All posts by vladkraykulla

Active member of alternative underground scene and culture since early 1990-ies. Underground is a way of life!

(book review)ROGER MIRET with JOE WIEDERHORN-“My Riot:Agnostic Front, Grit, Guts&Glory”

I was at Punk Rock Holiday Festival this year in August when I found out that this book will be coming out soon and I immediately knew that I have to read it.

Roger-Miret-Book-Cover

Agnostic Front is a New York Hardcore band that influenced so many people in the scene and I still vividly remember that I saw their show twice in the last year and a half and they will always remain in memory being in top five shows that I saw. Roger Miret is the singer for Agnostic Front and hardcore legend and this book is his life story. The book is written with the help provided by Joe Wiederhorn and you can read it as one of the most intense thriller dramas that you ever read. You can almost imagine the movie made based on this book, but modern Holywood would only ruin it. The book gives us insight in Mirets early childhood and moving from Cuba to USA, living on the streets and in the squats of Lower East Side New York.

Of course, all of the Agnostic Front history is in this book, from the early United Blood days until nowadays and the book gives insight on many NYHC icons and the facts that I never knew before. Also, Miret gives us a picture of his personal life, relationships and his kids, the family that helped him make it through the darkest times in his life.

What really astonished me is the level of violence that was normal back in those days at the shows and in front of the clubs and I am really glad that I was not part of the scene engrossed in violence. After reading this book, I can say with certainty that Agnostic Front is one of the rare bands in the hardcore scene that really lived through what they sing in their lyrics.

This book is one of the best books I have read this year.

(record review)THE ELECTRIC DEAD-“The Electric Dead”

Canadian trio The Electric Dead finally released their long awaited debut album.

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The Electric Dead play a mixture of horrorpunk, doom metal with some rock and blues influences and their music sounds pretty dirty and greasy. The album contains 9 epic songs with horror lyrics and when I listened to this album it sounded like walking through a dark swamp, dampy and scary with some creature following me persistently from darkness.

There are some interesting solutions in song structures and even some keyboard background like “Lucifers Blues”. Some songs reminded me of Danzig like the slower one “Devil in a Dress”. Incredible, but the song “The Mark I Bear” vocally reminded me on James Hetfield. Maybe its just me. My personal favourite on the record is “Me And The Devil”. The songs are mainly uptempo with that sweaty guitar energy holding the reins on you from the beginning until the very end of the album. This is great stuff if you love your horror greasy and doomy.

7/10

https://electricdead.bandcamp.com/album/the-electric-dead

https://www.facebook.com/theelectricdead/

 

 

(record review)COFFIN CAROUSEL-“Between Death&Dead”(Eclipse Records)

Coffin Carousel are coming from Australia, Melbourne. The Australian scene is great, with so many punk, hardcore and metal bands coming out nowadays.

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This record came out on Eclipse Records and it contains 17 songs of dark and emotional music. Coffin Carousel play a mixture of doom metal and goth rock(more) with horrorpunk and hardcore influences(less). Lyrically they deal with some personal demons and the lyrics are very deep and not your conventional generic horror stuff, not that it is something wrong with that. While listening to this record you can actually feel the sun setting down or darkening in the sky. There is one little thing that bothered me on this record and that is the vocal lines and melodies, I think the singing could be a little bolder and with more emotions behind it on some songs, and I am sure that the singer can do it because he has an awesome voice. But, thats only me. Maybe they just wanted it this way. What I personally loved the most on this record is the feeling of coldness and nothingness in this music and the atmosphere that they managed to get on this record makes it worth listening.

7/10

https://www.facebook.com/coffincarousel/

https://www.facebook.com/eclipserecords/