ANTHRAX
AMONG THE LIVING
"Just listening to this record
makes you break into a sweat."
Howard Johnson, Kerrang
and foreign acts for substantially larger crowds
than the hundreds who flocked to CB's each
weekend. Williamson has since moved his opera-
tion from the first location on Jane Street to the
fifteen-hundred capacity space of the Ritz.
Despite criticism on such issues as higher ticket
prices (thirteen bucks for three or four headlin-
ing acts on one bill), ties with big business.
bouncer brutality and booking monopolies, Rock
Hotel has been extremely successful in present-
ing the huge metro area with a healthy diet of
professional gigs by the biggest names in hard-
core, thrash metal and assorted crunch music.
Chris applies the same slickness to his Rock
Hotel Records label, distributing through the
powerful capabilities of Profile, home of Run DMC
and a number of other NYC rappers.
THE BIG NAMES
For a start, you can't get much bigger than
Bullboard's top five, and the Beastie Boys have
done just that, scoring Billboard's number one
spot with their "Licensed to II" LP (Def Jam).
Surprisingly, the Beasties' roots are in the New
York hard-core scene. Chief rapper Adam
Horowitz played guitar for The Young and
Useless, the first incarnation of the Beastie Boys
Check out the thrash of "Polly Wog Stew" on
Rat Cage
Having recently toured with the Beasties.
Murphy's Law is bringing their own drunk-edge
brand of outright fun to arenas everywhere.
Vocalist Jimmy Gestapo cavorts about the stage,
indulging in a host of excesses while belting out
the likes of "Crucial Barbeque" and "lisa, She
Wolf of the SS." featured cuts on two hard-hitting
demo tapes and a recently released LP on Rock
Hotel. Murphy's Law puts the fun back in punk,
playing it mid-tempo and chunky as hell. Ex-1
Warzone guitarist Todd has recently joined up on
second axe, thickening and empowering
Murphy's crucial drive.
The Cro-Mags reign supreme as the kings of
hard. Having completed an extensive tour of the
US, the 'Mags are ready to unleash a second LP
to follow up the phenomenal "Age of Quarrel"
The new album is titled "Near Death Exper
ience Rumor has it that the band's ties with
Eastern philosophy and Krishna-rooted thought
will be more apparent on the second disc, along
with an increasingly ferocious attack augmented
by the driving second axe-manship of ex-Kraut
guitarist Doug Holland. Interestingly, cassettes
of bassist Harley Flannagan's unreleased solo Lp.
Kraut.
Dave Insurgent thrusting the dreads while
spinning the vocal duties for Reagan
Youth.
20
HEGAFORCE HORLDWIDE
AVAILABLE ON ISLAND LP CASSETTE AND COMPACT DISC (90584)
ISLAND
which was originally
slated for a 1984 debut on
the Rat Cage label and which
features early Cro-Mags tracks, have been
circulating. Rumors have been heard of a summer
tour with the Bad Brains.
Since its inception in 1982 as Vinnie Stigma's Zoo
Crew, Agnostic Front has been a name synonymous with
NY hard-core. Previous outings "United Blood" (Rat Cage). "Vic-
tim in Pain" (Rat Cage/repressed on Combat) and "Cause for Alarm""
(Combat) reflect the swing toward increasingly metallic instrumen-
tation and an emphasis on power that has come to sum up an
entire city's sound. With the departure of long-time bassist
Rob Kabula and guitarist Gordon Ancis, who is joining
Leeway, ex-Straw Dogs axeman Steve Martin and the
bassist and drummer from Pittsburgh's Circus
of Death join the band, making for the
strongest line-up AF has had in a long
time. A new LP is due out this
summer with a tour to follow.
(Cont page 91)