According to rumour, the new album from New York’s hardcore pioneers was going to adopt a heavier sound, and while The American Dream Died certainly writhes with frustration, its most exhilarating quality is its number of aggressively memorable anthems.
Kicking things off with a charged spoken-word passage, the album ascends into fist-pumping choruses, gang shouts and the melodic fretwork that’s become Agnostic Front’s calling card.
Roger Miret’s shouts call out police corruption, self-serving leadership and social injustice, while Old New York highlights a more personal disappointment.
The metal influences remain but their older sound is revisited when ex-Agnostic Front/Madball veteran Matt Henderson is pulled in to lay the guitar tracks for A Wise Man and when Freddy Cricien (Madball), Lou Koller (Sick Of It All), and Toby Morse (H2O) join forces for Never Walk Alone.
This is a killer album alive with disillusionment, positive energy and first-rate songs./o:p
