Equal Opportunity Offender: How axCx became the most offensive band
In music, there have been bands that have pushed boundaries. Agitated the norms and trying to make a difference or send a message with their lyrics. One band did the opposite of all of that. Creating a sound that was identifiable and chaotic in its delivery and performance live. They had lyrics that were offensive and dark in nature and humor. Offending for their amusement and would become a trademark of their identity and sound. They were internet trolls before the internet even became a thing. Cancel-culture before there was even a culture to approve or cancel at all. That band was Anal Cunt.
Formed in 1988 by vocalist Seth Putnam, Anal Cunt was created as a joke, but the project would be one of Putnam’s longest running bands he was involved in. Though tagged as a grindcore band, the band’s original goal was to make “anti-music” without rhythm, beats or even lyrics. A similar sound that resembles the Japanese harsh noise scene from acts like Merzbow and Masonna. The band would release their debut E.P. 88 Song E.P. in 1989, followed with the 5,643 Song E.P. later that year. The release of their Morbid Florist E.P. would gain the attention of Earache records, who would sign the band, and the band would hit the studio to record their debut album.
In May 1994, the band would release their debut album Everyone Should Be Killed. Anal Cunt continued to push their extreme variation of grindcore and went for full incoherent screams, driving guitars and tamer lyrics compared to the band’s later work. At 58 tracks and running just under an hour, the album was a sonic punch in the throat of true unadulterated chaos from the band. With Putnam’s unhinged vocals all over the place in delivery, it would cement Putnam as one of the harshest, but recognizable screamers in metal. One year later, the band would re-enter the studio to work on their follow up.
Released in May of 1995 was the band’s second album Top 40 Hits. Though grindcore and like their debut, the album deviated from the formula the band became known for. Some songs took on a hardcore vibe, along with the band performing a lot of covers of popular songs (in their own unique way) from artists like The Bee Gees, Rupert Holmes, and Elton John. Fitting the theme of the album’s title and cover which parodied a lot of the popular 1970’s advertisements from K-Tel. The band would begin to start to show some of their troll-like future with song titles “Living Colour is My Favorite Black Metal Band” and “Art Fag”.
Following that album one year later would be 40 More Reasons To Hate Us. On 40 More Reasons, the band embraced their negativity and went full troll-mode on this album. While also featuring a comedic cover of the theme song to the TV show Three’s Company, it was amongst the ranks of songs like “I Just Saw The Gayest Guy on Earth”, “I Hope You Get Deported”, “Van Full of Retards” and “You’re A Trendy Fucking Pussy”. The album would also feature Pantera front man Phil Anselmo on guest vocals on a couple songs, including the band’s cover of Man O War’s “Gloves of Metal”. Putnam would do guest backing vocals on Pantera’s eighth album The Great Southern Treadkill in 1996.
In 1997, Anal Cunt would release their fourth album I Like It When You Die. On the album, the entire record is almost a constant barrage of insults towards the listener with almost every single track. Just plain out flipping the bird to the listener with songs like “You’ve Got No Friends”, “You Look Adopted” and “Your Kid is Deformed”. With a lot of references to the word Gay in a derogatory nature. The band would also insult other popular acts of the time with songs like “Hootie and The Blowfish”, “You Went To See Dishwalla and Everclear (You’re Gay)”, “Your Favorite Band is Supertramp” and “311 Sucks”. Pretty much the band going on an angry tirade and sick joke towards anything that breathed, or they just wanted to insult for the sake of just being an asshole about it.
In 1998, the band would even troll their own fanbase by releasing their fifth album Picnic of Love. The band delivered a complete 180 on the band’s sound. Focusing more on a soft rock, acoustic sound with Putnam delivering a normal, almost falsetto-esque vocal performance. Longer songs and only eleven songs compared to the band’s 20-30 plus normal track listing. With the song titles delivering the opposite the band would be infamous for. Songs include “I Respect Your Feelings as A Woman and A Human” and “Saving Ourselves For Marriage”. It’s hysterical to see a band completely just troll and trick their own fans and I picture Anal Cunt being the only band to really do that and do it successfully. But after this album, the band would truly rise to the top of the mountain of infamy.
With their last album on Earache, the band would release their magnum opus with It Just Gets Worse in 1999. This was the band’s ultimate middle finger and unfiltered vocal and lyrical onslaught. With the highest magnitude of politically incorrectness throughout the entire thing. The band attacked everything from rapper Easy-E & Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury on “Easy E Got A.I.D.S. From Freddie Mercury”, Eric Clapton on “You’re Kid Committed Suicide Because You Suck”, Extreme Noise Terror on “Extreme Noise Terror are Afraid of Us” and Rancid with “Rancid Sucks (and The Clash Too)”. Subject matters would become so derogatory and outright offensive with some of the song titles. From referencing Nazis and the Holocaust (“Body By Auschwitz”, “Into The Oven”, “Hitler Was A Sensitive Man” and “I Sent Concentration Camp Footage to America’s Funniest Home Videos”), to domestic violence towards women (“I Became A Counselor So I Could Tell Rape Victims They Asked For It”, “I Convinced You To Beat Your Wife on A Daily Basis”, and “Women: Nature’s Punching Bag”). A.I.D.S. and Gay culture were also in the crosshairs as well with “You Rollerblading Faggot”, “You Robbed A Sperm Bank Because You’re A Cum Guzzling Fag” and “I Made Your Kid Get A.I.D.S. So You Could Watch It Die”. Nothing was safe from the lyrical firing squad that Putnam and company delivered with this 39-track rapid-fire insult.
Following the negative response from the press and the band leaving Earache, the band would focus on more E.P.’s and splits, along with live performances. In October 2004, Putnam would suffer from a drug overdose of crack cocaine, alcohol, heroin, and two months’ worth of Ambien. He would be in a coma before eventually waking up and started recovery. Which it is somehow inhuman for someone to take THAT MANY drugs and STILL be alive. The eerie coincidence of his coma was almost oddly predicted on the band’s I Like It When You Die album with Putnam penning the song “You’re in A Coma”. The band would go on hiatus while Putnam recovered and would return to the studio in the late 2000’s, but not with the sound you’d expect.
In 2010, Anal Cunt returned with the album Fuckin’ A on the small record label Palac. The album parodied the genre known as “cock rock”, based on bands like Mötley Crüe and modern rock acts like Buckcherry and Hinder. Even the cover of the album is the same identical picture used for the cover of Mötley Crüe’s 1981 debut album Too Fast For Love. Song titles lampooned the excess of the 80’s but infused with the Anal Cunt song title emphasis. Especially with songs like “All I Give A Fuck About is Sex” and “Kickin’ Your Ass and Fuckin’ Your Bitch”. Thankfully, the fans would get a return to form on the band’s next, but also final album.
In 2011, the band would release their final album Wearing Out Our Welcome. A return-to-form for the band, but with only 11 tracks. Offensive song titles would return with “Beating Up N****rs That Sell Fake Crack”, “One Man Ghetto” and “Cop Calling Faggot”. The band would also take one final pot-shot at another band “Tsunasum”, which is a reference to the death of Nasum lead singer and vocalist Mieszko Talarczyk who died in the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. The band would officially break up in 2011 after Putnam died of a heart attack, he was 43 years old.
Anal Cunt was a band that did not give a flying fuck what anyone thought about their music. They didn’t care if you got mad at them, boycotted, protested them, or insulted them. They were a walking middle finger, and they knew that. They pushed buttons, wanted to stir the pot, and left a brown, stinky stain in music and they did that one hundred percent. Some argued that the lyrics were just written, and you could barely decipher the lyrics whenever the band performed live because of Putnam’s distorted and shrieking vocals, along with production, made lyrics almost unintelligible and were just put in the liner notes to spread their sick and dark humor. A hybrid of grindcore and noise, their sound was original. A more chaotic spin of grindcore that some would say inspired the spin-off genre of power-violence. Made popular by acts like Spazz and ACxDC. Cattle Decapitation vocalist Travis Ryan would even launch a project as an homage to the band. Dubbed Anal Trump, the album has a dead-on similar sound to Anal Cunt, and insults and mocks the Trump administration. You can check out the project HERE
In 2024, Anal Cunt would not have worked AT ALL. Although, as a fan of their music, I would have love to see what Putnam would have written about. With so many things to make fun of since his passing. Cancel-culture, LGBTQ+ and the pronoun debate, Trump’s presidency and his most recent hush money trial, the resurgence of racism in the U.S., the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russia/Ukraine war. Even darker subjects like Jeffrey Epstein, R. Kelly and the rise of shootings in the last decade. He would have had a field day pissing off a new generation to extreme lengths, and he would be so happy to do it. There will probably never be another band like Anal Cunt, they were one of a kind. They will live on as one of the most offensive and inappropriate acts in the history of metal, and I think Putnam would be proud of that.
