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Rating: It is often said about this or that person or this or that artist, that there are no middle ways, you either love them or hate them. This could well be the case with Agnostic Front.
However, I have always loved and hated them at the same time, followed and snubbed them, listened to and repudiated them. Their intrinsic roughness repulses and attracts me at the same time, Vinnie Stigma and Roger Miret, now outdated, overweight fifty-somethings full of New York suburban rhetoric churning out albums from time to time of their usual rocky and anthemic hardcore and getting tattoos where the little free skin allows, dressing like Italian farmers from the 50s.
Coming to this "Liberty & justice for...", I believe it's a rather unfortunate album, which at the time (1987) did not enjoy good success among the group's fans, and perhaps the group itself was on a bit of a decline due to the explosion of the NYHC phenomenon which saturated the scene with a myriad of more or less valid bands, the same scene that Agnostic themselves helped create a few years earlier.
The fact is that this album is a big punch in the teeth, a well-calibrated punch, one of those that breaks your lips beyond your top incisors. The directives are those of "Cause for alarm," hence a mix of hardcore punk and thrash metal, but here, compared to that record, everything is more frenetic, more compressed, and angular.
The rhythms are very intense, the guitars of Stigma and Steve Martin frantically chase each other as per thrash tradition, and Roger Miret's voice is less monotonous than on the previous record, though he continues to pursue the style made of gasps and sobs that will later define him over time. I won't dwell on the song lyrics because they seem to be a bit of a weak point for them, not so much for the right-wing nonsense, etc., etc., but because they are a bit predictable.
Nevertheless, having said this, I find "Liberty & justice for..." an extraordinary NYHC album, bursting with fury in every note, and despite the predominant thrash matrix, it does not lose a shred of its hardcore impact. And then the penultimate track ("Crucified") is a cover of the Washingtonians Iron Cross.
An album that definitely deserves to be re-evaluated.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
04 Genesis (01:37)
The birth of man was the birth of Hell
The wrathful flames dance around my head
Falling figures, burning dead
A well once filled with flowing water
Now an endless tunnel of hate and squalor
Covered, once, with locks of hair
All burned off, to leave me bare
A hand that once reached out to feel
Now gropes about for something real
I try to hold onto what I've found
But the heat of the touch melts all to the ground
Pulling back, Inside my head
I watch for hours, the listless dead
From my hear flows the tears
Giving no life to that which is seared
I wait for the day when only ashes appear
Nothing gained--and no more fear
And once again I will be pure
05 Anthem (02:52)
Changes that were hardly noticed
Until time itself became a chain
Once hot blood began to cool
My ever slowing heart--beat in vain
From the nightmare I wake in another dream
And stare at an unbroken sky
Try to distill a cure for the plague
That's put to rest everything--I once felt inside
To never again be bound by United Blood
A sense of purpose lost forever more
Is this the way I'll die? No!
I'll find the sense of honor--that I held once before
The Blood--The Honor--The Truth
Thought it would never end
The Blood--The Honor--The Truth
Can be part of our lives again
06 Another Side (02:51)
Awash on the tides of city rain I flow through the streets and into the drains Numbed by the gaze of uncaring faces Try to offer my truth--but they drift away Until the streets and myself have no name No longer human--no longer the same Lost all hope--lose all dreams--No more pain Awake--I choke on human steam And the stench of animal fear Tonight I'm going to light a match And let the sewer burn--until my soul is clear Each night a thousand hearts are wasted On those who don't care if they live or die Each day I wade through vacant stares and wonder Are they looking for the same things as I I see the people turn away And still hear every word they say Hope someday I'll have the nerve To put a bullet through my brain And not a needle in my vein
08 Lost (01:59)
Yahweh promised a conquered land,
Domination over life--man against man
Mother Earth came to conflict with patriarchal powers
And eyes lit up with hierarchy fed desires
The spirit within--quickly became lost
In search of glory and power the rules of war were taught
The dogs, run wild, parting souls from lives
Bombs fragment, the Earth, leaving wounds in her side
The roots of perversion--so deeply planted
Man has become evil--peace and freedom tainted
Leaders ask their people to dig their graves deeper
No spirit of their own--they took heed of their keepers
Man finds himself trapped in aggression
He knows no other life but that of oppression
09 Hypocrisy (02:47)
So you hate your Mom, you hate your Dad
You hate "The State" because it's bad
But look at you, how do you rate?
You're just as bad as those you hate
You're telling me--you keep telling lies
But deep down inside--You're not true to your mind
All fucked up, king of the show
Flail at your friends, you don't know
Fight before and afterward
But it don't do you any good
So live your life in ignorance
Close your mind, your defiant stance
Isolate and isolate
Until you're gone and it's too late
To wake up and live
You're just a victim of your fate
10 Crucified (02:28)
They ask why we dress this way.
Life for now, stand today.
See the kids, but don't hear what they say.
Close your eyes and look the other way.
They it's the end, justify the means.
They lock us up throw away the keys.
Crucified, skinhead army.
Crucified, for your sins.
Crucified, skinhead army.
Crucified, for your sins.
They don't know our feeling.
Our only desperate cries.
They seek along
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