The lines between
punk rock
and
heavy metal
have become significantly blurred, but back in the '80s these two musical tribes were engaged in constant warfare for popular music's outer-fringe supremacy. Indeed, for all of their respective style's shared aggression and mutual sense of social ostracism, punks and metalheads were, by all counts, mortal enemies, water and vinegar, and intermingling between the two was almost unheard of. That is until 1985, when bands like
C.O.C.
D.R.I.
came along and fused the two genres with groundbreaking LPs,
Animosity
Dealing With It
, respectively. Not far behind were New York's fast-rising
Agnostic Front
, whose 1986 effort
Cause for Alarm
is still regarded by many as the definitive crossover album. A sonic "peace-pipe" of sorts, it exposed many
metal
fans to
for the first time, and vice versa, with songs like
"Time Will Come,"
"Toxic Shock,"
"Public Assistance"
combining
's tightly wound precision with
punk
's raw energy surge. Opening track
"The Eliminator,"
on the other hand, is pretty much straight-up
speed metal
, and, as if to assert their new direction, the band also re-recorded first album favorite
"Your Mistake"
in a significantly more metallic version. Understandably, many among the band's original fan base felt betrayed by
's daring new direction, and
remains a hotly debated album to this day. Whatever your position, however, there is no denying its irresistible, nearly overwhelming power. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia