Agnostic Front Cause for Alarm

Agnostic Front 'Cause for Alarm'Agnostic Front 'Cause for Alarm' (Rough Justice 1986)

There was a band called Cause for Alarm, who Agnostic Front must have named their second album after, who played at Nice n' Sleazy's in the late 1997 or 1998 and my band Unique Freak managed to get on the bill thanks to tenuous links Pringle had with their management. We turned up thinking that one of the godfathers of the New York Hardcore (NYHC) would be like all the DIY punks we had played with before and sharing gear wouldn't be problem. Boy, were we wrong.

TJ Scaglione, of Whiplash and Slayer, yes SLAYER, fame was their drummer at the time and he was not one for sharing. Despite the fact that his records boasted Paiste or Tama endorsements, he claimed that we would do untold damage to his kit and demanded £30 for us to play on it, more than we would get paid for the gig. Our drummer was most unimpressed and told Mr. Scaglione in no uncertain terms.

I decided to try and butter Tony up by praising his work with Whiplash and asking what it had been like touring with Slayer on the Reign in Pain tour. After about 15 minutes, the cost of using the kit had dropped to £5. This riled our drummer even more as it was obvious that we were just getting scammed. So Murray packed his bags and stormed out of the venue. The promoter then threw a fit and eventually we ended up playing the gig, but somewhat under a cloud.

When Cause for Alarm took the stage, their singer, Keith started mouthing off about ungrateful bands who had a problem using his gear and other macho NYHC nonsense. I shouted 'Greety, Greety!' at him from the crowd and he didn't have a comeback. What can you say to that really!?

The gig actually worked out well because I sold demos to Andy and Jamie of Shank which would lead to future bands and gigs and Pringle met his great friend, Danny from Arizona, who was playing guitar for the NYHC 'legends'.

Agnostic Front were the most famous of the NYHC bands in metal circles and you can see why, their sound is very metal influenced with crunchy riffs and double bass drumming, yet it was still distinctly hardcore with Roger Miret's trademark straining vocals and a very speedy approach. They were one of the biggest crossover bands as they appealed to metallers, hardcore kids, punks and skinheads.

For some reason Skinheads really loved this band. The band took this on board and would later flirt with Oi, always sang the Iron Cross anthem 'Crucified' and often used a pair of Doc Martens as their logo. The other more ominous aspect to this band were the lyrics which on this album reach a nadir with 'Public Assistance'. For some reason a number of lyrics are written by Petrus Steele, of Carnivore and later Type O Negative fame, and it's really up to you how you take his 'politics'. Was he always on the wind up and trying to bait people or did he really believe that immigrants and minorities should be made to clean the sewers and have their public assistance (dole) cut if they refused? The debate still continues, but the choice to have Steele and Billy Milano involved definitely back fired for Agnostic Front with the more politically correct punks and hardcore bands.

Metallers, as usual, didn't seem to care and Type O Negative went on to be huge, Carnivore reformed to play festivals and Fear Factory and Hatebreed both covered 'Your Mistake' from 'Cause for Alarm'.

Strangely, I have two copies of this; a Kingfisher Records re-release on purple vinyl and the original Rough Justice press which I picked up recently when Jon sold me his collection.

Peace