A to Zed Records

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Agoraphobic Nosebleed “Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope” Relapse Records, 2002.

One of the first grindcore records that I really liked, alongside some of the early Napalm Death records, and Pig Destroyer’s “Prowler in the Yard.”. I remember buying this at the Mall of America (yeesh) while visiting my family in Minnesota in 2002. On the sixteen hour drive home I listened to this album over and over.

A big problem I have with a lot of ‘extreme’ music is a lack of intensity. Most metal bands seem to want to trade a visceral reaction for technical precision, where I’ve always thought that overwhelming the nervous system should be the goal of music that is trying to be disgusting, mean, or off-putting. ANb figured out how to do both. Just little shocking jabs of chest-pounding noise.

While this was my favorite material from ANb for a long time, over the last few years I’ve been gravitating more and more to some of the stuff off their splits, particularly the Crom and Apartment 213 splits.

Just got this reissue a few weeks ago. Never wanted the picture disc because they sound like shit.  

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Aberrant/D.E.R. split. Karasu Killer Records/Criminal Attack Records/Everyday Hate/Give Praise Records, 2012.

More excellent grind from Aberrant, featuring drums from Gordon, who now plays with Call of the Void. 

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Aberrant – “Complete Grindworks 2010” Criminal Attack Records, 2010.

Holy hell, where to start with Aberrant? One of my favorite grindcore bands ever, from anywhere. I feel ridiculously lucky that they were from Colorado and that I got to know those dudes (especially Alton) and to even play a few shows with them. I was probably introduced to Aberrant through a mutual friend, Keith (who runs the excellent Ernie November record store in Cheyenne, WY) during one of the many times I asked him for advice about who to hit up to play shows with. If memory serves, the first show we played with Aberrant was in early 2005 at some place in Five Points called Slaughter Haus with I Will Kill You Fucker. Lots of booze and noise and a keg getting thrown around in the pit.

The first LP in this set is their side of a split with Fistfuck. Alton gave me a copy of this on a burned CD that night and it only left my stereo to be put into another stereo for at least six months. That material was filled with blasting, catchy songs punctuated with all sorts of great samples that actually worked with the music without pulling too much focus. There are clips from Devil’s Rejects alongside ridiculous snippets from the Mandy Moore movie Saved, and even a sample from one of the Harry Potter movies (which, out of context, is super creepy). The rest of the stuff on the second LP is taken from their splits with Nicaraguan Death Squad, DHIBAC, Unholy Grave (!), Creagrutus, and two demos. The second demo was recorded with Dave Otero on drums and just fucking rules.

Alton, their vocalist, is one of the best dudes I’ve had the pleasure of knowing in this scene. Right out of the gate he treated my (pretty shitty) band with a lot of respect and treated me like a friend. He loaded me up with records, shared beers with us, and was always there to talk about music and how to put a record together. He showed that it was possible to do things the way you wanted to as long as you just worked at it. That DIY spirit has carried on into his current band Doperunner (whose first full length will show up when I get to the D’s).  

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A.N.S. - “Pressure Cracks” Tankcrimes, 2009.

I don’t know why but for a long time I assumed these guys were out of Oakland, or somewhere else in California. This record has a party-thrash vibe mixed with some ‘fuck it’ attitude and a bunch of angularity a la Black Flag. They have that weird, desperate edge that reminds me of some of the stuff from Life is Abuse. I love this record and the split they did with Agoraphobic Nosebleed.

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It begins.

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Methodology

I’ll be going from A-Z based on artist, and within the alphabetical breakdown I will listen to the records as they were released.  For example: Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s “Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope”, Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s “Altered States of America”, etc.

As far as split records are concerned - they will come in the order that I have shelved them in. Sometimes one artist gets first billing on the spine, but I have the album filed with the second artist. That usually occurs because I have more music from the second artist, or because I associate that split with one artist over the other. 

I’ll post pictures of the vinyl if it is anything other than black.

When new records come in I will jump them in ASAP, or do a monthly fill-in-the-holes chunk of entries. 

I’m going to start with 10″ and 12″ records. I’ll slip in 7″s whenever I feel like it. I’m also not going to listen to multiple copies of the same record, though I will post pictures of all versions I own.

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Outline

So here’s what I’m going to be doing: I’m going through all of my LPs and listening to them in alphabetical order. I’ll be posting some pictures and talking a little bit about each album as I go along. Absolutely not an original idea, but it’ll force me to write something that isn’t related to the work I’m doing. Come along. Or don’t.