Don’t Forget The Struggle Don’t Forget The Streets

The debut album by one of the pioneering NY hardcore bands was recorded with a quickly assembled, almost ad hoc lineup, as founding guitarist Todd Youth had left to join Murphy’s Law, leaving frontman Ray “Raybeez” Barbieri in the lurch. But guitarists Jason Vento and Paul Canade, bassist John Ullman and drummer “Lukie Luke” created a powerful sound, somewhere between the early ’80s UK street punk of GBH and the Exploited and the more metallic hardcore that would follow in their wake. Barbieri’s voice is an almost cartoonish Bowery Boys yawp, cutting through the musical noise and delivering messages of proletarian unity on songs like “As One,” “We’re the Crew,” and the title track. Meanwhile, “Skinhead Youth” was a necessary corrective to the rumors that they were a white power band (the use of an Iron Cross emblazoned with the stars and stripes as a logo didn’t help).