There are some bands who, no matter how good they are, you could never picture ever being anything other than underground to the core. Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Despise You are two such bands. Whilst they peddle slightly different styles of music they are both the epitome of what dyed in the wool hardcore bands should be.

First up are Despise You, with eighteen tracks of breakneck hardcore. This may be their first recorded output for ten years but they are bang on the money. Opener 'Bereft' sets the tone with an utterly vicious thirty-eighty second blast of insanely quick hardcore. They also mix in some female vocals along the way, which gives a nice To What End kind of edge to proceedings and they also throw in a blistering cover of Fear's 'I Don't Care About You' for good measure. Overall their contribution is pretty flawless, mixing speed with some pretty beefy riffing and some choice breakdowns, to leave a very pleasant taste in the mouth.

Agoraphobic Nosebleed might only deliver a mere seven tracks in comparison but quality and intensity-wise they're certainly not second best. AN tend to mix it up a bit more than your average grindcore band and Scott Hull's troops are equally at ease churning out the sludge-apocalypse of the first half of  'As Bad As It Is', the hardcore rabbit-punch of the latter half of the same song or the half-minute of grind that is 'Miscommunication'. It's all delivered with the brutality we've come to love AN for and is a great foil for the hardcore sprint of Despise You.

Overall a great split, and if you are looking for an overall winner, then on this occasion it really is a split decision as both bands have really delivered the goods.

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