HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: Cause For Alarm – Agnostic Front

Metal and hardcore are a match made in heaven right? Such a statement may not raise many eyebrows nowadays, but the two genres’ respective scenes of the 1980s paint a very different picture. In the book American Hardcore, widely regarded as a definitive work on the genre, author Steven Blush wrote: “Early on, Hardcore and Heavy Metal never interacted – the two camps loathed each other.” Elsewhere, he explained: “Hardcore fans didn’t want their bands to grow beyond established parameters. They wanted their heroes to sound the same, over and over again.” 

By 1986 however, things were starting to change. For Blush and many others, it was here where “the initial hardcore explosion ended.” In a somewhat depressing reading of the situation, he wrote: “heavy metal, long despised by HC types, eventually ate its way onto the scene, marking the rebellion’s demise.” Several bands had begun to see the potential for common ground between the two genres, making the first ever forays into the now tried and tested metal-hardcore hybrid. At the forefront of these early explorations were the likes of CRO-MAGS, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES and AGNOSTIC FRONT. It’s the latter of these we’re here to talk about today, and specifically their now 35-year-old classic second full-length, Cause For Alarm.

Hailing, of course, from New York City, genre tribalism was hardly the greatest of AGNOSTIC FRONT’s worries back then. By all accounts, the NYHC scene was a dangerous place, one characterised by gang violence, corrupt police, underage drinking, heavy substance abuse, and a general culture of poverty, deprivation and squalor. Writing in his 2017 autobiography, AGNOSTIC FRONT frontman Roger Miret described the typical mindset of a 1980s NYHC kid: “We were outside, writhing with rage, just waiting for an excuse to kick somebody’s ass.”

There was also plenty of turmoil within the AGNOSTIC FRONT camp itself. 1984’s Victim In Pain LP had been well-received, but that had hardly translated into plain sailing for the band. As Miret writes: “Cause For Alarm didn’t create itself. We bled for that album.” As well as struggling with a seemingly ever-revolving door of drummers in particular, the then four-piece found themselves regularly and unfairly hounded by hardcore zines like Maximumrocknroll, who alleged that they were racists and fascists. For Miret, that couldn’t be further from the truth. He wrote: “When it came to opposing separatism and white power, we were on the same side. I couldn’t stand the hardcore bands that held those beliefs.”

The band’s new musical direction was also the source of some tension at the time. The addition of second guitarist Alex Kinon (formerly of NHYC pioneers CAUSE FOR ALARM, from whom the record would eventually take its name) set up something of an imbalance in AGNOSTIC FRONT‘s internal politics. Specifically, it was Kinon and bassist Rob Kabula who were pushing for more metal in the band’s sound. This didn’t sit well with latest drummer Jimmy Coletti, whose abrupt departure resulted in the recruitment of Louie “Beatto” Beateaux – another metalhead known for his work in Peter Steele’s CARNIVORE. Miret himself even quit at one point, similarly dissatisfied with the band’s departure from their hardcore roots, while also battling serious drug issues and relationship problems. Fortunately, he returned after just four months, somewhat reluctantly re-joining Kabula, Kinon, Beateaux and the legendary Vinnie Stigma to enter the studio and make history.

The results were a far cry from the primal, scrappy hardcore of Victim In Pain. With its decidedly more polished sound, it’s easy to see how Cause For Alarm infuriated the purists of the day. Launching out the gate with today’s setlist staple The Eliminator, it’s seconds before Beateaux’s thunderous double kicks are pummelling listeners alongside thrash-tinged riffing. Soon, Kinon introduces more sophisticated lead parts, as well as the first of the record’s many guitar solos – a cardinal sin in 1980s hardcore. Nine tracks follow in much the same vein, with Victim In Pain’s Your Mistake even getting a crisper reworking in the process.

Even with these stylistic changes, listening to Cause For Alarm in 2021 you may find yourself asking what all the fuss was about. The emphasis on speed is still there, so too is the general in-your-face aggro. Lyrically, there’s plenty of hardcore’s more typical social commentary, with the band taking aim at greedy politicians (Time Will Come), corrupt priests (Growing Concern), and the destruction of planet earth (Toxic Shock). Add to this Miret‘s instantly recognisable bark and there’s no question AGNOSTIC FRONT have at least one foot firmly grounded in hardcore throughout. The problem however was that Cause For Alarm was the sound of a band evolving, and that just wasn’t what hardcore fans wanted back then.

Perhaps predictably, the response to the record was mixed at best. Miret wrote: “Fans were psyched to see us perform our new songs with Alex, but they didn’t know how to take the music, especially the hardcore kids. They were confused.” In addition, the band found themselves on the receiving end of even more controversy, most notably in response to the album’s shockingly misguided ninth track Public Assistance, whose Peter Steele-penned lyrics took cruel aim at welfare recipients. Beateaux left just weeks after the album’s release, whisked away by his commitments to CARNIVORE. Kinon followed soon after, and subsequent records saw the band gradually return to a more straight-up hardcore sound.

It’s hardly a story of resounding success then, but there was something about Cause For Alarm which meant it slowly worked its way into the hearts of hardcore kids and metalheads alike. From a place of intense turmoil – both internal and external – AGNOSTIC FRONT boldly broke down the seemingly insurmountable barriers between two genres which have gone on to become the best of friends. The metalcore scene in particular owes a heavy and obvious debt to this record, with legends like EARTH CRISIS, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE and HATEBREED all directly acknowledging AGNOSTIC FRONT’s influence. These are bands whose fingerprints are on just about everything we think of when it comes to metalcore today, but it all starts here, with this record and just a handful of others which proved for the first time that metal and hardcore weren’t the worlds apart that the purists would’ve had us believe.

Cause For Alarm was originally released on June 15th 1986 via Relativity/Combat Records.

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