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BACK
AGNOSTIC
FRONT - Manning The Front Lines
By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley
It's all gotta start somewhere. Am I right?
Yesiree, folks, the abrasive anger-filled hardcore music was spawned
from the concrete jungle of New York by a quartet armed with heavy
guitar riffs, a strong rhythm section and venomous lyrics spouting
off about the downfall of society. It was the early 1980s and they
called themselves Agnostic Front. They were sick motherfuckers who
lived off fear and anger, lashing out with an intensity that to
this day is rarely matched or challenged. Listen to all the newer
breeds of hardcore/noisecore and elements of Agnostic Front and
their musical legacy will no doubt peer through the music.
What can be said about this legendary outfit? They ARE the shit.
They play hard, they rock hard and they don't give two shits about
your problems. They have enough of their own problems to deal with.
In short, no one compares, but there are lots of imitators.
On their latest ball-busting 17-song offering Riot, Riot, Upstart
(on Epitaph), these seasoned hardcore veterans dish up some pretty
nasty grooves, loosening up their melodic hardcore/punk element
they skillfully wove into material of this decade, going back to
a more rough state of affairs. It's not pretty, but who ever said
life was supposed to be enjoyed 24 hours a day?
Looking back at classic LPs like their 1984 full-length debut Victim
In Pain, Cause for Alarm (1986) or even 1992's One Voice, it's quite
easy to sculpt out the ways society has altered through the years.
Through the years of Agnostic Front and its members -- singer Roger
Miret, guitarist Vinnie Stigma, bassist Rob Kabula and drummer Jimmy
Colletti -- we have been taken by the hand and lyrically shown the
ways of society, both good and bad. Hard times run deep and the
joys of society are scarce within their material, but one thing
always rings true: they always have a tale to tell.
Bassist Rob Kabula starts down the line, "The reason I think
Agnostic Front is still around and writing good solid music is because
there are still things to be angry about. A lot of things happen
to us. There are a lot of guys in this band with bad luck over the
years. Our drummer gets shot. The police always fuck with us. I
just walked outside and got a ticket. Vinnie can't walk outside
with a beer without being harassed. Roger is always getting harassed.
We are always getting into trouble. Not that we're bad guys, it's
just that trouble seems to follow us.
"We're not always happy about things," he states, "so
obviously we have ideas to go into songs."
While many may cite the classic Cause For Alarm LP as Agnostic Front's
true crown to glory, their power of expression and meaning goes
a long way with each and every other release. With all of their
supposed groundwork in the past, what lies ahead for the band? What
about the new album Riot, Riot, Upstart is getting Kabula and the
boys excited?
"Each record is like a time frame, as you pointed out to me.
I think people have come to terms with what we are about and what
we play. They know we have changed over the years, but our purpose
is still here. Some people in other interviews have asked us why
we don't play metallic hardcore anymore. It's because we are sick
of it, y'know? Been there, done that. Cause For Alarm is a classic
record, and we were playing that music back in 1986. Now all of
these bands are playing metal music with hardcore mixed in and they
say 'why not play like the old days anymore?' It's just not interesting
to us to play that style of music anymore. It is not what we want
right now. Right now we want to play our punk roots. Right now we
are finding it challenging to write these kind of songs, but obviously
knowing where we came from." He adds, "I think that whole
metal/hardcore sound is getting oversaturated and I don't think
you are seeing or hearing anything fresh out there."
With the rise of the hardcore/hard music scene in New York laying
claim to such heavies as Crumbsuckers and Carnivore in the early-to-mid
'80s, the scene has been through a transition over the last 15 years.
Bands have come and gone and so have the music scenes, but look
deep beneath the paved roads of New York City and there lies the
foundation of what hardcore is all about. For years bands have proven
themselves worthy of solidly playing hardcore music, living, breathing
and bleeding for their music in order to get their emotions out
there to the masses. How does Kabula view the changes the scene
has undergone over the past decade and a half, and, most importantly,
how have Agnostic Front survived all these years?
"Believe it or not, there are a lot of young kids who think
we are a new band and don't know who we are. The scene always rejuvenates,"
notes Kabula. "At a certain age people drop out. Either they
get married or get a steady job and they come out less and less.
Then some new jack kid comes in, all full of piss and vinegar, and
he pretends like knows everything, but he still is learning. I'll
have some 20-year-old kid talking to me, not knowing who the fuck
I am, saying 'Yeah, back in the day…' And I'll be like, 'Back
in the day when I was playing and you were still in your father's
ball sack.'"
And surviving all these years? "We have been a very positive
element for this scene, regardless of what others might think. A
lot of people like us, and a lot of people hate us. It's that simple.
We have a very love/hate relationship with the scene here in New
York. We're not melodic hardcore or safe punk, as we call it. But
yet we're not in that other kind of crowd either. We're the other
guy, y'know? We're not into the hard 'chunga-chunga' bands -- those
bands that play 'chunga-chunga' metal and call themselves hardcore.
Many people try to envision us as a certain type of band and they
always fail. Agnostic Front is a band out there on their own doing
our own thing. Just face it.
"With our music we play it has been very easy over the years
to keep the style," says Kabula about not buckling under to
trends. "It's hard to break out of our style (laughs). We just
play music the only way we know how, and we're good at it. We must
be, we still have fans. I think the thing about Agnostic Front is
that there are truthful lyrics, strong messages and hard music.
I also think there is a lot of musical elements such as punk, hardcore
and metal music in what we do and I think kids who enjoy music can
tell that we have been around for a long time and respect us. We
know our music, and music in general, inside out, and it shows.
A lot of older bands out there have either disappeared or changed
their music style. We haven't. Maybe it's just that we have the
staying power and the other bands from back in the day don't. Who
knows? I'm just glad to be still doing this."
One thing that has always been familiar territory with Agnostic
Front has been their DIY method of doing things. They work hard
at making music and work even harder at trying to promote it. While
labels have been important for them in regards to getting the material
put out, Kabula admits that the label support is important but they
most definitely call the shots. "We just do our own thing with
our music," he says. "Sure the label does ads and sets
up interviews for us when the albums come out, but that is about
it. We just speak our mind and do our own thing. It doesn't matter
what label you're on -- we have been on a lot of labels -- it doesn't
really matter. We could be on another label after Epitaph. Who knows?
It's all about the music."
Any regrets over the years?
"Not really. It's all been good for us, despite all the shit
we get stuck with. Sure there were shows we could have played and
didn't or tours we could have gone on but decided not to, but that's
life. We went with it and came out of it still being Agnostic Front."
Does he wish the band ever broke out big into the mainstream music
scene?
"We're never going to be a mainstream band. I hope we never
become a mainstream band, 'cause if we did and I had to go walk
around through the crowd at our shows I'd probably hate all the
fucking people because there are a lot of assholes who like commercial
shit. I don't want everyone to like us. I don't want pussy, asshole-shit
followers following us like sheep. We're not for that. I don't want
them to like us. I want the people who know us to like us and support
us. I don't want mainstream success. I just want us to be the thorn
in society."
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INSIGHT
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Bassist Rob Kabula takes us 'back to the day' when hardcore music
was evolving and starting to take its stance. Here are his recollections
and thoughts on each Agnostic Front release:
1983 - EP UNITED BLOOD (Rat Cage)
-- "I didn't play on the record. I was in another band at the
time when it came out (Cause For Alarm), but New York had a small
scene. We would all rehearse at the same studio and we would go
in and play after Agnostic Front was done. Back then one band would
go in and press a single, and the next thing you know some other
band would do it. That's what it was. The songs were short, fast
and raw. It was all recorded cheap and in a small studio where you
had to pay up front to record it. It was totally raw and unpolished."
1984 - Full Length VICTIM IN PAIN (Important)
-- "I joined the band for this record. Here we were playing
New York, like CBGB's and The Ritz and we had started getting a
big following all of a sudden. Again we fronted up money and a local
record store owner from Rat Cage Records said he'd put it out for
us and he pressed 5,000 copies. He sold out of them and had to repress
them. We took what we could out on the road with us for the first
U.S. tour. It was an exciting time for us. We were still raw sounding,
and we liked that."
1986 - Full Length CAUSE FOR ALARM (Relativity/Combat)
--
"The mindset was good. We were playing big shows, like 2,000
people at The Ritz, and now all of a sudden the metalheads started
coming to our shows. The liked the energy and the intensity of the
music we played. They liked it raw. Guys from Metallica and Anthrax,
even Peter Steele from Carnivore was coming to the shows and hanging
with us. Back then the rawness of our hardcore sound was new to
those metalheads and they really got into it. We just started experimenting
a bit with metal and it took off from there. That's what happened
here and I can see why some have said this is our finest moment.
It is a great record."
1987 - Full Length LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR… (Relativity/Combat)
-- "For this record I wasn't in the band. I had left. After
Cause For Alarm there was a lot of uncertainty after I left. The
drummer left too and they got two guys from Pittsburgh to come down
and play. At this point in time it was the start of death metal.
Agnostic Front toured with Obituary and Cannibal Corpse and you
can see how that style of music blended into the metal music, helping
take shape into all these 'chunga-chunga' bands. That's where it
all started, man. It started to become popular and here again Agnostic
Front was on the cutting edge once again with music."
1989 - Full Length LIVE AT C.B.G.B's (Important)
-- "This was a great recording of us doing what we do best:
playing live. It's very simple. You want to experience a live show
of Agnostic Front at one of their popular clubs, here ya go."
1992 - Full Length ONE VOICE (Relativity)
-- "Music was really weird at this time in our career. That
record came out when Biohazard started up; they actually did some
backing vocals on the record, and it was one of those tough, metal
albums. It was kind of violent. At this point is where hardcore
became violent and people were getting stabbed at shows. The scene
was starting to die 'cause many venues weren't having shows. It
was dying, and we took the record to Europe and it was a big success
for us. In New York, the scene had just weakened. It was an odd
record."
1997 - Full Length SOMETHING's GOTTA GIVE (Epitaph)
-- "It took a while for this record to come out, but it was
good and well needed for us. It was just a time period for us to
get it together. Roger was getting more involved with his young
daughter and Vinnie's wife had a kid. We weren't sure of what was
going to happen. We still went to shows, but we were taking it easy.
We met up and decided to jam a bit and played a few shows and it
just felt right again. While we played some shows over the next
few months we began writing and went into the studio with a lot
of confidence. The end result is just one heavy record in my mind."
1999 - Full Length RIOT, RIOT, UPSTART (Epitaph)
-- "Making this music was a blast. Just going headstrong into
this recording, with a lot of our punk rock influences showing,
was just totally cool. It's a hard-hitting record and Lars (Fredericksen)
did a great job with the production. It's very back to our old roots
in a way."
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