s metal part lacks a lot in low end, but it’s still decent without breaking any grounds in that area. The orchestral backing isn’t anything special either, but it’s seen on almost every track. There isn’t much to say, since you’ve all heard this stuff before. If you have balls that is.
Three and a half screaming Italians, out of five.
I am back, most likely temporarily from my absence. I’ve been having computer troubles and haven’t found the source, so here’s my review of the new BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. Monoliths & Dimensions is the new release by the widely known Sunn O))). This new album both takes the band further into obscurity, and farther from it. In other words it evens out. It’s a completely fresh new release from a band known for only making heavy atmospheric music. It adds beautiful orchestral sections, and sections that are just bizarre and noisy and reminiscent of John Zorn’s dark ambient orchestral albums. The last track “Alice” is hardly a Sunn O))) track at all, and is very well made. If you didn’t like them before, listen to this. If you liked them before, listen to this, obviously.
I don’t know much about Bury Your Dead, but I do know their new album hit the internets late last night. It’s only a few days until release, but you can download it out there somewhere.
Since Victory Records released the new Darkest Hour song on a 
Yes, you read that incredibly offensive headline right. Varg Vikernes (or Count Grishnackh, if you take this shit WAY too seriously) was released after nearly 16 years in prison on parole a few weeks ago. If you don’t know what went down all those years ago, the man behind black metal legend Burzum, was convicted of murdering Mayhem guitarist Oystein Aarseth (a.k.a. Euronymous) and setting fire to three churches in August of 1993.
Twilight (read: Twatlight) actor and all around pretty-boy Jackson Rathbone (left), has agreed to play Varg in the upcoming movie “Lords Of Chaos”. I expect a HUGE shit-storm over this, and rightly so. I could imagine this doing the same thing to black metal what Twatlight did to vampires, what with the once preppy and rich kids suddenly becoming “dark” and shopping at Hot Topic. Soon, teenage girls will dress up in corpse paint. Maybe there will be some theater burnings over this? I sure hope so, because this is inexcusable.
I tried my hardest not to come up with a lame title for this entry, but I can’t help myself.
