Here's the new Despise You/Agoraphobic Nosebleed split LP, "And On And On...". Shitty purple mix wax, the cheap kind, Relapse Records.
So as most would know at this stage, this record marks the first recorded output from Inglewood's Despise You in something like 10 years. It also stands as their cleanest recording to date by far, but I guess in modern day hardcore this shouldn't really be a surprise. In the grand scheme of things it's still a perfectly fitting approach production wise, it doesn't sound over polished, and it suits the band to the tee. 18 songs in a similar amount of minutes, structure wise and style in general, the stuff here isn't hugely removed from any of the bands past material. Fast, short, crusty blasts, built around dual male and female vocals, with a rough, gritty guitar tone.
Never really having been a massive fan of Agoraphobic Nosebleed, I'm not going to be able to tell you how this stuff stacks up against any of their old music. I can tell you that I like it, and in an immediate kind of satisfaction sense of the word, this stuff is good, heavy hardcore. It's got a really clean sound and a chunky recording quality and the singers vox are reverbed pretty heavily, which is a good thing most of the time. Being the massively prolific band that they are, this LP marks something like the eighth or ninth split I own of which they feature on the other side. I just realised that too, cool.
CD booklet that serves as the insert/liner notes. I don't often buy Relapse vinyl releases (most bands that I like just never do wax with the label, maybe the label just doesn't do vinyl very often anymore?), so I'm not sure if this is a regular thing or not. It works I guess. Combined with the cheap vinyl, it kind of gives it a bit if a less caring feel though, like they couldn't be bothered with doing it in full. Who am I to talk shit on such an influential record label though?
Great record, if just for the Despise You side. Some of their best material here. Such a cool return to form. Lets hope that there's more to come.
1 comment:
Agree with you totally about the uncaring thing. It's not a bad release or anything and everything is alright, but I dunno, some smaller label might have tried to do something a bit more special with something as important as new Despise You stuff, but with Relapse it's just one of many. The record's pretty decent though, not as good as 'Westside...' but I'm liking it.
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