Terrorizer # 102 September 2002 Interview

The Dope Conspiracy

As you might expect, a band called Agoraphobic Nosebleed, with their new album titled 'Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope', has raised the grind intensity bar while unleashing a lyrical fury bound to rankle anyone and everyone. Kevin Stewart-Panko waded into the din and discovered the straight dope, their attention-getting techniques and why the end is nigh.

"Get us together in a room with some illegals, some legals, and CNN, we'll have a new album's worth of lyrics ready in about 20 minutes." - Carl Schultz reveals his inspiration

In a purely musical sense, Agoraphobic Nosebleed's 'Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope' is an awesome
album, well worth the four year wait since their last full length, 'Honky Reduction'. The lion's share of this unholy behemoth zips by at a billion drum machine-injected miles per hour with the catastrophic guitars of Scott Hull
(guitar/programming, also of Pig Destroyer) unleashing their fury with all the pent up rage of a muzzled pit bull roaming an unguarded abattoir. The grinding speed recalls the primitive and formative days of grind, when it was fresh, dangerous, unmarketable and the lads in Napalm Death sported dubious haircuts and facial hair. Only, because of the unflinching exactness that a drum machine provides and demands, Agoraphobic Nosebleed's sound exhibits that much more razor sharpness and inherent killing capacity. Despite full throttle tempos surging by at a breakneck pace and songs that rarely crack one minute in length, there's still a catchy construction to their arrangements and Hull and the gang (bassist Richard Johnson, vocalist/sampler Jay Randall and vocalist Carl Schulz) are purveyors of some of the sickest and most monstrous breakdowns and mosh parts, sounding so lethal as the music moves from one extreme to the next with a horrifying quickness. Sort of like jumping out of a plane and having the warm, dusty surface of Mother Earth breaking your unimpeded freefall.

There are also moments where the band toy with power electronics, extreme drum'n'bass workouts and recall the vintage days of Godflesh. If there's a grind record that you'll want to investigate further this year, 'Frozen Corpse...' is it. It straddles the precarious fence between being a soundtrack to the short and deadly gun
battles in Miami Vice and senseless noise, its credibility with music fans - non-grind fans in particular - saved by its diversity and acerbic groove.

In light of such musical extremity and singularity, you won't be shocked to discover ANb possesses an 'Us vs Them' attitude with their musical output put up as the instrument of battle.

When asked about the title of the new album - whose corpse has been frozen and how much dope has it been stuffed with? - Carl Schultz replies, "The 'corpse' is the tonnes of shitty, bland, overmarketed 'grind', post-hardcore and the cookie cutter yes-men that have infiltrated and watered down the scene. Bands that put out their first album which their label calls 'The Future Of...' or '...seats them alongside contemporaries x, y and z'. When you hit play you wonder how someone at that label got that ad copy across without anyone else seeing it and saying 'Whooooa, you really think this is going to fly?'"

The dope?

"The 'dope', he vents, "is shit like 'Kill Theme For American Apeshit', 'Grandmother With AIDS' and 'Doctored Results' [all songs off the new record - KS-P]. The straight dope is talking a good game and backing it up."

But as much as ANb portray themselves as modern day slayers of Those Who Choose To Pose, a lot of attention gets paid, not only because they grind and grind some more, and are good at it, but also because they're willing to experiment with the spectrum of sound.

"Definitely," states Schultz. "There have always been noise and digital hardcore tracks on Agoraphobic releases. I'm big into downtempo drum'n'bass and dark ambient sounds, so putting together the track "Fuckmaker" was a lot of fun. There are plans for more, a 'Fuckmaker II' that may be even more drum'n'bass laced. "Randall adds: "I do a power electronic project called Agnostronic Blunt and I've also done 300+ bpm speedcore tracks and collaborations with House Of Low Culture and Merzbow that are coming out on Double HH Noise Industries. Plus, Hydra Head is re-releasing our 'PCP Torpedo' 6" as a digipack with remixes by Speedranch and James Plotkin. However, I don't think our actual sound, as far as future material goes, will be confused as anything other than grindcore."

Indeed the extremity of their grind, in addition to their willingness to experiment and express outside of their chosen norm, piques many listeners interests. However, an equal, if not moreso, amount of attention gets paid to their lyrics. A random sampling of song titles includes such thought provoking (what kind of thought is up for debate) ditties as 'Bitch's Handbag Full of Money', 'Shit Slit', 'Hungry Homeless Handjob' and 'Unwashed Cock'. But just when you think this lot are playing with the wrong end of the stupid stick, further investigation unearths a wealth of harsh social commentary relating to drugs/pharmaceuticals, the stupidity of mankind and
Apocalyptic Buddhism.

Obviously, there's a lot more here than meets the eye. How seriously should the everyday average listener be subscribing to your gospel or are you the grindcore manifestation of an X-rated comedy club? "I'm not going to
tell anyone how to take our lyrics," responds Carl, somewhat unsurprisingly. "ANb has one foot in the harsh reality of everyday existence and one in the land of sarcasm at all times. We're all pretty educated dudes who follow the news and can poke fun at blatant stupidity simultaneously. It's amazing how often those lines cross, thus allowing us to do our thing as a result. With that said, get us together in a room with some illegals, some legals, and CNN, we'll have a new album's worth of lyrics ready in about 20 minutes. We're just the bullhorn
pointing out the head-shaking stupidity that occurs every day."

Randall confuses matters more with an answer one might expect from the man who penned the soon-to-be-classic refrain, "An unwashed cock/At a point in time and space where pussy is your asshole/And the hurt is acute."[$italics on entire quote]: "Agoraphobic is a low overhead, Relapse Records revenue producing lie that's being generated by four individuals for four different reasons. All those songs listed reflect my personal feelings about men and their homosexuality toward women and their record collections. I guess being queer is still funny and being queer about pussy is even funnier. Agoraphobic is my gay bashing stand-up act, like Andrew Dice Clay's 'The Day the Laughter Died'".
The 'Frozen Corpse...' booklet also reveals Jay Randall's interest/obsession in Shiva and Apocalyptic Buddhism as a radical philosophical and spiritual belief system and an explanation for much of his lyrical ire. He has a rampant desire to convey the message to those willing to listen. It goes a little like so..."

"Shiva is one of the principal Hindu deities, worshipped as the destroyer and restorer of worlds and universes. Apocalyptic Buddhism, as defined by Shoko Asahara of Japan's Aum Shirayko cult - the ones behind the nerve gas attacks in the Tokyo subway system a few years back - refers to the endtime, when the wheel of life/suffering has stopped turning over forever, then you have oblivion. As it applies to us, the United States is going to economically collapse over the next 50 years and it'll become a well-armed slum of the Earth. I think, like many other Americans, I would prefer the doomsday, Hollywood disaster film ending to mankind rather than being broke and hungry like the third world. Fuck going broke, let's put everybody's blood everywhere!" So, generally, I guess it's safe to assume that you lack concern about how people, or the authorities from the more conservative countries Relapse distributes to, are going to take to what you have to say?"Nah," Schultz dismissively deadpans. "That shit can't touch us. We're always at least two steps ahead."
"My father is a freemason," offers Randall. "So, as long as I never get entangled with the Feds or kill someone, I'll skate through whatever predicament I may find myself in."

"Honestly," Schultz continues, "we were laughing at the sheer musical and lyrical extremity of it all as these tracks were coming together. I mean, Hull's face-ripping guitars and sick programming alone should be a death knell to most. When we added the lyrics, I just remember us saying to each other, 'This album is going to get a lot of people's... attention.' Sit there and think about some of the things said in the lyrics. Pay attention and a lot will reveal itself. We wanted to make one of those old-school records that you could sit with, stare at the artwork, read the lyrics and let the record, its sounds and messages take over. I know its a lot to take in, but that's why you waited over four years for this thing, not to put it on and shelve it a week later.

"'Frozen Corpse...' is Vicodin and a twelve pack for your brain. Immerse and enjoy!"

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