Agoraphobic Nosebleed/Kill the Client
Split (7"vinyl)

Relapse Records has often teased my musical tastes, offering predominantly extreme metal bands and reinventing old styles by modernizing them, making them decidedly more rewarding. In fact, Relapse Records continues to do what has always been done in the metal scene (splits, demos, and EPs) without missing a beat, creating sacred monsters in metal.

For this split, two decidedly extreme American bands (which never cease to amaze me) were chosen, Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Kill the Client. Analyzing the two bands, we find many differences; for example, Agoraphobic Nosebleed (which I prefer) offers an extreme yet powerful sound inclined toward hardcore structure while having a grind sound enriched by a drum machine and various gadgets. Conversely, Kill the Client adopts a more direct and old-school style, so we have a grind with thrash-rooted riffs. The production is also quite different and distant between the two bands; Agoraphobic Nosebleed employs a more cyber and DIY style, a fierce yet confused sound, while Kill the Client uses a very natural and pure production.

The carnage opens with ANb and "Attack Rifle", with a full-on drum machine, confused and completely distorted guitars. "Mock Execution", while retracing the structure of the first song, has a more thrashy mid-tempo. The closing of the first part of the split with ANb is entrusted to "Anti-Christ", my favorite song because it has a cadenced rhythm influenced by nu metal (I've always liked the "nu metal" pieces by Agoraphobic, which they already proposed with the song "Mosquito Holding Human Cattle Prod" from the album "Altered States of America"). The second part of the Split belongs to the furious Texan quartet of Kill the Client, constant blast beats with thrash riffing and a voice not very fast but endowed with an incomprehensibly distorted scream/growl as proposed from the initial Spartacus, good and fairly capable but also irritating due to the too brief recording.

In this Split and also in all other products by Relapse Records, the old style is readapted in a modern key without losing ferocity in the artists it presents. It could be said that Relapse Records has satisfied me once again.