Agnostic Front

Agnostic Front’s 2005 effort and Nuclear Blast debut Another Voice was a confusing affair. The band embraced the double-kick beats and detuned guitars that were seemingly the antithesis of their hardcore bread’n’butter of the past two decades. The end result was an album bordering on death metal, were it not for vocalist Roger Miret’s genre-defining guttural staccato delivery. This time around, while the band reach further and further afield from their humble roots, the end result borders on phenomenal. A cutting affair, Warriors takes longer strides into the aforementioned thrash/death metal sonic affront but this time, the steps are confident and bold. Guitarists Vinnie Stigma and Joseph James treat their instruments like some sort of snuff film victim, hammering away with menace while drummer Steve Gallo’s frenzied smashing makes every drum skin pay for the sins of humankind. Punchier, more confrontational and aggressive than its predecessor, Warriors is proof that occasionally a step back or sideways can inevitable make for two leaps forward.