Arc

Agoraphobic Nosebleed are kings of grindcore, their songs are short, sharp shocks of distilled rage, fury and a hefty amount of intelligence; it is stuff that the majority of people just will not ‘get’, ever. It is sad but it is hardly surprising, to the majority they are just noise, what’s worse is that to some they are just a novelty. It means solid albums like ‘Altered States of America’ and ‘Bestial Machinery’ are heard by too few people. ‘Arc’ is very different to these albums.This album is the first of a series which sees the members of ANb focus on different influences and create music based on those influences. Here the source is Black Sabbath, with the Doom and Sludge dials turned up to 11. It is not at all what you would have expected, three songs lasting 27 minutes, from a band that usually do 100 songs in that time. It is a shock but it is a shock which bodes well for the rest of this experiment as Arc sounds like they have been doing this type of music all their lives, everything clicks and manages to maintain ANb’s punchy kick.Opener ‘Not a Daughter’ squeals to lie before laying in with a monumental riff, its odd initially because all this has happened in the same track, you expect to be two or three tracks in but you aren’t, its odd but you quickly get used to its 7 minutes (and this is the shortest track on the album!). The song evolves in this time and you always feel like it is a coherent whole, it is structured, powerful and interesting enough to keep you constantly coming back. You won’t be able to help falling in love with this new direction. ‘Deathbed’ begins with a heavy feeling of Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’, it is slower and heavier than the opening track and a hundred times more claustrophobic. It is like Mistress and Electric Wizard’s deranged offspring deciding to snort old Sabbath Vinyl, its foul, repetitive nature is a real highlight as it generates a down and dirty atmosphere. No doubt you will need a shower after this one. Final track ‘Gnaw’ fuses the rotten atmosphere and repetitive strike of ‘Deathbed’ with ‘Not a Daughter’s ruckus to make one hell of an exciting musical journey, closing the album in a suitably epic fashion.It must be said that ANb are going to find themselves in a pleasant but awkward position where they end up making such good music in each of their four experimental albums that they essentially become four (or five if you count their original grindcore style) different bands meaning a possible four or five albums every two years (we can but dream!)Another plus point to ‘Arc’ is that it reminded me of the excellent Walls of Jericho, a hardcore band who released the awesome ‘All Hail the Dead’ (which you should check out if you like ‘Arc’)

Brilliant female vokills!

There's nothing these guys can't do well, some great sludge on here!

all good

It's better than eating a burrito and burritos are awesome

This CD plays excellent, Thank you

Very underwhelming ANB release. Gnaw is decent, the first two songs are duds. Would have felt better about the purchase if they didn't charge the price of an LP.

As always awesome album.AAA lol

This is another great album from ANb,this might be considered an EP or a full length album,depending on how ya look at things. This is the 1st of 4 short EP's,each member of the band has the whole album to make it their own album,their own way. This disc here,Arc,is Kat Katz album so to speak. Clicking on at around 26 minutes,with 3 tracks of slow churning doom thick music. This baby is the great Devastator,the heaviness is unlike anything ever put out by ANb...think doom like Eyehategod,or Crowbar,or even Buzzoven or Weed eater. Slow,heavy as iron & bass thick. This is seriously an album unlike anything ever.Agorapocalypse is the last album released,and it showed progression on the front of song structure. This here is a big step forward,the sound is almost that of a new band,like what Pig Destroyer did with Natasha or Mass & Volume. The songs are very layered and textured,the guitars are thick, chock full of distortion and heavy heavy swampy gain.The disc is just downright wicked. Not a Daughter has some very seriously personal lyrics,some good guitar work and drum work. Kat's vocals are absolutely incredible here,and Deathbed is no less brutal. The closer Gnaw is almost 11 minutes long,the tempo shifts from heavy & fast,to heavier and slower. All in all this album is solid. I'm very interested to see the work to come from the other members of the band. The album would probably work in 4 years,once all the albums,all 4 EPs are released,to have them all chock full & packaged together as 1 slab of ANb's 4 members collective works. I highly recommend this if your a fan of bands like ISIS,Crowbar,EHG,Sleep,Down,Superjoint.