Band : Agoraphobic Nosebleed / Despise You
Album title : And On And On...
Label : Relapse Records
Distributor : Rough Trade Benelux.
Release date : 26/04/2011
Release : (Split) CD

New split CD on Relapse Records, bringing together two bands which really mean something in the Grindcore scene. In my personal book ANb can always count on my positively prejudiced ear, and whenever I can I steel whatever new stuff that's coming out from the to-do heaps at Concrete Web headquarters. In other words, I've gone through several of the band's 4 albums, even bought myself some older material (there's some 15 split releases – most of which limited edition 7-inches, but there's also split LPs and CDs – and about 5 ANb only singles to be collected), and found mainman Scott Hull (guitar/ drum programming, ANb is currently completed by singers Jay Randall – also responsible for adding additional electronics – Richard Johnson – also plays the bass – and Katherine Katz) goin' through different phazes...from playing mostly short, sharp, vicious tracks (2002's Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope had 39 tracks including the hidden song; 2003's Altered States Of America even counted 99 tracks!), to including slightly longer tracks with a length between 2:00 to 3:00 minutes (on 2009's Agorapocalypse), what would be considered single length in Pop media (B.T.W.: for more detailed info on the band's discography and some recent history not mentioned in Agorapocalypse's review posted 10/05/2009, check its page at Wikipedia). On this split CD he goes the same way, starting with a very slow and somewhat Doomy instrumental. The other 6 tracks are your usual high standard ANb style sludgy Grindcore. Check for songs off this split CD on either ANb's own webspace, or its pages at MySpace (or Last.fm, whatever...).

The nice surprise here is Despise You, who are back with their first new material in almost a decade. As far as I know, there's been the ...To Show How Much You Meant LP, later re-issued on a split CD with Suppression, and the 1999 released 62-track CD West Side Horizon. The band mentions having released stuff on such legendary labels as Pessimizer, Slap A Ham, 625 Thrashcore, and Deep Six...but I was unable to find back any trace of such things. Actually, I'm guessing West Side Horizon was something like a singles (normal and split) compilation. Although paired with a pure Grindcore act, Despise You's music is closer to Punk and Hardcore...but they do have their moments when they slow down things somewhat as well. I guess the terms “Power Violence” and “Hardcore Punk” are the ones fitting the band best. In quite a lot of the 18 tracks on this split release (DY part is only an amazing 17 minutes long), the lead singer gets backing by someone with a somewhat silly high voice (and in one instance even has to pass over the microphone omiter)...like the other guy has a passion for those high-pitch vocals in the comic series Southfork Park. Oh well, silly may not be the good word to use here, so let's say it's funny, okay? Check some songs at (www.) myspace.com/dxyx.

End of the line: you don't wanna miss out on this. Any lover of good Grindcore will also love DY...and you knów you may have to wait a long time before the songs appear on an anthology! Both bands get an equal rating on this split, meaning the album gets nominated for my year-lists!

98/100

Tony.