Reviews

NYHC has gone through a thousand changes since the late seventies when CBGB’s launched as the flagship of a cultural paradigm shift. Since they came on the scene in 1982, Agnostic Front remained resistant to these changes, abhorring exploration and largely releasing the same album over and over, with the exception of their exceptional Epitaph debut Something’s Gotta Give. Refining a sound and making it your band’s signature is great, but on Another Voice, AF’s 11th album and first on Nuclear Blast, there is no difference between songs at all. Roger Miret gruff NY bark does not deviate in pitch or delivery on any of Another Voice’s 14 tracks. The title of the record becomes a cruel joke when you realize that Miret’s lack of using another voice is the reason the record is so unlistenable.
 
The drums are tight, the double bass pedal is given a work out on “Fall Of The Parasite” while the guitars’ siren calls soar overhead. But something is off. It’s as if Agnostic Front was going back over their old album and attempting to sound like themselves. It rings of AF, but lacks the vitality that their earlier work did. After over twenty years in the scene, making music that has pleased countless waves of punks and HxC kids, it’s good to see their still committed to New York Hardcore, but this disc isn’t contributing anything the scene needs. Agnostic Front has inspired these new bands, and their legacy is worth more than Another Voice indicates.