AGNOSTIC FRONT 'Warriors' NUCLEAR BLAST

SO SO!

Nearly thirty years on from their inception, NYHC stalwarts Agnostic Front are on album number thirteen with this fire and brimstone metal workout that’s fourteen tracks short and you could strip paint with it.  Highly influential and highly uncompromising, AF have returned with a record that makes everything look that little bit more bleak and uninviting, the carpet burn vocals edging beneath your skin as tracks like ‘Dead to Me’ and ‘Black and Blue’ pound the cack out of everything in sight.  The whole opus reeks of urban decay and could prove to be a brick in the face of many hardcore pretenders in the vicinity; seriously hard, driving riffs all the way that will beat you over the head relentlessly, but come mid-point ‘For my Family’ there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, just alarmingly neanderthal lyrics and hardcore violence that sounds as though guitarist Vinnie Stigma and lead gruntster Roger Miret should be tearing down cities with their bare hands.  While ‘84’s ‘Victim in Pain’ is regarded as a seminal hardcore release and ‘99’s ‘Riot! Riot! Upstart’ equally so, AF originally made capital from delivering oft-employed aggression with style and bravado, but the criticism that followed 2005’s ‘Another Voice’ may well return to beat down AF’s once all-pervasive self assertion and send ‘Warriors’ packing as unimaginative and nothing better than average.