The most prominent skinheads in New York are Agnostic Front, led by Roger Miret (vocals) and Vinnie Stigma (guitar). Ignored in 1982 at the time of the EP United Blood (RatCage), which nevertheless contained ultrasonic torpedoes like Last Warning, Friend Or Foe, and the title track, they fared no better with their first album Victim In Pain (RatCage, 1984), even though the powerful riffs of Your Mistake, the melody of Society Sucker (albeit drowned in the hardcore brawl), and the breakneck rock’n’roll of Power hinted at original developments (in contrast with the title track, which sticks strictly to the thrash formula).

They were harshly criticized for the Nazi delusions in Cause For Alarm (Combat Core, 1986), which led to the more “metallic” sound being overlooked, despite the imaginative themes of Public Assistance and (especially) Toxic Shock, and the most electric “slamdance” for headbangers of their career, Eliminator.

Their importance in bridging hardcore and speed metal was only recognized starting with Liberty & Justice (Combat, 1987), an album inferior to its predecessors but boasting a devastating, catastrophic, tribal title track in which the band employs every genre trick to raise the adrenaline level, and a hyperkinetic, choral Hypocrisy.

The last album, One Voice (Relativity, 1992), released after the singer had finished serving a prison sentence, confirms their stature as (somewhat apocalyptic) spokespersons for the disenfranchised people of the big city, almost a musical counterpart to certain sci-fi disaster films. New Jack defines the new formula with an incessant bombardment of staccato guitar at a pace oscillating between trot and gallop—a panzer-like assault in which the title track also excels, with the drums doubling the beat and Miret spitting slogans in a demonic register. The title track gives this formula an epic sense, and Undertow elevates it to almost religious intensity.

Something's Gotta Give (Epitaph, 1998) is a surprising reunion—not surprising because Agnostic Front reformed (that’s a trend), but because tracks like Something's Gotta Give, Believe, and Gotta Go are on par with past classics, with unchanged fury and sarcasm. The lyrics, as always, leave something to be desired in terms of coherence and rectitude, but Agnostic Front never claimed to be philosophers.

Unfortunately, as often happens, the band got carried away by the success of that reunion and immediately released Riot Riot Upstart (Epitaph, 1999), which instead falls apart in every way and is basically just a pretext to insult famous people and others. The lineup is the same as on Victim In Pain.

Dead Yuppies (Epitaph, 2001), Another Voice (Nuclear, 2004) and Warriors (2007) are equally confused.

Roger Miret and his Disasters recorded Roger Miret and the Disasters (2002), 1984 (2005) and My Riot (2006), with the anthemic Once Were Warriors, in a more pensive blue-collar hard-rock vein, reminiscent of The River-era Bruce Springsteen.