Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse

Well, it's taken me a while but I've finally landed one of the records at the top of my want list. Agoraphobic Nosebleed's 2009 LP - 'Agorapocalypse'. Released on Relapse Records, limited to 500 copies on this green pressing.

This seems to be one of those albums that this format was made for, the detail on the artwork and overall package is incredible. Oh, and this is one of the heaviest and fastest records you'll ever hear. The cover art is by Florian and is a very impressive peice of work. Drawn especially for this album, there's so much going on no picture of mine could do it justice.

First and only pressing, aswell as this run on green, there were 400 black and 100 clear. Clear weren't available to the public. Is the skull/band name thing a nod to Man Is The Bastard? Probably.

Inside the gatefold-

ANB summed up pretty well with the 2 pieces of artwork inside.

Back cover, band shot. Katherine Katz might not look like she can scream so hard it melts your internal organs, but she can. Scott Hull's production of ANB on this record finally sounds as huge as it always needed to be in my opinion. Hull himself has said in an interview that he sees all of their releases up to this point as demos compared to this. Old ANB is usually always good, but this just sounds mind bindingly heavy.

Instead of the more common 1 page insert that comes inside most records, this has a full size 28 page book. Packed with charming pictures to accompany the lyrics.

I chose to show one of the less offensive cartoons. I could be wrong, but I'm not sure everyone who comes by here wants to see a picture of a woman with a giant penis.

The worst 0.67p I never spent & some Agoraphobic Nosebleed

I was hoping my next post would be about Agorapocalypse by Agoraphobic Nosebleed. It's not.

That LP is, for the moment, at the very top of my want list but keeps slipping through my fingers.

Last week I lost out on one by $1, otherwise known as 0.67p for all you exchange rate nerds.

These seem to surface irregularly with months in between so it's back to waiting. I'm informed that life does indeed go on. I'll do something I intended to do eventually anyway and put some of my other ANB stuff up here. This is an ANB/ANS split, released in 2010 on the always-awesome Tankcrimes label. Both bands do a cover of a Gang Green song, who i have never heard of and don't know if i should admit that. It's a 5" record and it's the smallest thing known to science. Pressed on what was called 'coke white'. Those guys.

ANB split with Crom. A similar production sound to what they're churning out now. With some phenomenal vocals by Kat Katz who is without a doubt the most incredible female metal vocalist I have ever heard.

Crom on the flip side are straight up bat shit crazy no messin'. Seemingly obsessed with Conan and cocaine, it's hard to tell where the film and 80's metal samples stop and Crom start. It's a weird patchwork set of tracks but, in all honesty, it's fucking brilliant. Cool biro-vandalism cover art too.

ANB & Total Fucking Destruction spit. Great artwork by Florian. Pretty rough inside cover pictures of skating accidents that would make your mum worry about you and that I won't show. Pressed on red on the Bones Brigade label out of 1000. 

Not remarkable work by either band but pretty cool either way.

ANB split with Kill The Client. Awful production on the ANB stuff. It's before Scott Hull really found his feet and made ANB sound like the end of the world so it sounds like it's coming out of a tin can and not in the good way. It's a shame because the tracks are pretty good, with cool Randall vocals. Ah well. Purple wax out of 500 on Relapse. Got it cheap too so I won't moan.

Lastly, the split 12" with Despise You - 'And on and on...' Released this year on Relapse and its incredible. I pre-ordered this harder than I've ever pre-ordered anything before. Both bands do their best stuff in my opinion, Despise You especially sound ultra focused, straight up and totally crushing. Pressed on a marble mix of a run of 335 on Relapse.

The only disappointing thing is that the booklet is only CD cover sized, which I thought was a fault but looking around the internetz it seems that's the way it is. Poor, but it does have a pic of a skater bloke with a skull for a head and some backwardy writing. So all is not lost.