Agnostic Front

The New York hardcore scene that arose in the early '80s was an intense but accurate reflection of a city in crisis, and no band better typified the sound and fury of the time than Agnostic Front. Taking the speed and simplicity of early N.Y.C. punk acts like the Ramones, the Dead Boys, and the Dictators, stripping the tunes to their frameworks, and upping the speed, impact, and overall rage, Agnostic Front provided the ideal and inevitable soundtrack for a city mired in debt and crime, with hundreds of underprivileged kids in Manhattan and its outlying boroughs forming bands to rail against the everyday trials, dangers, and prejudices of urban existence. The elemental sound of early Agnostic Front classics like 1984's Victim in Pain and 1986's Cause for Alarm were massively influential in the American hardcore scene, as well as providing a key stepping-stone toward speed and thrash metal. 1998's Something's Gotta Give, their first album for punk powerhouse Epitaph Records, was a more refined effort but showed that their rage and muscle were still there. And just as Agnostic Front influenced metal, metal would influence Agnostic Front; later efforts like 2007's Warriors and 2011's My Life My Way sounded beefier, full of the stuttering drums and shards of guitar that typified the harder edges of the metal scene. Agnostic Front guitarist and co-founder Vinnie Stigma was a first-generation punk rocker and skinhead who formed Agnostic Front in 1980 with vocalist John Watson. Watson only lasted a few months before being replaced by Cuban-born Roger Miret; a product of refugee parents, he had firsthand experience in social injustice and opinionated views about politics coursing through his veins. When combined with Stigma's ferocious, primal rhythm guitar, Miret's charisma as a decadent urban messiah would come to personify the band's sound. Bassist Adam Moochie and drummer Ray Beez joined soon after. The group adopted the new name Agnostic Front (at Stigma's insistence because he thought it sounded like a movement), and they issued their first independent release, the United Blood EP, in 1983. This was followed by 1984's career-defining Victim in Pain album, which contained a 15-minute blast of pure New York hardcore and saw the arrival of new members Rob Kabula (bass) and Jimmy Colletti (drums). It also confirmed Agnostic Front's brief status as leaders (along with precursors the Cro-Mags and Murphy's Law) of the already cresting movement, which found its weekly showcase via the now legendary Sunday matinees at favorite Lower East Side haunts A7 and CBGB's. But Agnostic Front were always on the verge of collapse due to Miret and Stigma's mercurial relationship and, like most of their hardcore brethren, were already tampering with their sound. Inevitably, as their musicianship continued to improve, the bandmembers (including drummer Louie Beatto and additional guitarist Alex Kinon) began losing some of their raw hardcore spontaneity, and with heavy metal growing in popularity day by day, it was no surprise when they started experimenting with the tightly controlled velocity of thrash metal (i.e., buzzsaw riffing and double kick drums). Coincidentally picked up by the speed metal-friendly Combat Records, the band struggled through the sessions for what would become 1986's Cause for Alarm album, today acknowledged as a crossover landmark alongside efforts by D.R.I. and Corrosion of Conformity. It was also considered a betrayal and a travesty by many of the group's early supporters, who couldn't have cared less that Cause for Alarm was teaching thousands of metalheads to appreciate hardcore. Some saw 1987's subsequent Liberty & Justice For... as an act of compromise; it featured an entirely revised cast of backup musicians in guitarist Steve Martin (no relation), bassist Alan Peters, and drummer Will Shepler, and did away with the metal-style drumming to pursue a looser, less disciplined direction. Not that it mattered: the original hardcore scene had pretty much disintegrated by this time anyway, with growing dissension among the movement's many factions (straight-edge, skinheads, etc.) transforming most concerts into armed combat, and leading to many clubs being shut down. Released in 1989, Live at CBGB (with bassist Craig Setari) collected Agnostic Front's best-loved material as heard in the band's natural element and, in a way, symbolized NYHC's official wake. As if to punctuate that fact, Roger Miret was arrested soon thereafter on serious drug charges and sentenced to nearly two years in prison. In the interim, Vinnie Stigma and Agnostic Front carried on as best they could, undertaking their first European tour with guitarist Matt Henderson and substitute singer Alan Peters, while Miret found solace writing lyrics about his predicament. These would comprise the bulk of 1992's comeback album, the overtly metallic One Voice, which was pretty much dead on arrival, since much of Agnostic Front's following had moved on to other things during the band's extended absence. A greatest-hits set entitled To Be Continued was also issued at this time, prompting Agnostic Front to call it a day following a farewell concert at (where else?) CBGB's. The final show was recorded for 1993's Last Warning, after which Stigma and Henderson formed Madball with Miret's younger brother Freddy Cricien. Come 1997, however, Stigma and Miret began discussing a possible comeback for Agnostic Front. When top punk label Epitaph Records showed interest, the band's long-rumored resurrection became fact, with former members Rob Kabula and Jimmy Colletti completing the lineup that recorded both 1998's Something's Gotta Give and 1999's Riot, Riot, Upstart in quick succession. The latter boasted an especially strong set of retro-hardcore, and featured guest appearances from M.O.D.'s Billy Milano and Rancid's Lars Frederiksen, among others. With the hardcore scene that they'd helped build effectively dead in the dirt, few listeners outside the group's New York stomping grounds seemed to care about their return, but Agnostic Front continued to perform and record occasional albums like 2001's Dead Yuppies (with bassist Mike Gallo), 2003's Working Class Heroes, 2005's Another Voice, 2011's My Life My Way, and 2015's The American Dream Died. Stigma, Miret, and Gallo teamed with lead guitarist Craig Silverman and drummer Pokey Mo to record 2019's Get Loud; the cover art was an update of the images on Cause for Alarm, created by the same artist, Sean Taggart.
© Eduardo Rivadavia /TiVo