It's been a couple years since my first and only post to TheDotComrads, and on some advice from a close friend, I'm gonna give another go at it, just for shats and googles.
The top album of 2009 for me is without a doubt Agoraphobic Nosebleed's "Agorapocalypse". Released early this year, it is still in my car's cd player, only to be removed when someone with delicate ears is riding with me (which is most people).
ANb's sound is brutal to say the least. Known for their championing of the Grindcore genre's blitzkrieg of blast beats (1000+ bpm due to Scott Hull's drum programming) and concise songs (often just a few seconds a track) they have always been at the forefront of an often overlooked musical style. In the past I've felt that although I enjoy their albums, they've always felt like a collection of tracks, rather than a whole concept. Well, Agorapocalypse has changed all of that.
Agorapocalypse is a masterpiece of powerviolence and grind. Starting out with "drum sticks" counting off, ANb immediately shreds into your throat with "Agorapocalypse Now", a march through "Orwell's nightmare" America where we're nothing more than automatons trudging through our daily lives, lacking the will to put a bullet through our own brains. Then there's the "Timelord" tracks (0, 1, and 2) that tell the story of our narrator (Jay Randall, often portraying himself) traveling through time and either killing Jesus to save the world, smuggling drugs for aliens, or having sex. The writing on the album is excellent and quite frank- if in a very obtuse way. The songs have actual structure, which is a new thing for ANb, and it's quite refreshing to see what these guys are capable of, especially with the addition of Kat Katz, a female from the band Salome that steps the urgency of the vocals and honestly adds a layer of evil that just hits the right spot (her growl is intense!).
Basically Agorapocalypse is a new level of extreme music that ANY other band is going to have a hard time meeting. If you are able to listen to loud, fast, bloody time-changes, and politically incorrect music with song titles like "Druggernaught Jugfuck", this is the only album you will ever need... until their next release.
