About Me
Out of sheer frustration over the lack of drummers in the local Massachusetts
area, Scott Hull and friends formed AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED (ANb) with the help of a drum machine in 1994. Many artists, such as GODFLESH and MINISTRY had utilized drum machines effectively in the slower-paced industrial realm, but relatively few bands have ever attempted the 100,000 bpm "hailstorm of drums" approach to programming that head honcho Scott Hull not only attempted, but achieved! An AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED recording is like passing through a hailstorm of runaway steamhammers with only a puny cocktail umbrella for protection. Like flatulence in a wind tunnel, the listener must simply submit to being decimated.In 1998, after releasing a number of split EP's and seven inch LPs with respected scene veterans, AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED unleashed their Relapse Records debut, Honkey Reduction. Featuring 26 tracks of unbelievably manic grindcore, Honkey Reduction sizzled flesh and tenderized minds. Instantly, grindcore fans the world over were chewing the fat! Mac-daddy Hull made guitar strings swarm like pissed off hornets while his torrential drum programming -- sounding as if it were conceived by a quantum physics professor -- rained down on the listener like AK-47 rounds guttin' a pumpkin. Militantly hateful vocal angst kicked those who were down. The response to the album was immense as fans and critics marveled at the unrelenting extremity that da' NOSEBLEED kicked down. AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED had taken the power to the people!In late 1999, AGORAPHOBIC unleashed PCP
Torpedo (Hydra Head), a scathing barrage of derangement nicely done up as a six-inch slab o' wax. Then, with Relapse proposing the idea of a split release, The Poacher Diaries surfaced, seeing ANb align themselves with Boston's CONVERGE, delivering a split CD of massive proportions. Strong-arm man Hull's dexterous guitar warfare fused with decimating drum programming and voracious vocal vortexes. The CD met to a huge response, introducing both band's fans to new and interesting sounds. A split 7" with fellow Relapse labelmates BENUMB surfaced later that year, and quickly became a sold-out collector's item.As writing commenced for the next AGORAPHOBIC recording, the ANb sound took a massive step forwards and additional members were deemed necessary. The band doubled in size, adding grindcore alums Richard Johnson (ENEMY SOIL) and Carl Schultz (PROSTHETIC CUNT / ::COCOON::). ANb stepped up their efforts both musically and conceptually in an attempt to make music that would be thought-provoking on an obtuse scale.In 2002, after an almost 3 1/2 year wait -- the proposed album title having made the rounds in press circles many times over - ANb unveiled their long-awaited second full-length, Frozen Corpse Stuffed with Dope. An overwhelming, concentrated outpouring of perceptual stimuli, Frozen Corpse Stuffed with Dope referenced the glory days of early nineties grindcore while disregarding the genre's current ideals, becoming one of the most talked-about grindcore records in recent history. The album saw review in Rolling Stone ("Dude: get the hell out of here") and band were featured in numerous high-profile media outlets such as Alternative Press, Kerrang!, CMJ and dozens more. Perhaps Frozen Corpse's best description came from ANb vocalist J. Randall who surmised, "Frozen Corpse Stuffed with Dope is like ripping through back catalog Earache blastbeat shit armed with a submachine gun at 400 rounds per minute." Intricate, obtuse artwork by Aaron Turner (ISIS) further added to the surrealistic AGORAPHOBIC vision. A surprise live appearance - the first in the band's history - at the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival caught everyone off guard and set forth rumors of future ANb "guerrilla" live appearances.While the fires left burning in Frozen Corpse's wake were still smoldering, the band issued a split 7" release with fellow Relapse labelmates HALO, providing music fans with the ultimate battle of the extremes. Immediately following, AGORAPHOBIC set to work on a concept so bizarre, no one would believe it. With a focused mindset, and a plethora of mind-confounding ideas, the band wrote and recorded Altered States of America -- a 100 song 3" CD -- in the fall of 2002. Released on April Fools Day, 2003, Altered States of America delivered the most ambitious ANb yet and delivered completely inhuman music with a consummate disregard for it's listener. Round after round, clip after clip, ANb unloaded an arsenal of stupefying guitar work, experimental noise and drum machine-gun blast beats while swarming vocalists hatefully taunted the listener into the crossfire. Noted UK tome Kerrang called the mini-CD "Disorientating, hallucinatory and utterly deranged" and "a truly fantastic work of musical extremity". Later that year, Altered States was released as a 10" LP on colored vinyl.2005: AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED's Bestial Machinery (ANb Discography Vol. 1) is a new terminal vision representing a vast work of utterly uncompromised will. Inhuman, relentless and complete, the gear-grinding, blast beat to bloodshed 2xCD set features all of ANb's recorded material prior to their Relapse Records debut, Honkey Reduction. Eviscerated remains, long of out of print material and previously unreleased tracks work as raw materials for this colossal
project of human subjugation where the listener is but a set of ears to lacerate and another body to burn.AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED is currently writing and preparing material for their next full-length album, set for a 2006 release date via Relapse Records. Early reports indicate the new ANb material to be "much more in-your-face and attacking". To hold fans over in the interim, the band will issue a split release with old friends APARTMENT 213 as well as a collaboration with ISIS covering the MELVINS classic "BORIS", for the "We Reach: The Music of the Melvins" tribute CD, set for an August, 2005 release via Fractured Transmitter Records.DIE AND GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY!!
