ALBUM REVIEW: Get Loud! – Agnostic Front

There still remains a vibrant and vital energy to AGNOSTIC FRONT, even 12 albums in. Following on from SICK OF IT ALL also releasing a genuine rager with their last release, the godfathers of hardcore are back to prowl the streets with Get Loud!, an in-yer-face outing that encompasses everything the band have pioneered. With a short life span across 14 songs, there isn’t really a slip up from the blueprint the band brought to the world back in the late 80s and early 90s, and by the sounds of it, are ready to square up to anyone. 

There is a genuine sense that AGNOSTIC FRONT still revere themselves as the top dogs, and the way they hold themselves throughout Get Loud! reflects this. Snitches Get Stitches is an outright call to arms, where as In My Blood directly references the musical movement the band have had such an integral part in making. Both songs are exactly what everyone will have come to expect from AGNOSTIC FRONT, with the frantic guitars and the instantly recognisable vocals from Roger Miret.

The group take aim at a number of topics ranging from themselves and the directly political. Divide & Conquer and I Remember both imbue a sense of community against a wider cause, whether that be the music industry of society as a whole. Not to their detriment, but with bands like RAISED FIST shying away from more political leanings, having a group with the pedigree of AGNOSTIC FRONT feels good. Kind of like when your dad gets into a fight for you. 

This classic sound extends through the entire album, and the songwriting at play on this record helps give each song identifiers that split them apart from the rest of the pack. Spray-Painted Walls packs a mean chorus, Anti-Social is a blistering minute of classic 80s punk, Af Stomp proves how good the band are at taking modern aggression and giving it the New York hardcore treatment, and Pull The Trigger packs the tail end of the record with another dynamite stick of hardcore punk explosives. The phrase if it ain’t broke don’t fix it springs to mind a lot through Get Loud!, and AGNOSTIC FRONT have never been a band to broke their own mold. 

The best way to really measure Get Loud! is my weighing it against the rest of the AGNOSTIC FRONT back catalogue, given how the band have always been in a league of their own. Get Loud! is a collection of well written songs that give a taste for the sheer breadth of influence AGNOSTIC FRONT have had on crossover, hardcore, punk, and everything else in between. 35 years down the line and the New York hardcore legends can still very much keep up with the kids, and even give them a run for their money. After all, they are the ones that kick started it all. 

Rating: 8/10

Get Loud! is out now via Nuclear Blast Records.

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