AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED/DESPISE YOU - And on and on... (Split)
Relapse Records - 26th April 2011
To say people were excited
about this split is like saying people were mildly annoyed at Hitler.
Agoraphobic Nosebleed, who have established themselves as having a
chameleon-esque ability to master various styles from grind to power violence,
sludge and death metal, and partners in crime Despise You who have come back
from a lengthy break together on one album. It’s a grind fan’s wet dream.
Despise You kick things off
with 17 tracks of punky, fast paced grind. It starts well, with much of the
anger that the Californians are known for but it quickly dawns that this can’t
match up to their older material. The riffs on songs like Painted Grey are
phoned in and would fit on any fast hardcore album and it would have been nice
to see some slower stomps on here. It’s only when the uncharacteristically long
Cedar Ave. kicks in at the very end of their side that you really see what
Despise You are capable of.
Starting with a slow, sludgy
stomp that drops in and out throughout the rest of the song it creates a
feeling of dread as guitar lines clash and complement each other in equal
measure. Even with the minimal of vocals it feels like the angriest track they
bring to the table here and leads perfectly into ANB’s side which kicks off
with the slow burning Half Dead.
It’s another angry stomper
as Jay Randall has never sounded more furious, and yet it brings with it an
almost Hang the Bastard style psychedelic, doom. Drawn out roars almost merging
with the drawn out riffs behind it and it’s hard to believe this band once
released a 20 minute album that contained 100 tracks. That grind fury quickly
establishes itself on As Bad as it is... which is almost disappointing because
while the added guitar solos do add something a bit different to proceedings it
would have been nice had the sludgier side of this band be nurtured a little more
rather than used as bookends to a selection of grind that by ANB’s standards is
fairly half arsed.
People will love this;
they’ll love it because of the bands involved and the status they hold. For me,
this is for the people who have to own everything a band has done. For the more
general fans this is two disappointments for the price of one with neither band
giving us 100%.
6/10
by Matthew Tilt
| 
