Agnostic Front
Cause For Alarm

THE REVIEW

I have always believed that no one has ever invented anything, that is, some musical groups manage to remain more original, some know how to exploit particular characteristics in a better way, and others only know how to copy wisely, but the invention of an absolute novelty has never ever happened in the history of music, okay, let's say that science and music have never been as close as with this principle of Lavoisier: "Nothing is created, nothing is destroyed, but everything is transformed".

The Agnostic Front are defined as the first (which is absolutely false) hardcore punks who managed to unite crowds of punks and die-hard metalheads at their concerts, some say that with "Cause for Alarm" thrashcore was born, given the skin themes and the hardness and more aggressive music, I would also add due to the Nazi message perceived by the audience. In my opinion, this album is hard and powerful, but to start talking about a "new invention" that appeared out of nowhere is too big a word. Hardcore already in '86, the year the album was released, was experiencing a slight decline, while metal had become a much more appreciated "fad", Agnostic Front, like many other memorable bands, had to adapt, remaining true to their skin roots while injecting their music with the great power of metal. The sure thing is that after the release of this record, a large segment of Agnostic Front's audience, enchanted by the previous "Victim in Pain", distanced themselves, but another large crowd of thrash followers joined their old fans.

The opener "The Eliminator" is the guide of the album; we all know how the first song of a record can decisively influence the entire work. Indeed, with this song, we find the typical rhythm and heaviness of a Metallica-style thrash, complete with pentatonic trills and tight riffs, only with the distinctive voice of the great Roger Miret, which has remained unmistakable for years. More precise and powerful solos are executed, determined chants that reinforce the emphasis of the tracks, songs structured with more varied and less instinctive riffs, tempo changes, and pieces more extended and different from each other compared to their previous works.

As I already explained earlier, the impression of the album comes from the first tracks; however, if you listen carefully to subsequent songs, you realize that stylistically Agnostic Front are not that different from the past. I would say that the association with metal is not so much of a compositional or stylistic nature but comes from the greater maturity of the musicians, who after four years from their market debut decided to improve technically and the quality of the recording, varying their style to avoid remaining the classic Hardcore formation that after a handful of years is forced to dissolve due to their performing flatness. Something this band always had in their blood, we can indeed notice that, nowadays, they blend seamlessly among names of Nu Metal bands.

On the thematic side, this is one of their most discussed albums, they were indeed accused of Nazism, but not only, they strongly attack society, resulting in serious consequences even from a legal standpoint. They thus become a small social phenomenon, but I must emphasize that this was just excellent publicity for them, as their notoriety definitely increased after this album. All of this, anyway, is not strange, for extreme music bands these occasions are a godsend, Agnostic Front rightly knew how to play their cards well, exploiting all this good free publicity to the best.

I have nothing else to add, the album is fast and flows nicely, it has ten songs and lasts precisely twenty-four minutes, I believe this last line explains much more than what I wrote before.