I would never say I’m a true hardcore fan but I’ve delved into the scene in its various guises on and off for over 25 years now. My interest is rekindled at various times in all genres of metal (currently its crust punk I’m into at the moment), and with hardcore I quite enjoyed Hatebreed’s bouncecore style, until I saw them live. Not to be put off I bought Sick Of It All’s last offering “Based On A True Story” and thought Hatebreed are definitely shit and once I saw SOIA live for the first time in over a decade this was definitely the business. Catching Agnostic Front at last years Summer Breeze served only to fan the flames of my hardcore desire as I thoroughly enjoyed their performance even if its all fists and brotherhood and we’re against the world blah blah blah shenanigans.
So onto the AF’s newest and their umpteenth album since forming in the early 80s, there’s plenty of fist pumping angst as the bands crossover style is a far cry from the 80s hardcore I am generally used to. Bands like this are rife with gang chanted vocals with choral support breaks and lots of camaraderie lyrics on offer as the album begins with “City Streets”. “More Than A Memory” even boasts a metallic double bass as the first true hardcore identity manifests as “Us Against The World” with the opening chant lyrics of yep, you guessed it ‘Us Against The World’. Music wise this rattles by with only the choral breaks slowing it down.
The riff to the title track is awesome and as true as hardcore can be the song is a bastion of this style with self styled righteousness and lyrics stating they’re right and you’re just fucking wrong; who the hell would argue with them. The song is actually longer than most in this style but you’ll never bore of it as the riff change and pogo, mosh, bounce whatever you want to call it is just great. “That’s Life” has a colossal increase in speed approaching grind proportions before the change and ‘Who The Fuck Cares” shout. Proper fucking hardcore.
There’s plenty of thrashcore feel when the band slows down but this is in no way metal, let’s make that straight. When you listen to this bands old material you realise they’ve hardly changed one iota with only the production (it is absolutely fantastic) showing how the band has progressed as AF has stuck true to the scenes values with no faltering. If you never caught a hardcore act these guys or SOIA live then you should do as the energy is boundless and whilst the songs are full of macho chest thumping clichés the infectious nature of tunes like “Until The Day I Die” and “Now And Forever” are in escapable. (I can see it clearly now, shorts, white socks, tattoos and fists in the air scrambling to be heard over Roger Miret’s mic as he summons the crowd into violence).
Each song on this albums short length is as true to the USHC definition as you’ll ever get and if you’re not into this sort of stuff this won’t encourage you to investigate further, but if you’re into Hatebreed or any other so called modern hardcore then ditch the ponsy gits and listen to real American hardcore ye fucking nonce.
http://www.agnosticfront.com
http://www.myspace.com/agnosticfront
