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Even after the complete turn around that Cattle Decapitation had this year in terms of quality, not once in my life would I have expected this: a genuinely enjoyable Agoraphobic Nosebleed album. Agorapocalypse is not the Agoraphobic Nosebleed of old. This is a new beast. A better beast. And I honestly want this beast to stay.

Gone are the linear blast fests of old. Gone are the legions of sample filler. Gone are the retarded song structures and useless noise rambling. Gone is the mindless cacophony of absolutely nothing cohesive for 15 minutes. If you came here expecting Altered States of America or Frozen Corpse Stuffed with Dope, get the fuck out.

Instead, Agoraphobic Nosebleed have crafted a new sound for their dissonant grindcore. Agorapocalypse sees the band merging seething grind aesthetics with heavy elements of powerviolence and even some down right speedy thrash vibes. The riffing here is heavily structured, razor-sharp, and fast as all fuck. The guitars grind and saw away at the ear at a vicious pace that even Discordance Axis fans could appreciate. And new vocalist Katherine Katz gives a vehement punch to Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s already venomous multi-part vocal assault, sounding like an insane wailing crackwhore whose voice box has been replaced by a screeching, heavy artillery automatic cannon. She’s cute as fuck, but I would never want her mouth wrapped around my cock.

But the thing that most impresses me is Agorapocalypse’s drum performance. I’m not entirely convinced Scott Hull still used a drum machine for this! The drum patterns are so varied and layered that it completely goes against the band’s previous programming ethos of straight blasting. God, I would love to see these drum lines played by a human, as they are honestly enjoyable as hell.

This is enjoyable as all fuck- despite Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s past shit-acular discography- and another good grind release for Relapse this year. God, this makes me wonder if the Agoraphobic Nosebleed side of the split with Insect Warfare is anything like this: I might need to actually listen to it….

Review byNecro-tron