special introductory
paragraph!
Victim In Pain
Cause For Alarm
Liberty & Justice
For...
One Voice
Last Warning
Something's
Gotta Give
Riot Riot Upstart
Dead Yuppies
Another Voice
Warriors
My Life My Way
Oh alright, NYHC was fine. Can't a guy make a hilarious NYPD Blue parody joke without everybody and his mother jumping all up and down his throat with an axe!? Agnostic Front are one of the pioneers
of New York Hard Core (NYHC), an intense bootboy shaved head fist-thumping
violent strain of hardcore punk espoused by luminaries like Gorilla
Biscuits, Sick Of It All and Madball. Then they flirted with death metal, wound up playing punk rock and have now devolved into some sort of pounding pile of unpleasantness. By the way, Agnostic Front has been around for fifteen years and I
still don't understand what the hell their name is supposed to mean.
According to Roger Miret, Aganostic means "In doubt of the absolute truth" and Front means "Group and Organisation" They were part of the BYO (Better Youth Organization) tryin to bring everyone together and be a voice for the punk/hardcore/alternative community and theire name stems from that.
Eleven minutes of classic, crushing
hardcore. Hardcore PORNOGRAPHY, that is!!!! When you see
Roger Miret's 11-inch "microphone" slither into the hot pink slit of Vinnie Stigma's guitar, you'll squirt mountains of etc. Now that all the Christians have left the room, let's talk
seriously about this LP. The mix is BRUTAL -- no Agnostic Front release has
come close since. They sound SO FUCKING MEAN. Really low guitar drone fuzz
(unlike the high-pitched somesuch favored by Minor Threat and select
others), bass boop thuz, drums smish clip and a singer who sounds every bit
the violent racist skinhead that he actually ISN'T (he may or may not be
violent, but he's certainly no racist and he has all KINDS of hair! Chest!
Hair! Every-which-where!). Total black-and-white fistpumping facepounding
no-prettiness NYHC. And catchy as hell in an entirely non-Beatle-esque way.
An underground legend and must-own for any burgeoning hardcore fan. It's
really REALLY short though. Would hardly even qualify as a cassingle in
today's musical world. So don't be fooled! This country isn't a democracy
and Alexander Hamilton is NOT the President!
Perhaps I'm too "new-bomb-turks-jaded" and
"ramones-leave-home-hungover" to be objective on this, but WOWSERS--a
punk rock album where the songs all sound DIFFERENT! And there's no
stupid "irony" or "snotty curse jokes" to stink up the mix, just
fist-pumping fork-the-system and what have you. Kinda like Black
Flag's Damaged, but unfortunately, dammit, way too short.
Only other complaint: Can't really distinguish one riff from another;
it's really more a "power emotive experience" than anything else.
Speaking of "Power"--that's my favorite song. Makes a good
soundtrack to reading online political news any day. I give it an 8.
And if you like fist-pumping political-yell-blarrrgh music, check out
the head-banging-concrete-cracking-DESTRUCTION. . . of Peter Tosh's
reggae masterpiece Legalize It. It's HARDCORE, man. (Well, hardcore
laid-back, anyway.)
A crossover record, but more than that. This is
not a mere case of making
hardcore songs longer and adding more slow parts. In fact, most of the songs
still hover around 2 minutes long and are fast as the wind. The real difference
between this record and Victim In Spain is that on this one, Agnostic
Front and their producer have put an extremely accessible slant onto the
normally facepoundingly brutal NYHC subgenre. The mix is heavy - like heavy
metal! But fast and bouncy, like hardcore punk! And it's a smooth bouncy, like
a good Bad Religion album or something (though this doesn't sound a shit like
Bad Religion - I just mean that it plays and you can smoothly bounce your head
around and enjoy the cool heavy distorted chord riffs popping out of your
speakers without feeling like the shit is being kicked out of your brain (as
Victim In Rain, as it's wont to do, is wont to do, as it's wont to do, to
do). Aiding and abetting this kinder, gentler NYHC is that lead voice guy
Roger Miret SINGS on this record, rather than shouting! And this is the only
album he does it on so don't get used to it. He sings in a very gentle,
easy-on-the-ears, higher-than-normal-speaking-voice but still desperate for
stern political action manner. No yelling! In fact, at times he almost sounds
like he's just whining, but you can tell he's trying to sing so give the guy a
brake. Lyrical matter? CONTROVERSIAL! Right-wingish, you might say, and
liberals did, the hypocrites, because they never paid attention to the whole
picture. YES, "Public Assistance" puts forth an anti-welfare message, but
Agnostic Front, like MOST hardcore punks, were for the working man, not the LAZY
man living off of society. And how can you accuse them of being right-wing
fascists when, in the very next song, they attack Bernhard Goetz for shooting
those black kids? There's a whole picture here. Agnostic Front were and still
are about strength in self, unity and loyalty to friends and beating the shit
out of fascists. Which I suppose may be taken as itself a fascist gesture, but
isn't that kind of like calling a WWII Jew a fascist for killing Nazis? I mean,
vaguely? In a really dumb "punk rock" way that doesn't really mean anything of
import? You can get both of these first two albums on 1 CD and probably should
since they're both under 24 minutes apiece. Wheeeeee!
The singing is overwith, homles! Some tough
skinhead must've pointed at Roger's vocalizing sissitude and laughed in a
manly fashion because on this one he's...umm. How to describe. Well it's
not barking or screaming. Or even yelling. Quite honestly he's not even
raising his voice. He's just using a really stupid vocal inflection
throughout the whole album. Everything sounds like an "o". So you can't
understand a goddamned second of the seconds. Rather than try to describe
exactly how dumb it sounds and explain why my friend Christian and I used to
make fun of it so much, let me demonstrate. On the lyric sheet, you will
read, say, "Every decade - yet no one learns/And it's always their own homes
they burn." But what you'll hear on the record is "Avvih dayikow! yi no wo
lows!/Ayiz owow zi oho zi bone!" Silly indubiabtrly! Musically the riffs
are pretty hard to keep in your head. As opposed to the fairly
straightforward hardcore and punk/metal that they played on the first two
albums, the songs on here are more along the lines of what DRI does --
instead of writing a memorable little chord sequence, they'll just sort of
run up and down the neck, playing something that doesn't seem at all catchy
the first 5 or 6 times you hear it until finally familiarity sets in and you
look forward to it as a nontraditional (yet simple) metallic riff. There's
still a few melodic ones on here ("Hypocrisy" is almost like darn POP
hardcore! As is "Crucified," but that's a cover, which might explain why
it's not nearly as good as the rest of the record.), but the cream of the
crux lies in fast-as-shit chord sequence repetitions that fly by and leave
you going, "Huh? Did they play something there and I missed it?" So
that's the vocals and music. What's left? The production! There's a
glossy thick heavy sheen over this one - not a major label Nirvana
sheen, understand. A really HEAVY sheen so that you can't really tell the
difference between the two guitars and the bass. but it's still mean as an
angry Mexican whose life has been turned upside down by NAFTA driving his
job north to some lazy smelly American who will agree to work for half the
salary. So that's the vocals, the music and the production. What else
is there to music these days? Ah yes! The lyrics! They're about strength,
honor, unity, old punks who gave up the fight ("You raised your fist/You
were some real anarchist... Now you just sit and stare like old men/and talk
about how it was then"), young punks who bullshit with no clue ("You hate
your Mom, you hate your Dad/You hate "The State" because it's bad"), sad
tired junkies ("Hope someday I'll have the nerve to put a bullet through my
brain and not a needle in my vein") and, erm... the history of hate and big
words? ("Crushed by a quorem-driven-state machine," "Monocrhome blood sport
- we never tire," "Yahweh promised a conquered land." So that's the
vocals, the music, the production and the lyrics. What's left to talk
about? Ah yes! My hairy ass. Well, my hairy ass has poop smeared all over
it because I've lost all interest in paper. Oh! One other thing - the
lead guitarist on this album is named "Steve Martin." What a JERK! Ha
ahh!!! HEHEHAHHAHAH Do you get it??? DA YA GAT AT???? IT'S A HILARIOUS
MAGICAL JOKE OF REFERENCICAL PROPERTIES!!!! YOU SEE, A MAN BY THE NAME OF
"STEVE MARTIN" IS ALSO A POPULAR COMEDY STAR WHOSE FIRST MOTION
PIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA fluppitydorp.
Their most metallic release by a wide shot of
Constitutional temperance! The mix is tough and generic, like later MOD or
oh I don't know later Testament or later oh I don't know or oh. Tough,
heavy, firm, boisterous - the *pristine* heavy metal mix of the '90s. And
the songs are MUCH slower than before. It's not only mixed like Sepultura's
Chaos AD - it's as SLOW as that album too! Or at least a lot of it
is. It's not sludge metal - it's midtempo metal, occasionally veering into
punk speed but NEVER going so fast as to become hardcore. The riffs are
pretty much the same kind of stuff as the last record, just slower. Enough
about the music. Nobody listens to an album for the music. From what I've
been told by unreliable sources, singer Roger Miret was imprisoned for drug
possession in '89 or '90 - this album is his thank you note. Nearly every
single song is about his feelings and treatment while behind bars. You'd
think this would be wildass cool, but he doesn't discuss the cool stuff like
dropping the soap and sticking a fork in the guard's eye - it's all just
about keeping his self-respect and how the "system" is trying to break him
down. Maybe that's the kind of songs he had to write to keep his
spirits up in the "pen," but it sure doesn't give a very adequate description of
what it's actually like in there. At least his vocals aren't as
ridiculous as on the last one. They're a little deeper and not quite back
to normal, but at least you can semi-sorta understand what he's kind of a
little trying to maybe say through his mouth. Parts of it sound so much
like DRI that I can actually sing DRI lyrics to them, but that's not because
they're ripping them off or anything. Both bands just have the same writing
style at this point here in Agnostic Front's career (though DRI would NEVER
record this many slow songs on one album). The important thing is that NONE
of the songs even come within an ear's length of poppitude. Roger was too
pissed to allow THAT kind of balloon into his party.
This CD compiles Agnostic Front's awkward first EP and what was intended to be their "last show ever" (and WAS! Until they reunited a few years later and released three more albums). For me, the main attraction of this collection is the inclusion of songs from Liberty & Justice For... and One Voice, because I's told that after they reunited as a punk band, they pretended that those two albums had never existed (too metal -- whatever). I'll be granted you that not all their metal stuff is the Kings' Cupboard, but just to HAVE it and to know that nobody else can HAVE it -- it's like me with Paul McCartney's wife's leg! But there can be no main attraction without a main DIStraction (or a main CONtraction actually, as evidenced by the woman giving birth onstage near the end of "Toxic Shock"), so of course Roger Miret has to ruin every single vocal on the record by holding the mic out to the crowd for some "unity" and "united blood," but in the process giving us listeners at home a bunch of "shit" and "people yelling." Ahhh but who am I to find fault in an album with this many great songs on it? "Undertow"? "Victim In Pain"? "The Eliminator"? "Anthem"? Say, can I ask you a question? "United & Strong"? Also, while I've got your ear in my dishwasher -- "Blind Justice"? Oh! I forgot to ask you this while I was washing your 747 - "One Voice"? Tone-deaf skinhead shouted vocals aside, this album can't be (English) Beat! In the live show, here's the breakdown, but keep in mind that some of their songs appeared on more than one album so I'm listing them twice -- two United Blood songs, six Victim in Pain, four Cause For Alarm, three Liberty & Justice For... and four One Voice. Then when you finish that, you get to Agnostic Front's awkward debut EP! Entitled United Blood, it ranks about a 6 on the Pulitzer-winning 1-10 "grading scale" that I developed over decades of intense mathematical trial and error. (If you've been with the site for a while, you'll remember how confusing my original "VeFs41 - Crunkity" scale could be at times) But the vocals are WAY off-key, even for shouting. And the songs are these teeny sub-minute blasts of wimpily recorded fuzzed out rat-a-tat-a-tat fast punk blasting. No strength, power or anger in the sound - just speed and fuzz. Like the early Meatmen stuff, basically. I'm Walter Cronkite and that's the way that it is.
Six years later, the formerly brutal NYHC
quart/quintet ends up on Epitaph and voila! They sound just like Bad
Religion! Roger has his original shout back and sounds really cool, but the
production is so slick and late-'90s hardcore generic that it's impossible
for any rage or intensity to slice through. The band is playing fast
hardcore punk again, but the riffs seems a lot more obvious and anthemic
this time around. That's not always bad - there are several catchy as hell
tunes ("Rage" is a great one, and "My War" is neat too - and not even a
Black Flag cover!), but dumbass singalongs like "Gotta Go" gotta go. Ahm.
Mmm. Didn't like what I saw in that paragraph. Said to myself "Gotta go."
Em. M. So due to a combination of typical hardcore melodies and
production, Agnostic Front sound (aside from Miret) just like any other
Epitaph band on this release. Which is disappointing, sure, but it's still
an enjoyable hardcore record! Lots of speed and energy, if no real threat,
outrage or purpose for existing, the piece of worthless shit.
Okay so here's what's up. The production? Still
too late-'90sy clean to be hotly overangry (produced by Rancid's head
generic fashion victim Lars Frederiksen), but the riffs are a lot more
atypical this time around. At most, maybe two of these 17 songs could be
called "anthems." The rest vacillate between ridiculously high-speed
hardcore rants, pogo-speed punk rock tunes extremely reminiscent of the
Ramones and metallic midtempo songs along the lines of what the band did on
One Voice. The diversity is a pleasant surprise, as is the winning
combination of instantly catchy punk melodies and
harder-to-grasp-at-first
chord sequences that grow on you only after a few listens. Lyrics? Typical
empty sloganeering. Good record though, and Miret once again has an awesome
shouty punk voice, keeping this band well-grounded in the doodles! So
remember, if you see a skinhead punk walking down the street in a creative,
unique outfit comprised of a white t-shirt, suspenders, blue jeans with the
bottoms rolled up and Doc Marten boots, and he happens to start moshing
around a circle and shouting "STIGMA!," he is not trying to tell you that he
has a tremendous deal of energy. That word is "stamina." What he's saying
is that he has blood coming out of his wrists.
Riot Riot Upstart (like the Distillers first record) would've made
an impressive RANCID album (and fuck you, cuz I think Lars did a good job on
this!), but for Agnostic Front.... Maybe the songs go down better live. I
think every band reaches that point where they should quit releasing albums
and keep touring...like the Exploited. Meaning, they're still good, but
they'd be better off without new material (there's no way to make that sound
nicer I guess). But, it's Agnostic Front, so you never know, they may one-up
themselves AGAIN!!! They're great at that.
Every time I hear a new album on "Epitaph," I feeeeeeear tomorrow - I'll be crying! Yes, I FEEEEEEEAR tomorrow I'll be CRYING! Awww come
on, you're diggin' my King Crimson joke now, baby! Come on now! These don't pop up too often in NYHC reviews! Smoke me while ya GOT me,
bab-uh! I love hardcore punk. Let's get this straight: I LOVE HARDCORE PUNK. It's fast as hell, mean as hell and I love the guitars and shit.
It is energy put down on compact disc and you are supposed to bounce up and down and go "YES!" while it is playing. I'm not telling you that all
hardcore is good. Some bands really on nothing but boring "happy" riffs. Some happy riffs are fine, but "hardcore punk" is supposed to be mean
sounding! Some bands stick too many slow plodding parts where speed should be. Some have crappy singers (yellers). Some play nothing but
chord sequences you've already heard a million times by other groups. (For example, just this week, I purchased three separate hardcore CDs --
including this one -- that all featured a song ripping off The Ramones' classic "Commando." Have you heard Bad Religion's "Amrerican Jesus"?
Same thing with that one). But Agnostic Front are really good at it. They are tight and mean, the singer has settled down to a nice yell and the
riffs, for the most part, aren't nearly as generic as you'd think they would be 21 years since the birth of hardcore. This album, like their others,
mixes punk speed stuff with ballsinmymouth hardcore gallop but never slows down to METAL speed. The lyrics bash and smash at backbiting
critical members of the NYHC scene, ecstasy-taking boys who mistreat gullible club girls, politicians, pedophiles and, of course, yuppies. At first
I felt a little sick to my stomach, what with the whole September 11th thing and both me and the Agnostics being NYC dwellers. But they put a
sticker on the cover saying that their hearts go out to all the families, not to mention the fact that the song is about a runaway CAR killing
yuppies, not a terrorist! What are my feelings towards yuppies, you wonder? Well, I AM a yuppie, when you get right down to it. I'm a yuppie
for MUSIC, but that's still a yuppie. I love my awesome apartment and my kickass computer, stereo, CDR, 4-track recorder, etc. And none of
this would be possible if I weren't a "professional." I wouldn't make enough money. So there's that, plus I live in the city so I'm "urban." And, at
least for another year and a half, I'm "young." So there you go. I hope Roger Miret doesn't want ME dead! I don't want a beemer or kids or an
SUV! I just enjoy having a comfortable home with lots of albums. Is that so wrong that I deserve to be run over???? I'M NOT EVEN SNOTTY
MUCH! Okay, so I hate homeless people - BUT THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME A SNOB! I simply feel that they should pick themselves up by
their bootstraps, shake off that nasty mental illness and get a nice job as a stockbroker. Look, all you gotta do is blow old men on 30th and
Lex. I've been doing it for years and you don't see ME catching AIDS!
Roger Miret's back with another voice, and unfortunately it's his dumbest yet. He sounds like a bloated, 400-pound Wendy O. Williams! As always, his intonation shoots upwards and back down with every single word out of his mouth, but this time he sounds like a two-ton man with a 45-pound tongue contributing voice-over to a talking cow cartoon. What in the hell happened to him? There's no anger or intensity in his voice at all - more than anything, he sounds like somebody MAKING FUN of Roger Miret's Liberty And Justice For... vocals! Not only that but, as hinted in the title, the band is back trying to play metal again (as they last did on One Voice). Speaking as somebody who's been listening to nothing but death metal for the past month and a half (it's my latest obsession, along with old sexploitation and sleaze horror films), I gotta tell you: Agnostic Front can't play metal. Their riffs are slow, simplistic, unoriginal and just totally ass-boring when you get down to it. I had grown accustomed to every new album just being another basic fast hardcore punk album, which was fine with me! THIS, however, is not. The guitar tones are heavier, but far too many of the songs are instantly forgettable midtempo blocks of dull chords. There are SOME fast songs (thank Goodness), but not nearly enough to support such weak riffage. In fact, the lion's share of the speedy songs end up slowing down for a long, empty "mosh part" anyway. No edge. Just dull. And so very, very slow. Not even slow enough to be trudging, sludgy and cool. It's just all this midtempo pounding, Vinnie playing songs he wrote in his sleep, and Roger sounding like a jolly old Italian man trying to sing for his son's crappy fifth-generation NYHC band.
Lyrics? "Dedication" "Hardcore (The Definition)" "I Live It" "It's For Life" "Still Here" "Pride. Faith. Respect." That pretty much sums it up. Also, they have two guitarists again. Whoopee cushion. What a terrible piece of shit record. Agnostic Front is so much better than this. Give 'em a few years and their next one will probably kick some ass. Do you own their other albums, by the way? Most of them are honestly really, really good! You should buy them!
Angolian Fromp are back and ready to PAR-DEE like Chef Boy-AR-DEE!!!!!
With the twin caveats that Vinnie Stigma seems like a nice guy and I don't want a bunch of skinheads to beat me up, I still must express disappointment in the new Agnostic Front CD. Although they've brought back the speed that was missing from Another Voice, the songs are still hampered by uneventful slow 'mosh' sections, weird vocals, and chord changes so tied to the NYHC tradition that I feel like I've heard most of them twenty times already. I'd chalk it up to my twenty ears, but then Glenn Danzig would find out and write a song about me in 1982. Don't get me started about Glenn Danzig and his time machine.
The songs are driven by a mean and heavy guitar tone (not Epitaphy-smooth), the usual group-shout choruses, and lots of top-speed hardcore drumming, but the minimalist, hardly-there riffs (up a chord, down a chord, up a chord, down a chord) and predictable fast-slow-fast arrangements wear extremely thin after a while. "Addiction" is an absolute kickass opener and "Black And Blue" pleasingly sounds a lot like late-period Ramones, but the other dozen or so tracks range from standard but inoffensive NYHC to pointless midtempo exercises in non-songwriting. And sure we all like to do some pointless midtempo exercises every once in a while to keep fit, but Glenn Danzig seems to do them everyday, which is ridiculous.
There's still a bit of nostalgic back-slapping on display ("Never forget the Lower East Side crew!"), but the lyrics as a whole seem a bit angrier than usual, with titles like "Dead To Me," "Outraged," "Revenge" and "We Want The Truth." It's kinda hard to make out what Roger's saying behind that 17-year-old bulldog vocal inflection though, so he might just be talking about old Kiss and Sham 69 albums. And sure we all like to kiss and 69 girls named Sham every once in a while, but Glenn Danz
The bottom line is this: Agnostic Front have regained their power on Warriors, but not their hooks. It's like the old joke about Glenn Danzig going fishing:
Q. Why did Glenn Danzig go fishing without any hooks?
A. Because he was fishing for compliments! (after getting knocked unconscious by a fat guy live on the Internet)
Why would you want a band who have gotten better with age (the epitaph years not withstanding) to hang it up? Because you dont like them?...Well lucky you you grew up........Not me....I still listen to 7 Seconds (im gonna stay young until I die)...AF is great and your sour
But wait, hardcore ain't about music, right? It's the message that counts! Unfortunatly the lyrics suck as well.
This one line sums up the lyrical "message" of the whole mess pretty accurate: "HARDCORE! New York City! NEW YORK! That's how we live it!" (For My Family)
Bottom line: Slightly less annoying than "Another Voice", but still crap. 4/10
On a side note to the comment from OSLANE@student.gvsu.edu about Vinnie Stigma: I've seen Madball in 1994 in Leipzig, Germany. At this time, Stigma was touring with them. At one point in the set, one of the guys (I believe Matt Henderson, but don't nail me on this) pointed at Stigma and made a cut-throat gesture towards the sound engineer. Right after that, Stigma's guitar obviously got muted. It was very sad to see him jump around on stage like a clown, pretending to play guitar. And now let's talk about hardcore-pride and self-respect...
The other day I went to Wikipedia to look up some info about this album, and what did I find but this introduction:
“Agnostic Front is the worst band ever formed on the face of the earth ever. Countless scientific studies have shown that prolonged exposure to the Agnostic Front vocalist reduced your brain to mush which then slowly leaks from your anus.”
Although this colorful description was removed by some Wikipedia asshole within the next half hour, it made me feel good. It made me feel good to know that it’s NOT just me. Over the years, something has happened to this band - and particularly their singer – that makes it difficult to believe that their first album is one of the greatest hardcore records ever released (and their next couple quite enjoyable as well). Musically and lyrically, they’ve become almost a parody of punk rock: a complete cliché that keeps repeating itself over and over with each release. And vocally, Roger Miret has turned into a man who, as my Facebook friend Shane Bischoff puts it, “sings like gorilla who happens to be obsessively masturbating as it does its mating call.”
I honestly don’t know when everything went wrong. I see by the words on this page that I used to get a kick out of their Epitaph material, but that was over a decade ago. At that time, I had a very high tolerance for generic riffs as long as they were played really fast. I still love hardcore punk to pieces, but I’ve heard so much of it by now that speed alone is no longer enough to hold my interest. And sure I could pull out my copies of Dead Yuppies and Riot Riot Upstart to see if they still hold up, but honestly I don’t want to hear them. Because no matter how catchy the riffs may be, I’d still have to hear Roger Miret’s ridiculous voice.
Regardless, this album is very, very poor. The guitars are heavy but slick, and the band teases with a bit of speed metal (“More Than A Memory”) and old school hardcore (“That’s Life”) but mostly offers up a long, awful collection of by-the-numbers midtempo punk songs, tedious “mosh” breakdowns, hilariously boneheaded group vocals, and even more lyrics about how it’s “Us Against The World” on this “City Street” but we have “Self Pride” “Now and Forever” “Until the Day I Die.” BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO(*ring*). Oops, that’s my phone! Gotta gotta gotta leave.
Also, from the lyrical perspective, no crucial issue of today's life remains untouched (as it should be for any self-respecting hardcore band):
Bottom line:
their name, the meaning behind it? there isn't one. agnostic obviously means
no bases or doctrine that they're locked into no "bullshit" dogma to be a
slave to. the whole deal agnostic front means to relay is no stigma, you
know thats cool, victim in pain, kind of relayed that message it was more of
a punk album than the whole "skinheads doin' speedmetal" bullshit that they
did later, whatever. anyway i was an influential "kid" when that shit came
out i thought it kicked ass. i still think that "victim in pain and cause
for alarm",FUCKIN' KICKS ASS!!!!!!! oh, and all the snobby rich fuckin' coke
head hipsters, daMN DO YOU ALL EVEN FEEL THE MUSIC YOU LISTEN TO OR IS IT
LIKE BUYING A NEW FUCKIN' PAIR OF PANTS?! EXPLAIN IT TO ME I DON'T GET IT?
Hi Mark,
you mention that the mix sounds "BRUTAL" - but the combat
records versions are actually remixed and sound far weaker than
the original Ratcage Records LP, which is sonically far more
crushing and powerful.
Agnostic Front's best ever. They may have evolved (and then gone full circle)
but they have never been able to cram THIS many classics on one record since!
Buy this one, go to the show, and chant "UNITED AND STRONG UNITED AND STRONG"
cuz that's the best one and they don't play it anymore.
Bastards!
This album is an NYHC/East Coast HC staple. Raw, brutal and heartfelt
- the very elements which attracted me to hardcore in the first place.
Hey, not bad! A little too damn short for me, and the songs all sound
more like snippets than anything else, but. . . hey! Not bad.
(Circular writing is the hip new rage, these days.)
Not good album - only 5. Songs are absolutly uninteresting and sounds like sheet.
You need to re read those lyrics on "Cause For Alarm'" Shoot His Load, Agnostic Front aren't bashing Benard Goetz, their justifing the shooting, just as I have for the last 18 and a half years.They may be right wingish as you call it but who gives a crap. I like right wingish,Billy Milano who managed Agnostic Front a couple years ago was very right wing.The first track on Milano's latest album is titled "Wigga" Milano also did "Speak English Or Die" when he and some of the guys f/ Anthrax did their S.O.D project.
Thrash metal travesty plus stupid lyrics courtesy of Peter Steele (RIP) and Billy Milano. The two best songs here are "The Eliminator" (which is a blatant rip-off of Exodus' "A Lesson in Violence") and the remake of "Your Mistake". BUT, the best AF cover artwork ever.
This is the AF album I like the least. The guitar solos were unoriginal and cheesy, and I agree with you about Roger's vocal stylings
I guess I'm one of the few who actually likes this album. "Another
Side" is a great track to have in your ipod when you're walking through
a run down part of a major city (because you missed the last bus and you
have to hoof it back home!) where you can't throw a rock without hitting
a crackhead, junkie or hooker. The whole album has a pessimistic feel
to it. Roger's vocal stylings on that album (and all others after it)
leave me with one question: What was wrong with the vocal stylings as
heard on United Blood and Victim in Pain that he had to change them? Oh
well . . .
Very good album. Different from anything else Agnostic Front has done before
or since. More metallic, but not in the same way "Cause For Alarm" was. They
don't recycle riffs a bunch of times on this one. Plus, Roger's voice and
lyrics had matured by the time this was recorded. The lead guitarist, Craig
Henderson, is very talented and rips it up throughout the whole album. The
sound is a lot like Biohazard, but AF came first! I think it's great finally
took something back from the scene they gave so much to! But don't expect
them to play THESE ones live either. The more narrow-minded fans (into the
TRADITIONAL Agnostic Front only) were heard over the few of us who actually
like this. WHY CAN'T YOU AT LEAST PLAY "UNDERTOW" or "OVER THE EDGE"???
Dickheads!
I understand how someone who is deeply rooted in the Hardcore scene can hate songs like "Gotta Go", but to someone like me who listens to only a little hardcore and mainly listens to 80's British Oi!, Gotta Go is good....sing alongs are what it's about in Oi! and I see that song as an old Hardcore band trying to incorporte some Oi! into their music...especially since the intro has Oi! Oi! Oi! in the background.
agnostic front sucks. the wufs rule.
This record is good, but hard for me to listen to, as it's pretty obvious
they're looking for acceptance from every one of their old fans who dissed
them after "Somethings Gotta Give" (or anyone else who's feet they MAY have
stepped on by releasing records that were "too metal" years earlier) while
pleasing the fans who discovered them AFTER "Something's Gotta Give". It's
sad, cuz it's a REALLY good album, but... there's just something about it
that's just not right. Like the fact that Roger Miret describes it as "Victim
in Pain all over again". Get it now?
It's a fucking great record one of the best
I know Joseph Montenaro was in agnostic front, but why no mention of him? Its as if you dont want anyone to know he was once a part of it.
A week ago, i saw a video of the new Agnostic Front album, the song was
called "Peace", it was one of the most ridiculous things i've ever seen
from a suposedly underground band; they were in this video with the guy
that sings in Hatebreed, all acting with this tough g(a)uy posse, and
Roger's voice was so fucking awful, i didn't get the whole lyric, but i
supose is a jingoistic rant to liberal guys or something like that.
Shame on Agnostic Front; their two first albums are the only worthy things
they've ever done.
As someone who has been following AF since the late 80’s and saw them just last night at CBGB, I found your reviews a fun read. I didn’t agree with everything you wrote but I found it to be refreshingly honest and well researched. I like “Something’s Gotta Give” though. People always talk about “keeping it real” I thought your examination of AFs recorded history and your own Yuppie life did just that. Nicely done.
NYHC will never die!
To my delight this little gem came to my college radio station and I subjected all my fellow dj's to listen to the tone deaf shouting, repetitive riffs and macho attitude from this seminal band. Why didn't you mention the freakin cover? It's the best part. It rivals Manowar in its sheer stupidity! Agnostic Front have embodied the mindless working class spirit into their music; they too have succumb to a life of cranking out mindless product. Have you heard Vinnie Stigma plays his guitar unplugged onstage because he's so shitty?
Lets get something strait for all you Epitaph dorks and newbie hardcore whigger losers. Agnostic Front has not dropped a good album since thier unfortunate reunion. Oh and another thing, every album they put out before that was amazing, be it metal (cause for alarm, and justice for, one voice) or old school hardcore (victim, united blood). Yah when i first listened to AF i thought thier metal shit was weird, but then i realised that it was also thier sound, a sound that revolutionized hardcore in much the same way that Bad Brains and Sheer Terror did. See cause these last 5 punk albums they have put out are not Agnostic Front, they are nothing but nostalgic, putrid pieces of shit (lars and Jamie fuck off as producers today!). pre'92 Af is one of the greatest rock bands of any genre, post '97 Af is a joke and i am not laughing. Please oh pretty fucking please! hang up your spurs AF and preserve the scarce amount of hero worship that I and many fans of true hardcore still hold for you. "From the east coast to the west coast gotta, gotta call it quits."
After reading "yarffino@hotmail.com"'s comment I just had to throw in my 2 cents.. This cd and band line-up is by far their best effort since "Liberty and Justice" What exactly is eveyone here looking for in an AF cd. Did you want rousing acoustic guitar bombast? Guest rapping from Doug E Fresh? Guitar Shredding ala Dragonforce? ummmmmmmmm dont think so.....What you get is a tight line-up playing old school type NYHC...
Agnostic Front work hard. They work hard on besmirching their good name (or what's left of it). Just like late Suicidal Tendencies, Slayer, or George A. Romero. With "Warriors", AF clearly crossed the line into self-parody. Regarding the music, Mr. Prindle pretty much nailed it with "pointless midtempo exercises in non-songwriting". The guys should stop hanging around with Jamey Jasta and get back Matt Henderson to write some decent songs for them (and yes, "One Voice" is my favourite AF album).
Now this one should please every old and young hardcore kid! You'll get:
- Epitaph-era shout-along anthems (Us Against the World, My Life My Way, Until the Day I Die, Now and Forever)
- Madball-style metalcore (More than a Memory, Self Pride, The Sacrifice)
- some speed metal ala "Cause for Alarm" (Your Worst Enemy, Empty Dreams)
- even a "One Voice" abortion! (Time has Come)
- a Gypsy Kings cover tune (A Mi Manera)! How cool is that? OK, just joking. It's just another "Riot Riot Upstart" leftover, but this time - hold on to your seats - with spanish lyrics!
- and finally, for the really old farts among us: "That's Life" which compiles all songs from "Victim in Pain" into one big mess!
Unity! Pride! Loss! Unity!
Just as all AF albums after the great "Last Warning", this one isn't bad, just boring as fuck (OK, "Dead Yuppies" and "Another Voice" ARE bad). 5/10. Peace.
They say you can purchase Agnostic Front CDs here!