Denizens of doom Type O Negative and hardcore hard heads Agnostic Front have both released new CDs in time for back-to-school season. But before any of ye wee ones out there plunk down your parent's hard earned book money, beware! There is precious little new or interesting on either of these all too disposable discs.
Though Type O Negative's World Coming Down (Roadrunner Records) and Agnostic Front's Riot Riot Upstart (Epitaph) are produced with polish and played with a genuine feel for what they're doing, I'm just not depressed or angry enough to appreciate either group's angst-ridden ranting. Doubtless there is a maudlin audience anxiously anticipating World Coming Down’s sludge pit of sound. And legions of dirt punks too are surely licking their malt-liquored chops as they await Riot Riot Upstart and its hyperactive assault on society. But there's little here to interest anyone but the most hardcore fans of either style. And even diehards may be disappointed at the lack of progression demonstrated on these releases.
"800 pounds of meat that makes a lot of noise," is how Type O Negative bassist/front slab Pete Steele describes his band's sound. A hell of a meat loaf could be made with all that flesh, but if Type O Negative taste anything like they sound on World Coming Down, it would be food poisoning at first bite. These guys are so gloomy they make Sisters of Mercy sound like the Archies. Brooding boulders like "Everything Dies" and the delightfully despairing
"Everyone I Love Is Dead" moan endlessly in their shrouds of solemnity. "The Evil Beatles" is another of Steele's pet names for Type O Negative. Apparently he's "dead" serious too, as evidenced by the band's mausoleum heavy version of "Day Tripper." What's next, "Baby You Can Drive My Hearse"? Well, Pete's got the evil part right, but to mention Type 0 in the same dying breath as the Fab Four is a sin of unpardonable proportions and I don't even care for the Beatles.
Agnostic Front
Things aren't any happier on the Agnostic Front, but at least they're more energetic. On Riot Riot Upstart the band knocks off seventeen songs in under half an hour. The shortest cut, "The Price You Pay," is only fifty-five seconds long. What's the hurry? Couldn't they afford a second real of tape? Still, this would have been a great album in 1981, when Black Flag, the Circle Jerks and Agnostic Front themselves were carving out a new breed of punk, much faster, heavier and more violent than the pogo happy Ramones, Damned and Dead Boys of the late '70s.
Granted, it's not overly realistic to expect new tricks from old road dogs like Agnostic Front and, I must admit, their industrial strength staying power is indeed admirable.
But it's almost the year 2000 now and nostalgia is all I feel when listening to Agnostic Front's latest frustrated assemblage of discharges against alleged oppressors and a "Police State" that's allowed them to be
"Rock Stars" in their own right.
In a real dictatorship, vocalist Roger Miret, guitarist Vinny Stigma, bassist Rob Kabula and drummer Jimmy Collette would have been hauled off and never again heard from a long time ago.
On the bright side, Riot Riot Upstart was aggressively produced by Lars Fredricksen of Rancid and benefits from guest thrasher Billy Millano, whose band, Stormtroopers of Death, is actually able to mosh with the best of them and keep a twisted sense of humor about hardcore philosophy, which can be as oppressive as the society it's rebelling against. "We finally got it right," says Agnostic Front bassist Rob Kabula. Too bad it's about ten years too late.
So there ya go, two bands going nowhere creatively, one very fast, the other very slowly. To their credit, Type O Negative and Agnostic Front have certainly stuck to their guns, but it would appear they're out of ammunition.
