Agnostic Front

Another Voice (2005)

Jim

Stigma!

Yeah, you know were thinking it. Here we are in 2005, and Agnostic Front is still going. Despite label changes, lineup shifts, and a changing music landscape, the band has managed to stick around. With Another Voice we find the band leaving Epitaph and showing up on Nuclear Blast, a label more famous for releasing stuff from bands like In Flames and Dimmu Borgir. They also released a couple things from Death, but I'm getting off track here. It caught some people off-guard, and had a few people whining about a metal label picking up a hardcore band, but I digress.

Another Voice features a heavier, more metallic sound than the band had on their Epitaph release; this, of course, can be partly owed to the production of Jamey Jasta and Zeuss. While their last few releases featured sing-a-longs, Another Voice features some absolutely crushing moments that had been absent. There are moments on here that will have some of the modern metalcore bands weeping in the corner; this stuff is genuinely vicious. When these songs get heavy, they get heavy; the intended impact is never lost on the listener. However, if this album has a drawback, it's the fact that the songs tend to blend together. None of the tracks really change the pace; they all take the same route. It's a hell of a route to take, but it gets a little tired after a bunch of listens.

Still, Another Voice is a strong record that shows that this band still has plenty of fire. I'm not sure how this will be received by the people who were expecting something in the vein of their past releases on Epitaph, but I enjoyed it. It's not what I expected, really, but it's a strong release, especially for a band that has been around so long.