Samstag, 25. April 2015

agnostic front - the american dream died

after four years since their last output, agnostic front is back with a renewed oath of undying nyhc. the forerunner 'my life my way' was a defiant and above all very positive record to me. with 'the american dream died', as the title already indicates, they went for a more dark and angry approach to the lyrics and thus for a faster and heavier musical take.
short and pissed blasts like 'no war fuck you' and 'police violence' say everything about what af feels towards the current situation in the states and the world alike. they lowered their metal influence a bit to make space for some raw and swift punk. of course they still have some lovely crossover gems. so, everything is pretty balanced on 'the american dream died'.
i got my copy through the nuclear blast mailorder on pre-order. they had two options available. a gold vinyl variant and this silver one. i chose the latter because it matches the artwork very nicely, although it's less limited to the 200 gold copies. black vinyl also available. next to this three european editions there is also a clear (300 copies) and black edition for the u.s. market. furthermore emp mailorder got an exclusive clear red edition out of 200 copies.
this seems to be a regular collaboration between nb and emp, as the latest madball album got an exclusive emp treatment as well. funnily the sticker on the shrink indicates a gatefold sleeve but what i hold in my hands is clearly a glue pocket sleeve. nuclear blast goes very rarely for a glue pocket sleeve for their releases, in fact i believe 'the american dream died' is the only nb pocket sleeve release i have, and that might explain the little mistake. 300 copies made. nuclear blast. 2015.