Agnostic Front / Discipline

Working Class Heroes [12 inch] [reissue] (2007)

GlassPipeMurder

Ah, the old double full-length split live limited vinyl reissue venture. Out of print since I Scream's last pressing a few years ago, Durty Mick Records has undertaken the revitalization effort, giving this live split the transparent colored wax treatment and giving those that missed out the first time around to get their hands on this hardcore/Oi! assortment of the best of what these two bands have to offer.

Given Agnostic Front's most recent metallic shift and mediocre releases since this was recorded in 2001 at the Lintfabriek in Belgium, it's pretty safe to say that the songs played and recorded from this performance represent that best of what Agnostic Front has done in the last 10-12 years. Though the set list isn't doesn't entirely forego classic Agnostic Front cuts like "Victim in Pain," "United Blood" and "Last Warning," it does showcase a lot of the band's better recent material like "Riot, Riot, Upstart," and the simple but effective "fuck you" to then-mayor Rudy Giuliani in "Police State." The strangest and most disturbing part of the set is in the banter before fan favorite "Gotta Go," in which Cuban-born lead singer Roger Miret talks about how he "grew up on hardcore punk and white music" and how much he hates people who listen to rap and hip-hop because "that music is crap" and "rap is nothing but fucking bullshit." This is interesting on a number of levels, the least of which being that Miret's brother and the producer of Agnostic Front's most recent album, Freddy Madball, moonlights in a hip-hop combo with DJ Stress. Aside from that unpleasantry, all the best Agnostic Front cuts are present, and the set closes out with always-popular cover of Iron Cross' "Crucified."

Discipline is a Dutch Oi! band I was only vaguely familiar with, though I was disheartened when I Googled them and praise from links to Stormfront Nationalist White Community showed up. However, I've witnessed those bozos claim Black Flag as a white power band, so I won't judge Discipline based on any such misassociation. The music itself is pretty catchy hardcore Oi!, with influences evident through their covers of Cock Sparrer's "Running Riot" and "Violence in Our Minds" originally by the Last Resort. The songwriting is definitely geared towards sing-alongs, and tunes like "These Streets" pack some serious pop appeal in those steel-toed boots.

Questionable attitudes aside, Working Class Heroes documents a night of great hardcore and Oi!, and the reissue offers a chance to grab this on vinyl for those with a missing piece in their Agnostic Front collection.