There is a certain beauty that hardcore fans cannot deny about the old school. The harshness, not intended to be pretty, sophisticated, just the sheer fact that they sing about rude realities as they see it are the traits that attracted metal kids in the 80’s, to go and get some hardcore essence into their metal riffs. And hardcore is the base in which Agnostic Front emerged, and after 30 years of being around the globe “singing it as they see it“, they are ready to kick purists butts (metal and hardcore alike) with their eleventh album ‘The American Dream Died’.
New York’s pioneers in the hardcore and metal crossover scene Agnostic Front announced this week the release of their eleventh album ‘The American Dream Died’ which includes artwork for the cover and the tracklist. This album was produced by fellow hardcore singer Freddy Cricien (Madball); as for the engineering, mixing and mastering it was performed by Paul Miner (H2O, Terror). This album will be released in the first week of April (April 4th in Europe, April 7th in North America) through Nuclear Blast Records.
[blockquote cite=”Agnostic Front”]We chose this title because we want to open up people’s eyes to what’s going on in this country. We have a lot to say. Not everyone realizes that our government and the people who run this country are so corrupt, greedy and ruthless. We need to educate the ones we reach. We’re losing our values. We address real issues from full blown corruption and scandals to unjust police abuse and brutality. Everything’s we stood for as a country is going down the drain. But we still somewhat have our freedom of speech. We’re expressing it all through this record while we can.[/blockquote]
‘The American Dream Died’ comes as the follow-up to 2011’s ‘My Life My Way’, with collaboration of Freddy Cricien and Erik Rutan (Madball, Goatwhore, Cannibal Corpse), where they laid the reality surrounding them that touches most of us on daily basis. In ‘The American Dream Died’, Agnostic Front worked with Freddy Cricien, Toby Morse (H2O), and Lou Koller (Sick Of It All), which gave the album an extra notch on the hardcore side of the band, keeping the band true to themselves.
- ‘Intro’
- ‘The American Died’
- ‘Police Violence’
- ‘Only In America’
- ‘Test Of Time’
- ‘We Walk The Line’
- ‘Never Walk Alone’ (featuring Freddy Cricien, Toby Morse and Lou Koller)
- ‘Enough Is Enough’
- ‘I Can’t Relate’
- ‘Old New York’
- ‘Social Justice’
- ‘Reasonable Doubt’
- ‘No War Fuck You’
- ‘Attack!’
- ‘A Wise Man’
- ‘Just Like Yesterday’
As usual, Agnostic Front keep being outspoken regarding the harsh realities of the United States, but most of what is exposed in the album can be extrapolated to other countries such as mine. I got to say that for me, there is a certain charm to seeing a band that creates things still in a humble way, always true to themselves, even when music changes and evolves, there is always a core which relates to the past. So, be ready to get your copy after the first week in April.
