197. Agnostic Front "One Voice"

And Victim in Pain was just one of those records that was just a staple. And I spent a lot of time looking at that cover and the liner notes and the gatefold, right? And the inside picture of those guys on stage and, you know, seeing the agnostic front skinhead t-shirts and reading all the lyrics. I mean, it drew me right in, right? And so I didn't really think much.

And, you know, because I had studied it so much, I knew they were from New York, but, you know, at that time, at least in the Midwest, New York hardcore wasn't a thing in the way it became. Obviously, there was a New York hardcore scene, but there was a Minneapolis hardcore scene. There was a San Francisco hardcore scene. You just assume there was hardcore scenes in all cities. Just starting to wrap my head around what New York actually was bringing to the table.

And, you know, we definitely looked up to Agnostic Front, you know, musically, you know, even kind of attitude wise. Right. Lyrically. I mean, you know, they just they had it all for us, you know. And so we did a tour in 1988. It was a very DIY tour. And we didn't play with Agnostic Front on that tour, but we crossed paths with them playing in Chicago that year. And that show was amazing.

And so, you know, getting to see them live, because ironically, they never played in Minneapolis until I joined the band. But so seeing them in Chicago and actually getting to hang out with them a little bit after the show, was an initial meeting for me with them. And we started to get to know a lot of New York guys based on that. And there was kind of this connection with Minneapolis and New York hardcore as time went on. So, you know, my band Blind Approach, we were skinheads.

And there was this band called Misery, which were like the cross punk band. And we were very tight. good friends, and we played on the same bill together a lot. And so we were kind of like the Minneapolis version of Agnostic Front and Nausea. And it just so happened that Misery were very good friends with Nausea. And Misery had a singer named Al Long who wound up joining Nausea later on because their original male singer, Neil, had left.

So Al, who was a friend of mine, moves out and lives with Roger and Amy in Staten Island. I went to school in Boston, and when Roger – sometimes I tiptoe around this, but Roger wound up doing a little bit of time – And the band was on hiatus. And when he got out and the band was looking to start up again, Steve Martin, who had been the guitar player prior, was just starting to focus on other things, like the record label and kind of just doing more industry-focused stuff.

So they needed a guitar player. Al mentioned to Roger, hey, you know, that kid from that band Blind Approach out of Minneapolis, He's going to school in Boston. You should reach out to him. And I got a call, which was pretty mind blowing at the time, you know, because I was just going to Berklee College of Music, not really sure what I was going to do and how things were going to play out.

But I didn't really think I was going to be playing any more punk rock necessarily, not because I was you know, against it. It was just, you know, I had a good run with blind approach, you know, and I was, I thought I'm going to put some energy and focus in the, I don't know, getting some type of career for myself going right. And I'm working part-time at this video rental store.

And my girlfriend at the time calls me and says, Hey, Roger from agnostic front just called and And he wants to know if you want to do a European tour with them. And she gave me a phone number, and it was a New York number. My initial reaction was it was my buddies in Minnesota trying to pull some type of just stupid prank. Right. And then when she gave me the number, I was like, oh, shit. And, yeah, I called, and we talked.

And, you know, I was invited to go – meet up with the guys and do a practice, uh, in, uh, Staten Island. And, um, you know, we just, we clicked.

Um, you know, I mean, it's just, it makes sense to me. Uh, and so, uh, It just kind of worked out. You know, I'll say that I treated it with a lot of respect. And, you know, I wasn't looking to just, you know, phone it in. I practiced my ass off before that first rehearsal. You know, Roger giving me a set list, which is kind of interesting. I actually I have I've got a page from a notebook that I was taking notes during classes at that time.

And I got the list of songs he gave me when I talked to him over the phone ahead of that first rehearsal, which is kind of cool to have that in my archives. But yeah, I practiced. I took it very seriously. But I've got to say, I didn't really feel pressure.

And, you know, he, he was definitely young. I'm younger than me and Vinny for sure. But he was in the same age bracket as Scully and, uh, and Willie, you know, Scully being Craig ahead and Willie. So, I mean, we were, we're all kind of, you know, we're about 10 years apart, if that or less. I mean, me and Matt were less than 10 years apart, but, um, We got him to go down to New York City. I gave him the ultimate test.

I don't know if he told you what the ultimate test was to make sure he was roadworthy. And then we started writing.

And then he, he was like, what the fuck? And I was like, okay, this guy's got it.

I think the Gorilla Biscuits and I know Nausea had been out there. I can't remember who else, but it was, you know. Youth of Today.

Um, and, uh, this little boss, Dr. Rhythm drum machine, um, and a flight case, you know, that was all had foam inside it for these, this equipment to be, you know, really secured and roadworthy because we took it on the road with us. And I jumped right in, man. I mean, that was my wheelhouse. I knew I owned a Tascam four track recorder, you know, in my earlier days and that Dr. Rhythm drum machine I was really well versed in.

So I was like, yeah, let me, you know, let me take a shot at this, man. So, you know, in various, you know, downtime opportunities on the road. I just started putting shit together and I wrote Infiltrate and well, me, Craig and Willie together kind of worked on Infiltrate but Retaliate was the first song I put together and it had drums and guitar and everything as I by the time I presented it to Roger, he loved it. So I knew musically we were already clicking.

And, you know, for myself, what I wanted to do was just put out a damn good record. I can tell you my influences at the time from a hardcore standpoint was Killing Time, Killing Time, Bright Side. You know, obviously I had a lot of other influences before that that I would still draw from, including, you know, all the older AF records. And that was another thing is like AF historically, each record had a very kind of distinct and different style to it.

So, you know, it was kind of open-ended in terms of what we could do. There really wasn't any, you know, we were just able to kind of explore and just as long as the songs were good, in my opinion, that was the goal.

I was just freshly released from prison and somehow ended up being like the wall Pink Floyd kind of deal or the Who's Quadrophenia ended up being a concept album and we've never done another like it. It's funny because I kind of tried to attempt that again with our last record. Get Loud. Get Loud, yes, yes, so many I forgot.

I tried to attempt it the same way with Get Loud because I, Get Loud started originally with the concept of, lyrical concept from my book, My Ride, that I had just released at that point about a year and a half or so. So I'm like, oh, let me make this one kind of concept based on lyrical content of my book. But it kind of, there was only so much I could write about because a lot of it I already had written in a book. So with with one voice, it was a whole new experience for me.

And I kind of wanted to put it all down, like, to people understand, you know, some of the harsh reality of it and some of the positive thoughts of it, like coming out and, you know, being better than, you know what I mean? So it kind of became this concept album, everything from lyrical concept to the actual cover and all. And it just happened. It wasn't purposely done. It's weird.

And it was, I think it was kind of like more like the birth of the new school sound. If you drop my vocals out of one voice and drop Matt Henderson's leads and you throw Freddie in there, it sounds like a Madball record, you know? Yeah. it had that approach. It kind of brought something fresh and new to the New Yorkocracy, even though oddly and weirdly, it wasn't as appreciated when it came out.

You know, it was, uh, it didn't make as much noise as, um, liberty and justice or cause for alarm or any of that. People were like, they didn't understand. It was, it was very different. You know, it was, it was also, we were also been leaders, not followers. Anyway, we wanted to try something different, I guess. And, um, It started making more waves. It started making all the waves in Europe. Europe loved it. Europe was released on vinyl on Roadrunner Records, and Europe ate on Voice Up.

They loved it, loved it, loved it. But in America, it didn't make the noise that we thought it was going to make. It was weird. And at the same time, it could be because of the... The changes in the music industry, too, and the music production. Because like I said, that record was never available on vinyl in the United States. And we've always been an underground punk, hardcore, metal, whatever band. And vinyl was always important to our fans. It was only like a CD thing.

But then CDs were popular, too. For some reason, it didn't click. We did a great tour for it, and it clicked more on the metal side. When we toured with Obituary, Cannibal Courts, Malignant Creation, that was a fantastic tour. I only did half of that tour, by the way. Freddie did the other half singing because I had surgery. But for some reason, most of the noise was overseas. And as soon as we stopped playing, people started liking it. It was weird.

new york for a month we rented a studio for a month and we were in there we had access 24 7. and when we weren't in there we were at my house because that's where everybody was staying at and uh just putting the lyrics to work with the music you know it was continuous like making sure everything fit in right everything was good although all the music was continuous it was written in that dynamic. We kind of locked ourselves and said, we're going to do this record. And that was the outcome of it.

And I enjoyed it. You know, I really enjoyed the writing process because it was, like I said, it was interesting. It was different. And I got help from some of the guys. Like I said, Matt Henderson was very involved in helping me, making sure things kind of work time-wise and stuff within the songs. You know, there was just one song that short that we realized after we went in the studio that we were missing a song, that we needed a little bit more time. And that was written in the studio.

why a lot of stuff happened to me to go through that path. That's how it tied in with the record. And, uh, we came down and just, they recorded it. I did it. And that was it.

And then from there, I just go creatively, you know, from whatever I heard in the song. Now it's time to go. Or I can match these lyrics because I have, it's talking about the same thing.

A couple of times in my life, career I guess if you want to say it was been different where I've actually written full lyrics with a song and concept I would write the lyrics and here comes the music and Bastard was one of those songs for sure I mean Victim of Pain was all like that I created I wrote all Victim of Pain music and lyrics pretty much except for like two songs that came from the past like one United Blood song and one song from Vinny's prior band so it was um When I need to get to

it, I get to it. And currently, for example, For My Family was one song like that. We were traveling internationally, and I was on a plane for like 10 hours. And I said, okay, I got a song. Here's the lyrics. Here's the music. Play it. And that was it. And it became a really big song. So it's been weird like that. It depends. Sometimes it happens. But most of the time, I got to hear the music. The music's got to say something to me. And then I go from there.

We were just writing and letting it happen between Matty Henderson and I. And Roger wrote a little bit of that as well, and it just turned out the way it did. Like I said, I'm not super happy about the mix, but I do like some of the songs.

And, you know, Craig lived in Queens, but he would come spend the weekend usually, or, you know, a few days at Rogers for the purpose of just rehearsing long stretches. And me, Willie, and Craig would just bang out ideas.

I, you know, I will say, I felt like I brought a lot of like raw ideas up into the mix um and working with craig taught me a hell of a lot because he he really knows how to break a riff down analyze like okay i i hear what you're playing there but why pick it like that why is your accent here what if we put the accent on the downbeat and now it drives, right?

There's a couple of riffs and I'm not gonna remember which one specifically, but there was a couple where he's like, no, no, no, no, play like this. And he'd say, see, you hear that? Now it's, you know, it sounds tougher. And he was fucking right. And then, you know, so we would, that's what me, Willie and Craig would do. And then Roger on the side had, you know, a volume of lyrics. He had spent a lot of alone time over the past two years and put together a lot of his thoughts.

I really appreciated the fact that he was willing to work with me because I don't know why, and I'm not trying to say I'm amazing, but I do feel like I kind of have this niche of working with vocalists in terms of, okay, you got these lyrics. I understand where your heart is with this, but these words you got, I don't understand how you're gonna make this into a song cadence, right? What's our verse flow? What's our chorus flow? Where are the hooks, right?

And so Roger and I spent a lot of time in that realm And it clicked real well. And so that's essentially how, you know, that record was developed.

And I watched it, you know, evolve and grow from, you know, them being the hometown heroes in Brooklyn at L'Amour to headlining the Ritz and having that whole crowd of, I don't know what the Ritz held at that time, you know, about 2000 people, maybe just, I mean, just, bouncing to what they were bringing. And so, yeah, they were a big part of it. You know, there was like, I can tell you the records I was listening to at the time when we were writing. Sure. Lights, Camera, Revolution, right?

I think that's the name of it. Suicidal. Yep. That was pretty fresh. Slayers, Seasons in the Abyss. and Brightside, you know, plus just every other classic hardcore record. I mean, I always wanted to make sure on some level I was holding to some roots there. But, you know, that was me, what I was listening to. And me, Craig and Willie, we also would, you know, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath. I mean, we loved the jam.

I mean, we would get into our rehearsal studio and sometimes we wouldn't play anything but just cover tunes of some earlier heavy metal or rock just to kind of have fun. But when you talk about the scene at that time, I mean, quicksand. as example, right? Which I refer to as post-hardcore. And that was a big deal because that was not just a musical thing, but a kind of a mental thing. I had felt like people were consciously checking out and moving away from hardcore.

Yeah, hardcore, isn't that kind of two years ago? You know, we got this new post-hardcore thing now, which kind of irritated me actually. And the other thing was like social distortion, right? They had the ball and chain type era and this suddenly everyone's dressing like they were cast members of Grease, which kind of irritated me a little bit too. But, you know, and that's not to take away anything from quicksand or social distortion. I want to be clear about that.

Those, they were great bands in their own right. Uh, but there was sort of this, you know, movement I felt for people in the scene to just kind of dismiss hardcore or anything that, that seemed to resemble, you know, hardcore of the recent past.

You know, like kind of when we kind of stopped playing a little bit, a lot of bands that we were all on the same levels, kind of blew up because we kind of stopped. It was weird. Like, you're sick of it all, you're biohazards. Those bands really got big internationally. Right when we kind of stopped, I needed a break. And then we went back and then, you know, we got what we got, you know?

I mean, in that album, you hear a lot of the earlier influences, at least of mine, and I'm assuming Maddie Henderson's, Some of that new wave of British heavy metal type stuff is even in there. It's got some throwback material in there. It's just like a melting pot of a lot of different things.

Like, it was wild for me to see that there was prison manners and prison etiquette and things you need to do that you would never think about. There's more manners and more etiquette in prison than there is out here. It's insane. And, you know, somebody at that time was a friend that I made in prison, of course, and he just said, hey, you know, He kind of knew I was new, whatever. He sat me down and said, this is the way it goes. Just, you know, he was doing, he had done like 23 years.

He was about two years to get out. So, you know, I took that to heart. Okay, One Voice.

Um, and, uh, you know i mean musically um i mean it was just you know banging away coming up with uh good riffs you know i i remember too having to do the solo on that record i remember having the conversation with craig you know am i should i be doing a solo he's like you should be doing a solo on more songs than less on this and i was like really Um, you know, cause I, I didn't want to like come across like, you know, this is like,

I mean, this is that time. So I worked my balls off to practice, you know, and I had a lot of free time. I didn't have a job when I was with AF in those days. I mean, I quit school. I was really in a zone of just, you know, mastering my craft as a guitar player. And, you know, by the time I got into the studio to actually record those solos, I'm just being honest, I was even kind of surprised at the level of technical capability I had achieved through like hours and hours of practice.

And up to that point, I was like, holy shit, this is crazy. Now, I'll say that unlike others, it Absolutely.

We were, we were pretty close to them around that time. We, you know, go to each other's shows and, and, uh, hang out at each other's rehearsals and, um, So we go way back with those guys, and we were real tight at that point in time with them, and we needed some strong vocals for backups. We knew if we were going to put backups on the record, let's get some pros, right? So we got Billy. Who was it? It was Billy, Bobby, and Danny. Evan was not there.

Um, and then, you know, I was living in Boston going to school. So, uh, not to say that the AF guys didn't know wrecking crew, but, um, I had a little bit more history and it was a little closer to them and, you know, Normandy's in Rhode Island, which is just like less than an hour away from Boston. So I reached out to, to, uh, those guys and, and Glenn, uh, Ralph and, uh, Keith were able to make it.

And, uh, you know, so then me, uh, I think it was me, Craig and Willie with that entire group to do the backups. And yeah, I think they came out really well.

And I, you know, I stood strong through it. It takes a very strong person to stand through a 23 lockdown, one hour wreck. And I'm not kidding. It's no, it's, it's no easy thing. It's a complete mind funk. And all you got is 23 hours to, Think about all your fuck-ups in life. And that's what that one's about.

We just thought it was a cool little piece of... piece of heavy music that we definitely wanted to include on the record, and that slot seemed to be where it belonged at the time.

But, uh, uh, yeah.

I remember being kind of, I wouldn't go as far as to say embarrassed, but I felt a little self-conscious about it. And I remember especially like, like the assistant engineer in the studio and everyone else was like, what are you fucking crazy? It sounds amazing. Leave it. I'm like, all right, I'll leave it. You know, Just from a sheer performance on the guitar, I definitely feel real proud of it. That song as a whole, though, I think is interesting. There's no debate.

There's a Judas Priest influence in there, and that wasn't a conscious thing. It wasn't like, okay, let's do a Judas Priest song. But, I mean, there's no debate. We listened to a lot of Judas Priest when we were recording that record, and that somehow just seemed to... come into our songwriting. And there it is, man. We used to, you know, we used to laugh at the end of that song. We would talk about if we did a video for it, we'd be performing on the back of a flatbed truck down the highway.

Like we just thought that like that was kind of.

Why, you know, there's no need to sit and tweak on, right? Other times songs are like, well, you know, It's cool. It's got a cool riff, but I'm not really, I'm not, I don't know. This song feels like it's taken too long or I'm, you know, I'm bored with it, or I don't even understand why we're here when we were just over there type of thing. Right. That it was well-crafted. I'll say that, but it really was a question of, is it right for agnostic front who's known as this?

Yeah. I mean, again, if you think of what, what victim and pain was, and then you play the tombs, It's questionable. But everything in between, like I said before, we kind of had opportunity to do whatever the fuck we wanted, in my opinion. And that's what we did. One other thing I'll say about that song and the solo is, you know, Rocky George subconsciously, right? That Lights, Camera, Revolution. No question that, I mean, listening to that record a lot, I think maybe you don't hear it.

I do a little bit of the Rocky George kind of, bendy type stuff in the solo

And it was like an old flyer that we, when we play with the cycles, actually Choi from California drew up the design. It was just a bunch of skinheads, whatever, beating up a cop, you know? So this guy kills a cop and, While he's listening to our music and he's wearing that shirt. And it was just like they tried. That was going on at the same time as my regular trial. So I just kind of came up to add more fire to the shit I was going through. And that's exactly what it did. Add more fire.

Also, and I went from being this, you know, this drug guy, whatever, to a leader of a neo-Nazi skinhead cop killing person. You know what I mean? So during my trial, I had to get, and I did get, which was amazing. I got like a thousand signatures at a matinee or one or two matinees and collected a bunch of signatures. People say, no, Roger's not like this, not like this. And it was presented to the judge and then also to my attorney at the time who I felt sold me out.

But that's, how that's the lyrical contents of that song started

You know, that song's got a lot of, that riff's got a lot of forehead to it, you know?

There's a lot of people that are innocent that are caught up in the mix and there's a lot of people that did what they did and they're paying for their crimes, but, you know, you're in there working for pennies, working for nothing and it doesn't feel good to know that you're whether you're building these walls or making license plates or whatever you're doing, you're only getting paid like 17 cents a day. It's just kind of that

He was actually working with Relativity, so he kind of had justification to be up there, you know, not just hanging out, but he could kind of claim it to be, you know, business related, if you will. And I remember I came up with the concept of having that feedback track underneath in the verses, and he commented and thought how cool that was. And so I... I was glad to get some positive feedback from him. No pun intended. Well,

But once I made a phone call to this person and didn't even accept it. So I was like, wow, I should have listened to everybody about you. You know what I mean? And that was pretty much what that song was about.

And I remember actually being at a, I'm sure it was a class when I was going to school and I can't remember what class and all the context, but somewhere we were talking about sounds and the idea that if you cut off the attack of an instrument, like a piano, for that example, and you just hear the note sustaining, you can't really tell that it's a piano, because the attack of the hammer hitting the string is really what kind of defines the sound of the piano.

And so if you do that and do the same with a guitar, it's like, well, what instrument is that? And that was what we did, that our engineer, Jamie Locke, was a piano player. And when we came up with this kind of idea for this volume swell thing with the guitar, we got him to do the piano. And he rode the faders up and down on that SSL board to eliminate the attack on the piano. And that's really all it is. It's a couple of tracks of electric guitar and a piano without the attack on it.

It just... can't get ahead of this struggle and you know it was my own struggles it was just i didn't have the right guidance or i didn't have the right tools i didn't know how to get ahead and i learned all that i figured all that later in my life but at that time that point when i was writing those lyrics it just felt like a constant struggle of one step forward two steps back which is classic too right there you know

why I did what I did, even though the truth of the matter is I didn't know then all, you know, my explanation and my reasoning, you know, is really unjustifiable because there's a lot of people that, whether through the chains of what I was doing, really got hurt in their lives and maybe some died, you know, who knows? I just didn't know. I wasn't aware. I was very selfish.

I was... of thinking just for me and at the same time scared because I had a child and my child you know people come home with kids and they got cribs and stuff like that my child had a drawer a drawer that you like a drawer where you put your clothes in and that that was the bed I made for my child and that draw was right next to our bed on the floor in a warehouse department you know it was crazy but Like I said, when you look back, it's different when you're in a situation and it's happening

as opposed to when you look back and you see faults. But it took time. It took years to recognize that.

I still think there is a higher being and sometimes we find ourselves trapped.

you know, make those prayers or those spiritual awakenings or spiritual moments, you know, and I was going through that, you know, and I was, felt like I was abandoned, you know, by God, if you want to call it, whatever you want to call it, because I was seeing like, you know, you see all these people, like these people have committed hideous crimes, you know, like, um child molesters or some horrible murders whatever and they're all born again and they're in the temples and they're like

preaching and god found god found me and i just didn't understand like how do you forgive people like that so i was just caught in that i was just caught in that like you know like it's funny because uh I know this has nothing to do with what we're saying right now at the time for writing those lyrics, but just the other day I was talking to my wife about this, how something came up where this person, the priest wouldn't marry this person because he wasn't a Christian.

He was a Protestant, so he wouldn't marry this person. I was like, look at that. But you go to jail and you can commit whatever hate is coming. They're trying to convert you and welcome you to heaven, and they can't marry this person because he's a Protestant. So it's just that,

And then I had to tell my friend, hey, you know, I got to do what I got to do, you know, and your cousin's trying to play me.

So just want to give you fair warning and he actually ended up talking to his cousin and everything worked out but it was stupid you know what you know what it was about it was about a fucking magazine but you know the point is it wasn't just about the magazine it was about respect like you're thinking you're gonna keep this and not give it back you know what i mean and if you don't It's hard to explain, but if you don't keep to your word, if you don't step up and show yourself, if you show any

sign of weakness, every wolf's going to come at you. So that was all it was about. But it's crazy because of this stupid magazine. It was a dumb magazine. I can't remember some music magazine. Because this magazine, things could have gotten worse. It could have gotten really bad. bad you know is that's what that lyrics about force feed yeah

And, you know, when you're in there, nobody wants to deal with race and whatever, but you better be with your people when shit goes down. You know what I mean? And it's hard to explain because I don't want that to come off like – Being racist, I want to come off as there's, you know, like, there is no, it's not about being racist.

It's about you need to stick to your, you know, your shade of green during certain times because you are incarcerated and there's no understanding when you cross that line. I've seen people, I saw during some of those riots I was talking about, I saw people cross that line and it didn't go good for them. So it's important somehow to clarify that. And, and that stuff, I think I did like, that's something you, you completely leave behind. You don't walk out with that mentality.

It was just, that's life. You know, you're, you're, uh, pretty much you're, um, it's survival of the fittest and, and, or, you know, it's, it's be eaten or eat or, or just get with it, you know? And unfortunately, um, A lot of your morals and stuff, you have to kind of slip behind, leave behind, because now you're dealing with gang mentality. You're dealing with a very dangerous situation, and you got four walls around you or fences, and you can't go nowhere. It's war.

This is war, and it probably feels the exact same thing. The enemy's right there. The enemy's wearing that flag, that uniform. You go for the enemy, don't You don't hide. You don't go in a corner or you don't even associate with the enemy. That's the enemy. So you got to do what you got to do until you wave that white flag and you treat people right. During those riots, there was a couple of stops where everybody stopped and gave enough time for the ambulance to pull up to the gate, whatever.

And the people themselves, their own groups picked up their injured and brought it right to the gate. And then... An hour later, it's back to what it is. But it's something that you only experience there. And it's a little bit of PTSD thinking about it, but it is what it is.

You know, it's kind of I left, you know, I left all that mentality as soon as I walked out the door. I had friends there. And my best friend, who was my cellie forever, he was a black, Jimmy, he was a black guy. And there was a horrible riot that we both went through, we both experienced. And it started off as the blacks against the white and also the Hispanic got involved. And we were morbid enemies for a day and a half. And we had a shank that we knew, both of us knew where it was.

And we swore we'd never use it on each other, and we never did. And we didn't talk to each other for a day and a half, possibly two. It was the weirdest feeling in the fucking world. I had the top bunk, he had the bottom, and it was just, you know, it's hard to sleep that way. I'm sure he probably felt the same way. Who knows? We never talked about it. And then when the shit was over, we're back to playing cards and hanging out. I'm like, nothing happened, you know?

And that's prison, man, you know? But we kept to our word. Because we felt like there was a different type of bond there. And as long as nothing came down, that it was an immediate, something had to happen, we went through it. And that was it. The record ends on

But in those days, one of the selling points, oh, a CD, you can have so much more music than you can fit on a vinyl LP. Meaning, you know, now, and it was, they cost more, right? I can't remember what the price was, but, you know, the cost to purchase a CD was more than a vinyl LP, right? And that was kind of part of the justification. Well, you can have more music on it. So it's, you know, that's why the price is more, but which means we had to try to load up more music on it.

So we wrote that one in the studio or, you know, Roger did come up with the initial riff and kind of the concept. But, you know, I, I definitely sat and helped kind of hammer through it. That was probably my favorite song other than Undertow on that side B. I really liked Bastard a lot. I was glad that that came through on the 11th hour.

My mother's very loving, and my brothers, I love my brothers, but I didn't have a good father figure, and that's why it's important for me to... to be a good father figure. And you know what? You could either be a product of, of what you were raised of your environment, which is just how I started until I went into the institutional system. And I, I decided I'm not going to be that way no more. I'm not going to raise my child that way. It's going to be different from here on minute.

I walked out and that's the way

They wanted to do it where this popular place in Rhode Island where everybody was doing their records. And I went with the flow. But I did request. that we had Dom Fury with us, because I felt like Dom Fury could capture my vocals magically, even though everything was very different than Victim in Pain, you know? But for some reason, I felt comfortable with Dom Fury, you know?

What if we combine the two, right? So really great concept. It wasn't exactly a smooth and, you know, there were, there were cons to those pros. I'll put it that way. And, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't a fault on either end of it. It was just, you know, getting those multiple parties to kind of work together. Got to be a little challenging.

We had a lot of fun and a lot of crazy stuff happened. So, but my whole time in AF was always pretty wild with, with a good dash of humor thrown in.

It's an interesting comparison, though, when you talk about him and what he put together in his smaller, inexpensive type of studio atmosphere and then bring him into Normandy, which was really built up as a world-class professional studio where major label shit had been produced, right? Yeah. So, um, like I said, on some level it was good to kind of shake up when Normandy was used to and kind of get everyone to be a little bit on their toes.

But other times it would kind of clash and, and, uh, there would be a little bit of conflict that will slow everything down. But, uh, that's cool. That's cool.

I mean, very technical, uh, the things he did, uh, with a two inch 24 track tape machine, uh, You know, we're talking like those were the days when you use the term engineer, you know, his level of technical knowledge and expertise was really high caliber. And Don was a little bit more, you know, off the cuff and, you know, didn't quite have that level of experience and knowledge. And, you know, sometimes Jamie would just be like, what? No, I'm not fucking doing that.

I remember Don was very used to, as an example, Don was very used to, I forget what the studio monitors he had in his place, but that was a good reference for him. And anyone that's ever mixed a record knows that you kind of need a good reference for and something that you're familiar with to say, yeah, that sounds right.

And studio monitors are huge in terms of making that determination because it might sound good to you in the room and then you listen to it outside of that room and you're like, well, that's not what I thought it sounded like, right? So for Don to have his monitors shipped up into the studio made sense to Don, but they had to mount them up on some, I forget how they did it, I think they mounted them up on top of the console where speakers weren't there.

And, you know, Jamie was pissed because that control room was, you know, acoustically designed and all the angles in there to avoid phase cancellation and, you know, bass trap and all those real technical things. I mean, that drove Jamie crazy. So it was stuff like that that kept it interesting anyway.

and good luck and that's it and then we're looking at and he leaves jamie lock and jamie lock's like new at this but he's he's a good engineer and jamie lock is got don fury deal with so don fury felt like the king of the whole show now because now he's got the whole thing for himself with jamie lock as an engineer you know and um that's the way it kind of worked and jamie lock was He was a nice guy, quiet guy. Don Fury is Don Fury. He's a character of his own.

If you know what I mean, you know what I mean. Don Fury, he's not afraid to express himself in any shape, way, or form. He knows what he wants, and he was pretty much running the show with Jamie Locke running the buttons.

I don't know if Matt Henderson said anything different, but You know, like, it's weird because nobody expected us to show up with Don Fury. And we didn't tell nobody. We just showed up with Don Fury. So, you know, that's the way it went. But I think it doesn't matter if the band shows up with whoever they show up with. That's what they want. That's what they want. You make it work. You're the engineer. It's your studio. Make it work, you know?

It's kind of the typical bring hardcore guys into the corporate world, quote unquote, and that's the type of shit you get. Yeah. It all settled. Nothing real crazy wound up actually happening, but it was tense for a moment.

And, you know, I had some say in it, but also, you know, kind of had to just put my trust into Jamie and Don, because they were the guys that knew more than me in terms of how it's done. At the end, I will say this, and I'll be surprised if you tell me different, but what we heard in the studio and what the final mastered product was, was a little different. I don't know why, but It wasn't until after it was pressed that people would tell me, why is the volume so low? What do you mean?

And I still don't understand what that's all about. But from a pure mix standpoint, I thought it was damn cool.

Did we get a... a cassette or something. I still have that cassette, which was a, uh, like, uh, you was calling it a demo. What it was in a demo was just a, just for us to listen. And they sent it to a few other people to review whatever. And that's when I heard it from top to top to start. And I thought it was, I didn't know what I thought of it, to be honest with you.

I thought it was, it was very different, but, um, and even the, the, the thought of the, of a concept, album didn't really hit me until years later. I'm like, wow, this is a concept album. I didn't even know we did this. So I just thought it was pretty cool. It was unique. It felt a little bit cleaner than I wanted it to feel. But I guess that's what the band wanted. So it's fine.

connected to my system and i know my system in and out because that's what i enjoy hearing it and i have the exact same system by the way except for i had to change turntables about five six years ago i had to get a different turntable other than that it's the exact same thing um and i trust that the the best and i would also hear it in car because i realize everybody pops a tape in and listens to it in their car. And we went to see how that sounded in boom boxes.

All three of those forms are critical, were always critical to me. I used to go, prior to that, when we had test pressings, I don't have a test pressing or nothing for one voice. I wish I did. But like I said, it was all, all the vinyl was made overseas. That's probably why we don't have anything. Other than that, we would take test pressings, or the actual acetate and play it at record stores. I used to love going to Bleaker Bob's or Freebean Records and play it.

You know, I played United Blood. I played Victim of Pain like that. And even Cause for Alarm was played like that too, the test pressing and the acetate, which I still own. Test pressings and acetate of all those records are still in my collection. And I would love taking it to the stores and listening on their sound system because I figured that's where people who were going to come to shop We're going to listen on. So that was critical too.

Like currently, every time I write a new record, currently for the last, well, 16 years or so, I let my wife listen to it. That's a whole different ear. And I see what she likes about it. She's very honest with me. So it's always been weird. Of course, always anxious to see what your friends think of it. But I think I'm the biggest critic myself of my own music. And honestly, if I feel good about it, I feel good about it.

So I always hope that if I feel good about it, other people's like, you know, we can't make everybody happy. We can't please everybody. But most importantly, we need to please ourselves first as we can play it. We have to now take these songs that were created, put on LP or whatever and perform them and convince the people and just show them how passionate we are about the writings of these songs. So I always trusted my own judgment best over music. Friends.

I think people kind of checked out and when they heard what we did, it was just kind of like, oh, you guys are still, oh, Agnostic Front, you guys are still making music?

And it kind of soured me for a long time until we got to Europe the second time where people were just – really really given us a great response to it and then years after that like you know what i call kind of a later generation a hardcore like you know meeting nick jet from terror for the first time like in the early 2000s and hearing his his you know view on one voice and telling me how you know, he loved it. And so many other of his peers did.

I was like, well, God damn, you know, at least somebody finally got it. You know, that was, that was what I was trying to bring out back then. But I just, I felt like everybody else changed, you know?

We have to sound like this or we have to sound different than that record or we can't do this or we need to do that. It was very organic. And I think the songs were damn good. So, you know, what more would you look to do?

We knew, I mean, Roger's lyrics pretty much dictated it. It was about his experience in prison and his views on just personal freedoms being infringed on and his perspective on a corrupt legal system and like the intro, Attica. and the anger and boiling point of inmates. I think that cover photo did a good job of matching all that.

That was really appreciated.

The other half of those dates, my brother sang, and that was the first time that Freddie really got comfortable singing in a band because I made him. He didn't want to. He kicked and everything in the world you could think about. He was a kid. You know, he was like, what, 14, 15? I'm a little younger than that, maybe. And I'm like, hey, I can't do it. And you know these songs. If you've been with me forever, you know them. And he didn't know them lyrically.

I said, you're going to go out there and play. And that's exactly what he did. I remember one time during that tour, there was a stop in New York. And I'm like, okay, I'll join the band then. But I had the surgery and I didn't know I couldn't. So I attempted to join the band and made it as far as the New Jersey Turnpike. And I'm like, I can't do it. I had to go back home. And Freddie was so pissed because he thought he was going to stay. I'm like, no, you got to go back out. And there's video.

There's actually footage out there. You could search it and you'll see it's not me singing. It's Freddie. And he did a great job. And that gave him the confidence to do Madball right afterwards, you know.

But Back then it was, you know, there was a lot going on in the scene where, you know, you'd have your skinheads, you'd have your ultra left-wing punks. It was like everybody was trying to sort of push their agenda and we were sort of like, you know, just trying to go about our business and not get caught up in it. So always drama, always something happening. But, you know, the good thing about AF was everyone has a good sense of humor.

So even when things got crazy, we always kind of were able to, you know, to have a lighthearted take on things.

Again, I'm not in this to try to impress somebody or to get my ego stroked. I do this because this is the music I love and it does feel good to write and play music that I get energized by. And then when somebody besides me gets energized by it, fantastic. So I think it's a legitimate thing. agnostic front record in the way the rest of the catalog is. And I'm proud to be a part of that history. And, you know, expand past that, go to, you know, New York hardcore.

I mean, fuck, if it's a good agnostic front record, that's, you know, got a good position in New York hardcore. And then, you know, hardcore outside of New York, I think, yeah, Thankfully, I've heard from enough people over the years that they really do appreciate that record. So it seems like it's in good standing.

One thing I think that AF... did with that record within the hardcore scene was we sort of, I wouldn't say single-handedly we did this, but we did bring groove. We brought sort of like a groove sensibility into hardcore, which wasn't really there before, or at least only in small sections. A lot of that was happening around New York with younger bands like Hoya's band Demise and things like that. Sick of It All was a little groovy at the time.

So that sort of pushed that element into the forefront as far as worldwide. So it sort of had a little bit of an influence in that regard. Bands like Madball were influenced to a degree by the One Voice album. Not directly influenced like, hey, we want to sound like this, but it was that type of... that type of sidebar, that part of the scene sort of really stretching its wings, you know.

And we were one of the bigger bands, so us doing it sort of, I guess, opened the doors a little bit for that in a sense back then.

And I wasn't glorifying anything, you know, I mean, there's nothing to glorify there. This just, you know, It was just bad judgment, bad decisions. And I've learned in life to not make those same decisions as judgment. Sometimes you slip, but I made it an oath to myself that I'll never go back there unless somebody does something deliberately to my immediate family, then it is what it is. Other than that, that's not my destiny.

And I wanted to just put... some of it out there and let people know, you know, this is my spiritual weakness, you know, and I knew I didn't want to be like, well, I know I didn't want to go the path. I was, I didn't want to follow the path I was following that put me there. And I knew when I came out, it was pivotal, pivotal for me. Cause I wasn't going to be the person that kind of guided me into there. So it's a very important record.

It's important in the history of New York hardcore, because like I said, in the beginning, it is the introduction to new school music. that new school era and that sound, which was very populated and become very strong with Madball. If you take my vocals out, if you take Matt Henderson's lead out and you throw Freddie in there, you've got the first Madball record kind of, you know what I mean? It's it was just an introduction to that new direction of, that New York Harcourt was going, you know?

And, you know, they sort of, like, welcomed me into... you know, their family and, uh, you know, it's, it was just great. And I love those guys for it. And, uh, great memories of that, that time.

It was like Craig Satari on bass, Will Schepler on drums. So you had sort of this next breed, next generation of AF. It reflected in the music, you know, you know, the songs, the writing, everything, you know, it was, it was almost like, I don't know, I don't want to say a comeback album because, but it was just like, He had, what, Liberty and Justice before that. It was Liberty and Justice. Actually, I was with them for Liberty and Justice as well, funny enough.

I was with my brother that summer. I was up in Ithaca with them. Then Live at Stevie's, which is a classic record. But One Voice was the first record. My brother had gotten into some trouble and did some time. So that was the first record.

after him getting out and um you know obviously during that time things were sort of up in the air with the band and everything else and his wife and everything else so um i think it's a super important record for him personally and just for the band to re-establish themselves really you know um the scene was transitioning as well. You know, you're talking about the last things they did were in the early 80s, and now we're in the early 90s, you know? I mean, the late 80s, I'm sorry.

You know, the last couple of records were in the late 80s, and then, you know, early 90s, things started sort of morphing into, you know, the next generation, you know, which obviously, you know, we were a part of. So yeah, I think it's a super important record for them, man. I think it goes down, for me personally, it goes down as one of the best. I'm always going to be partial to Victim in Pain.

Victim in Pain is always going to be, in my opinion, one of the best hardcore records, period, from anyone ever. Obviously, I'm biased because it's family, but really, I mean, Victim in Pain is one of the top hardcore records of all time, I think. But for AF, discography, and catalog, One Voice is way up there, in my opinion. Yeah, and I think maybe a lot of that had to do with my brother was out and happy to be out and had penned a lot of lyrics while he was locked up.

And I think lyrically, it's his best record ever, One Voice, personally speaking. Lyrically, it's some of his best stuff. And then you had, like I said, that energy of the young guys. Matt Henderson, Craig, and Will. And Vinny, always an anchor for the band, but that goes without saying. That new blood, man, they really brought something to the table. They took AF to another level with that record, I feel. Um, yeah,

I think I was 16 on that tour. So, you know, I wasn't a kid anymore tagging along with them. So now I had to kind of pull my weight, you know. So it was sort of like, all right, let me, you know, let me help them out. however I can. And that's what I was. I was basically with them just helping out roadie and carrying stuff, whatever. And, um, uh, my brother at some point, um, got a hernia or something like that. And it was getting to be pretty bad.

Um, to the point where like, he couldn't really perform anymore. And then he pulled me into a room one night, uh, I believe it was in like Milwaukee or something. And he was like, you're going to have to do this tour. And I was like, But, you know, at that point I had been doing my routine that I have always done with AF since I was a kid, which was, you know, I'll sing the end of Blind Justice and then I'll do Last Morning. That was always my thing since I was, you know, forever.

Since I was very young. So I was doing that on that tour as well. But, yeah, my brother... He was like, yeah, I got to go get, I got to go see a doctor. I got to get taken care of. I don't, you know, I don't know what's going to happen, what they're going to tell me. And, you know, I was like, at first I was just kind of like, I mean, how am I going to do this? You know, like I was just like, I mean, I know the songs that I know. I know their stuff, but I don't know all their stuff perfectly.

You know, like I'm not, you know, plus I'm not my brother, you know. I'm a skinny, lanky, pimple-faced kid, 16 years old. I mean, they're expecting Roger with, you know, his chest piece and, like, padded up, you know, long hair. You know, like, how's this even going to play out? How's it even going to work? So I was kind of, like, bummed about it, to be honest, you know. I was like, man, I love doing my couple songs, but I don't know that I want to do a whole set, like...

But at the same time, I felt like, you know, it was my, you know, I'm there to help and that's my family. So obviously I was going to do it. I was ultimately going to do it, but it was a little resistance on my part. I was kind of like, shit, how am I going to pull this together? You know? And then I'm supposed to be like, there were co-headlines, you know? So I'm like, I wasn't on that level, you know, like I was super green, you know, super amateur hour.

And I learned a lot, but, uh, it was stressful as hell, you know, and like one of our first shows was Detroit and there was all these hardcore dudes waiting for AF, you know, skinned out and, you know, these neck tattoo, face tattooed guys all ready for, you know, my brother and them. And like, here comes, you know, lanky ass me, you know? Um, yeah. but I actually made a lot of friends that night. I befriended a lot of guys, PQIC guys and whatever.

So that's a whole other chapter, but yeah, it was cool, man. It worked out, man. I think, you know, I tried my best and I mean, I think the reception went okay, you know, went better than expected, I guess. So, um, it was fun. It was fun, but it was stressful at first, you know, but by the end, it was starting to get kind of fun, you know?

You know, and then, and then I had some battles with Madbox, you know, that was just a whole other thing. Figuring out how to navigate that. And, you know, it takes a while, man. You know, it's like, like anything, um, you got to put the time in and you got to learn, you know, by doing it. But, uh, I was grateful for the opportunity for sure. And I did love a lot of the one voice songs.

So on the topic of one voice, I was actually psyched to do those songs, you know, because I was familiar with them. I was with them when they were recording them, you know, even when they were writing them at some point, I had heard the songs that I was, I was familiar with that record and I liked that record a lot.

So, uh, It was really cool to do like the super old ones, like victim of pain and all that stuff, you know, all those old songs, but it was also cool to do the one voice one, you know? Um, yeah, yeah. It was, it was a fun time, man. Fun time and a super important record, man. A record that should never be overlooked.

And, you know, even before Matt had joined, when Wrecking Crew started, you know, because obviously if people are familiar with Wrecking Crew, we were very, very, very influenced by AF sound-wise. And, you know, they were great to us. Like, we played so many shows with them. I got to help one of them. We got to, you know, get a friendship going with those guys. And then to get that call, like, hey, you know, what are you guys doing next week? Because, you know, we're at Normandy.

We're recording. We're like, holy shit, you're kidding me. You know, so it was amazing.

We never ended up recording there, but like to just, you know, walk into that, you know, those rooms and just see that's where, you know, all those records that meant so much to us were recorded was, was fucking huge. And it was just, it was just a cool spot. Like, I mean, it wasn't, you know, super fancy. It wasn't like some rockstar shit. And, you know, Phil Soares was really nice. Like all those guys are really cool. And, you know, there wasn't a whole lot going on.

We just, you know, go in and, you know, Roger had the lyric sheets for us. And, you know, we just we banged it out and probably like, you know, an hour, two hours. So, you know, we were in and out.

There was more of a connection for me. Nothing against the record. The music is incredible on that. But for me, AF is so much tied into victim in pain and cause for alarm. So I'd say One Voice is number three.

On my own podcast, the Post America Podcast, I did a special about that album. Came out March 29th, 2021. Go check it out. I forget what episode number. But back in 1992 is when hardcore had its bar mitzvah. It's when boy became man became Girl became woman. Ape stood upright. It's when hardcore changed. One voice, my opinion, the greatest hardcore album and the greatest metal album all at the same time. For a long time, hardcore wasn't respected. And other genres.

Yeah they like to visit a little bit. Like a tourist. Like going to the zoo. You go to the hardcore shows. Like going to the zoo. Watching the animals in the cage. And that's fine. We don't mind being separate. Segregated from that. Unique. That's all good. But when one voice came out. That was over. Hardcore was over. It was proved that day. Agnostic Front came out with that record and they set the bar so high. Musically, the songwriting, production, lyrics. My favorite lyric from that record.

I should have listened to those you called fools for the fool's eye to be led blind. Oh, I love that. That sounds so dope. Sitting Bull would have said something like that. But to me, listen, I'm just excited that my homie from 185 came and he asked me to do a little something for this because I respect that podcast and I know he's going to go so deep and thorough into this release and I'm excited to listen. And he said, yo, give your two cents. My two cents is that one voice is crucial.

It's important. For me, it's number one, but there's, you know, people could argue and say otherwise, but if you really put down any list with any kind of value and thought into it and you examine releases from hardcore bands and the relevance of that release and the effects and influences from that release, This is up there, man, because there's no denial. Not only was this great for agnostic front and all hardcore at the time, but it was the blueprint for Madball.

If you go and you listen to this album, you understand what came from it. I mean, you know, the drums and the bass and the lead guitar, they would go on to form Madball and write all our favorite songs. That Madball put out. And you could really hear elements of that in this. This is like early Madball. This is like Madball toddler. You know, Madball would be separate and have its own unique style. But this is like the bloodline of it.

You could hear the groove that Agnostic Front really didn't have before this album started. And then Madball would take the groove and run with it and make that their trademark, really. But this is the foundation of that. So from this, you know, let's be honest. Let's listen to hardcore bands currently. They don't sound like Minor Threat. You know, you can find a random one here or there. They don't sound like Black Flag. They sound like Agnostic Front. They sound like the riffs of One Voice.

And that goes to show you how important and influential this record was. So respect to Agnostic Front. This record could never get enough praise if you ask me. 1992, that was the day. That was the day we stood upright. We came out of the caves. We looked up at the sun. We squinted our eyes. And the whole world saw us. And respected. You have to respect this release. Respect. Yo, I'm out. I got nothing crazy to say. That's it. I don't even know what I'm talking about.

Thanks for letting me be part of this, my man. 185 South forever. Peace.

It was hard for me because I was not even 12 years old when I was starting to go to my first all-ages shows, but it was a great escape for me to leave the neighborhood, which was turning into a war zone, and finding all this exciting, aggressive, thrilling music, whether it was the death metal stuff and the thrash metal that was still really popular.

But consistently, more often, I was being exposed to these images of these bands that were punk rock, sort of, metal, sort of, and it came down to a tape that that my mother was given by a person she was in college with. Because she said, hey, my son listens to this music and he said, I'll make you a tape. And on that tape was stuff like agnostic front calls for alarm, agnostic front one voice.

And it was a starting point to just completely blow me away and show me that although punk music with the metallic edge, it still was just not a part of the metal thing. And it was hard for me to conflate and put together, you know, not just being young, but also not really understanding where these things fit alongside. Now, 30-something years later, it's a record that I consistently go back to. It's one of my favorite records, possibly, of all time. Agnostic Front One, Voices, Impact.

I don't know where it was at musically at the time. I've read a lot of reviews. But me and later all my friends and some of the best riffs and hardcore, the delivery, the power of it was fantastic. And I don't know if that was going to ever be possible without Matt Henderson. Over the years, Matt would jump up on stage with different bands, whether it was jumping up with Madball or coming out.

with Agnostic Front he's a stellar human being and his impact not only from AF and Madball changed the entire trajectory of my life and the people around me but changed hardcore and the world itself Matt Henderson is literally in the top names you could say for hardcore punk that shifted and changed the music keeping the street element alive but really just challenging the music putting more into it than I think previously had been done and without his influence I don't know how many bands

wouldn't exist and how many people who were at that time transitioning from metal into punk and hardcore or just finding hardcore because the distribution from some of the record labels wasn't as big as the metal stuff Having one voice out there as a flagship really did drag people like myself out of the death metal, thrash metal stuff and deeper into hardcore. I would go from not really understanding it to being 16 years old and...

On the verge of being a father and finding out that Agnostic Front was going to do a reunion. Because, you know, in my time life, when I found this band, they had just broken up. They just said, we're not doing nothing no more. And then, you know, I'm traveling all up and down the East Coast for shows, trying to make things work in my own chaotic life. And I hear that in December of 1996, Agnostic Front was going to reunite. And... My own personal role was fucking up and it was like a goal.

I have to see Agnostic Front do a reunion. I don't know where I would be without the AF reunion.

I know that Matt Henderson was not a part of it, but I know that Matt Henderson playing on the one voice record and me hearing that and just connecting the pieces of the puzzle and just adding it to the collection of bands that would just get me through such a hard time whether it was before I even could drive you know like this is what people do they take their art and they put it onto something like a record and it does influence people so thank you for Zach and the crew at 185 Mile South for

having me on I just want to say thanks to Matt Henderson for his impact in hardcore for what he did with One Voice and I just hope that more people continue to check out that record because it stands out and it's... It's maybe too corny to say, but it's a fucking work of art. Not just in the music, the lyrical delivery, the power of that record is phenomenal. Especially on them days, not when you're doing 10 things, but when you got nothing else, you just listen to a record.

I can just listen to one voice and the vibes are still just like the first time I heard it. So... I'm Joe Hardcore. I do This Is Hardcore podcasts and Hardcore Fest and book some shows in Philly. And One Voice changed the trajectory for me to be able to do all the things I do. And thank you to Matt for having a huge part of that.

um i was a fan of everything af did up to this record uh and got some of them in real time um but i think this is a nice balance you know the uh liberty and justice for and cause for alarm are a little bit medley crossovery as where victim in pain was obviously just like very traditional hardcore this is kind of somewhere in the middle but then bring in Matt Henderson I'm imagining they played with Matt Henderson's band in Minnesota and said there's something about this dude that's perfection we

need him so they get him into New York somehow and he helped writes or writes I don't know exactly what happened one voice and it comes with such a groove and a bounce and And I think this is the time and lineup where they do the in effect video with GB and sick of it all. And that lineup so cool the way they're walking back front front words and I don't know, up and back on stage and many, many camo pants on stage. I would say this is my second favorite AF record to Victim in Pain.

I know some people, this might be their favorite. And I think one last thing I'll say before I stop rambling is I would say One Voice is the blueprint. Again, I don't know this, but from my perspective, this is the blueprint for Madball. I think after this, Matt Henderson goes on. does mad ball with freddy and i think you see the beginning signs of the mad ball sound here in one voice

Being able to be on tour with Agnostic Front, Sick of All, and Madball over the years, I was able to pick their brains apart over this album, especially Matt Henderson when it came down to Guitar Talk.

The sound of this album is... af's journey throughout the 80s the hardcore punk and oi origins its crossover thrash elements it's all blended and presented at max abilities here craig and matt both told me how much they practiced and rehearsed for this record with will i also believe they hit the studio right after coming off the road as well the plane is Top notch. They're so tight together. Will and Craig's rhythm playing is the perfect background for Henderson to just rip it up on this thing.

And he absolutely does. Just listen to the solo on the tombs. Matt told me he. Put down serious hours of practicing to get those solos down, and it just cements him as one of the greats. With that being said, all the elements of AF are represented. You have tracks that sound like heavy metal oi. You have bounce and groove, and it's all played with the speed and aggression that only musicians rooted in hardcore punk can truly pull off. And then you have the Don Fury-Normandy sound hybrid mix.

which is very unique compared to the records that both engineers in those camps are known for. Like you have a sonically heavy record, which is where the Normandy sound comes in with Tom Soares, but you still have this Don Fury sizzle to it, if that makes sense. And I think people have mixed feelings on the mix of this, including some of the members themselves, when I would talk to them and other people in bands and fans throughout the years.

But I love it because it's the best balance of big production and grit, which AF will always have in its sound. So many people want that. They want this, oh, I want the big produced record, but I still want it to sound raw, but... They don't want the raw element. They want the big produced sound. It's this really tight line to walk, but I think this record really does have both elements. And you have... this absolute sonic assault with a lineup firing on all cylinders.

And it is matched with the incredible heavy lyrical content from Rogers experience with incarceration. And that's another reason why I love this record because the hardness and emotions are rooted in actual real world experience. It's not glamorous. He's not trying to come off like he's this, you know, Badass that will fuck you up. It's not a marketing tool. He's telling you what happens to you in the American prison system.

And it provides the listener with a unique perspective that only someone that has been through the system can express. Roger's lyrics have always been about social structure and society and overcoming the obstacles it throws at you. And... No matter the musical evolution AF goes through throughout the years, they never lose sight of these just core punk rock ethos.

So this record is what marks the first era AF to me because of the hiatus that happens afterwards and how Madball is birthed from this. And eventually AF comes back in the 90s and it's, you know, different lineup.

It's actually the musicians that played on the Victim in Pain lineup and it's with Epitaph and the band goes to it's more of like punk and oi origins for a while and that's how they kind of roll through the 90s until the 2000s come around and you know things get heavy and they evolve because AF always evolves and I think that's what really is incredible about Agnostic Front.

But make no mistake that This first era ended them as the undisputed heavyweight champs, and they are absolutely wearing the belt, and they will always wear the belt.