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CD reviews

Cause for Alarm/Victim in Pain

Agnostic Front - Cause for Alarm/Victim in Pain Audio CD

A fair review of the Agnostic Front "Cause for Alarm/Victim in Pain" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Agnostic Front reviews here, or go back to the Agnostic Front tabs.

Band: Agnostic Front
Title: Cause for Alarm/Victim in Pain
Rating:

Release Date: 1991-07-01
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Eliminator 2: Existence of Hate 3: Time Will Come 4: Growing Concern 5: Your Mistake 6: Out for Blood 7: Toxic Shock 8: Bomber Zee 9: Public Assistance 10: Shoot His Load 11: Victim in Pain 12: Remind Them 13: Blind Justice 14: Last Warning 15: United & Strong 16: Power 17: Hiding Inside 18: Fascist Attitudes 19: Society Sucker 20: Your Mistake 21: With Time

misses five because we need a remaster.
I thought I knew hardcore before i heard these guys and then I knew myself to be clueless. I mean if you don't like these albums stay out of my wheel house, cuz these slabs of madness changed my life. But it must be said that the packaging and sound qaulity of the cd transfer sucks taint. Also this album deserves a deluxe booklet, rife with pictures, lyrics and the origianl album covers at full size. But if this is all you can get your hands on DO IT!. When people say seminal they usually don't have clue, but these two albums are essential to any music fan, not just hardcore kid in terms of American music history. .

NYHC Classic!!!
Anyone to diss is just a plain softee suburb average Joe that knows nothin bout real hardcore!!! oi oi oi This is straight up from the streets for the streets and obviously anyone who hates this just isn't hardcore.
Plain and simple. They need to go listen to their Lincoln Park or whatever joke they call hardcore. .

Hardcore at its best
You can't go wrong buying every other bands influence. These guys are the fathers of hardcore.

D.K. Malone, you are Definitely WRONG!
K. I had to stand up to D. Malone's "one eyed" review of this 2 classic hardcore albums. For starters, this CD includes AGNOSTIC FRONT's 1st full album release, "Victim In Pain" and their second, more metal oriented "Cause For Alarm". Production wise, there IS an abysmal difference between both albums. "Victim" is a decidedly low-budget affair, but what it lacks in the production department more than makes up in the attitude and aggression zone. Granted, Vinnie Stigma is NOT hardcore's answer to Eddie Van Halen. . . but in that sense, NO hardcore guitarist ever was! Gregg Ginn
(EDIT: As much as I like BLACK FLAG, Ginn's playong was sloppy as best. Whether this was intentional or not we'll never know, bu the fact is that he WAS sloppy! Even Johnny Ramone played with much more technique than Gregg Ginn! Nuff said. ),
Dr. Know, Lyle Preslar, Greg Hetson, Doyle, East Bay Ray. . . et al. . . none of these guitarists were paricularly outstanding, but they SERVED a purpose and that purpose was to make over the top guitar mayhem for their respective punk bands. So, to review a "PUNK" albums on the merits of a guitar players' particular sound is TOTALLY out of the question, because Stigma's guitar playing on "VICTIM IN PAIN" will not distract you from the sheer pleasure of listening to a seminal punk album. "VICTIM IN PAIN" is raw, fast (sometimes, EXTREMELY fast!!!) and real. "United & Strong", "Power", "Your Mistake" and the thrashing title track make the 2nd half of this CD a MUST HAVE for any HARDCORE PUNK fan. Now, in 1986 AGNOSTIC FRONT released "Cause For Alarm". Cries of "sell out" and "metal posers" where heard abundantly when the album was released (through COMBAT records, a decidedly METAL label, which made matters only worse!). Truth is, CFA is a GREAT album with slight "metal" overtones (but hardcore bands always waltzed the line between punk and metal because of their common musical aggression). The production improved dramatically over the 1st album: crunchy-thrash-metal like guitars, double bass drums and controversial lyrics (some penned by CARNIVORE main man Pete Steele). "Eliminator", "Time Will Come" and the controversial "Public Assistance" are stand out tracks. The sound on this record helped defined the "CROSSOVER" sub-genre: the fusion of punk and metal played at thrash metal/hardcore punk speeds.
If there is anything to complain about is the CD itself. The packaging is BEYOND terrible and does NOT do justice to these two seminal hardcore releases. Like CIRCLE JERKS' "Group Sex" (which is about 15 minutes long and got a full CD release), "Victim In Pain" should have been released separately (and with ORIGINAL cover!). Same goes for CAUSE FOR ALARM. Whoever though of releasing this CD the way it is should be SHOT in the head. Unfortunately, it's the only way you can get your hands on these 2 punk masterpieces!.

Roger Miret is kind of short in real life!
Tracks 1 through 10 come from 1986's "Cause for Alarm". "Cause for Alarm/Victim in Pain" is really good. It's sort of Agnostic Front's effort to "crossover", or in other words, to combine metal and punk together. It has awesome metal drumming and hardcore lyrics with a punk/metal guitar sound. The drumming is really noteworthy. Just blast the record on your stereo.

Roger Miret's voice on "Cause for Alarm" sounds. . . different. The worst part is when he says "It's your mistake" on "Your Mistake". But you know what, I actually like his singing on the record, even if occasionally he sounds gayer than Liberace. The only draw back from the record is that Stigma and Miret like hired other musicians to write and record much of the music. In fact, the guy from Type O Negative co-wrote some tracks.

"Victim in Pain" was AF's only second hardcore punk record (United Blood EP was the first). It was released in 1984. This is New York Hardcore. The songs are short, fast, and rough. It's mercyfully free of tough guy B. S. that plagues NYHC (Biohazard comes to mind). Stigma actually plays his guitar on this record and Miret sounds his best. I respectively disagree with the one reviewer who basically said that this sounds like generic hardcore. Maybe it sounds bland to some because the style has been copied so much ever since 1984. But I think it sounds f@@@ing amazing. The ONLY drawback is that "Victim in Pain" is only like 20 minutes long. It would have been nice if they rerecored stuff from "United Blood".

BEST OF "CAUSE FOR ALARM":
Bomber Zee, Public Assistance, Your Mistake and The Eliminator

BEST OF "VICTIM IN PAIN"
Victim in Pain, Blind Justice, Last Warning, and Society Sucker
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You can see a complete list of all Agnostic Front discography, or go back to the Agnostic Front tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.