While there’s no arguing Beltway area grindcore institutions Agoraphobic Nosebleed are nowhere close to the popularity of Satan’s favourite knights in service, as the present continues to look to the past for inspiration and ideas, ANb have taken a page from Mssrs Stanley, Frehley, Simmons and Criss’s 1978 solo albums.
Arc is the first in a series of releases designed to focus on the strengths of each of the band’s three vocalists. Showcasing the muscular howl of Katherine (Kat) Katz, Arc starts off with Not A Daughter’s groovy riff being blasted from a cannon ignited by beard hair and leaving behind a sativa smoke swirl. It’s confounding to experience the lurching swagger and small-t tribute to Sabbath’s Zero The Hero given the band’s drum machine backing and grindcore pedigree.
Deathbed and Gnaw reach deeper into Southern sludge, galloping doom and the sense that, with technology being able to ape the bluesy strut of your average drug-addled percussionist, the robots are that much closer to fulfilling the prophecies that were set forth in the Terminator movies.
