AGAINST THE GRAIN NYHC

LAST WORD
BEEF
FORCE TO RECKON
STAND AS ONE(CAUSE FOR ALARM COVER) FEATURING BILLY MILANO
== HISTORY ==
Against The Grain is a New York Hardcore band started by hardcore veteran Rob Kabula(bass) of Agnostic Front and Carlos Diaz(guitar) in 1996. Additional members included hardcore veteran Stan Ambro(drummer) formerly of Cause For Alarm. This original line-up consisted also of Rob Portvliet(guitar) and Adriano "A.G." Garcia(vocals). In the beginning, Against The Grain's metallic sound derived as a 1980's crossover style in which their 7-song 1996 Demo sounded similar to Agnostic Front's Cause For Alarm album thanks in part to Rob Kabula's influence and Billy Milano(vocalist for S.O.D./M.O.D.) managing and producing the band.
Towards the end of 1996, Agnostic Front would plan a reunion that would consist of their old school lineup, which would see Rob Kabula reunite with his old fellow bandmates. In 1997, with big tour plans ahead for Agnostic Front, Kabula was unable to continue with Against The Grain due to the time constraints. Upon his exit, Dave Urban(bass) of Faction Zero briefly took over but this lasted only one show. Rob Portvliet would take over bass guitar duties and the band would continue as a four-piece for the next few years. During 1997, Against The Grain would release a split 7" record on Guillotine Records with fellow NYHC upstarts Downlow, with the Against The Grain side titled "Caco Raspado".
1998 saw Against The Grain put out their first full-length 17-song cd entitled Mentiroso on Too Damn Hype Records which garnered notoriety around the world. The sound on Mentiroso differed from the original demo as the band changed their sound to a more old school hardcore sound with a touch of oi, punk, and but only a small metal influence as would A.G.'s vocals change, going from a deep growl you would hear on the demo to a more straight up raspy clearer legible style. The band would quickly move away from the trendy metal sound which they felt over-saturated the New York Hardcore scene. The music would become much shorter derivative of the old school type hardcore bands. Special guest vocals on Mentiroso would consist of Roger Miret of Agnostic Front and Billy Milano. The rest of the year saw the band purposely laying very low on the radar and playing part-time. Due to this and personal differences Rob Portvliet would exit the band.
In '99, following the death of Raybeez and alongside new member Shawn Urscheler(bass), the band would record Warzone's "Will You Ever Come Back" for the Tribute to Raybeez and Warzone compilation on Hatecore Records.
The next year Shawn would leave the band, and be replaced by Jim Marshall of Home 33 on bass guitar duties. Against The Grain would return to a 5-piece band and recruit Chris D'Alessandro(lead guitar), founder of veteran NJHC hardcore act Faction Zero. This line-up would record two split cd's: Between The Lines/Against The Grain split cd with Belgian hardcore band Between The Lines on Funtime Records and self-releasing a split cd on Chris D'Alessandro's Faction Zero/Wasteland Recordings label entitled Against The Grain/Faction Zero War Stories.
After '02, vocalist A.G. would leave for college to Los Angeles and the band would go on hiatus until '03 when they would play certain select shows across the tri-state area. '05 would see the departure of bassist Jim Marshall and the band would be reunited with the return of a semi-retired Rob Kabula. One year later the band would stop performing and at this time, it is unknown whether the band is on hiatus or quit other than occasional songs popping up on various compilations.
As far as lyrics go, Against The Grain were more middle of the road politically as they would go up against right wing and left wing views, from bashing neo-nazis to having a strong anti-communist stance, to singing meatheaded style quick numbers of threatening violence, sexual favors, sarcasm, and humor.
Against the Grain would take on a part-time basis as the band saw this as a hobby and took to their respective careers outside of the hardcore scene and personal lives more seriously. The band was strong on the belief of hardly advertising themselves and keeping a very low profile as of fear of getting too big(even within the hardcore scene) and following on the belief that in hardcore you must find the band yourself and word of mouth advertising as it was in the old days. This low profile would deem them as a cult band or the underground band's underground band. Usually, this would lead to confusion whether the band was broken up or not and their whereabouts.
== DISCOGRAPHY ==
'''ALBUMS/EP'S'''
Demo 1996 (1996) Self-Released
Caco Raspado (w/ Downlow) (1997) Guillotine Records
Tales From The Vato Demo (1997) Unreleased
Mentiroso (1998) Too Damn Hype
Victim On The 9 (2000) Unreleased
Between The Lines/Against The Grain (w/ Between The Lines) (2001) Funtime Records
War Stories (w/ Faction Zero) (2002) Faction Zero/Wasteland Recordings
== COMPILATIONS ==
"Will You Ever Come Back" V/A-Tribute To Raybeez and Warzone (1999) Hatecore Records
"Gimme Your Drug Money" V/A-East Coast Assault 3 (2003) Chord Recordings
"Wasteland Rangers" V/A-Down For The Core 5 (2007) Back Ta Basics
== MEMBERS ==
Adriano "A.G." Garcia - Vocals
Carlos "Carlooch" Diaz - Guitar
Chris D'Alessandro - Lead Guitar
Rob Kabula - Bass
Stan"the Man" Ambro - Drums
== FORMER MEMBERS ==
Rob Portvliet - Guitar/Bass
Jim Marshall - Bass
Shawn"the Giant" Urscheler - Bass
Dave Urban - Bass
CHECK OUT REVIEWS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD:
==REVIEWS==
AGAINST THE GRAIN-MENTIROSO (TOO DAMN HYPE)
-With all the bad metal masquerading as hardcore, here's a NY-based band who do it right . Against The Grain started as an outlet for Rob Kabula, before he returned to Agnostic Front, but ATG carry on with a ripping display of old-style fervor. Bellicose, ferocious and a stripped down blend of speed and moshability. Guest appearances by Roger from AF and the infamous Billy Milano to give it that Noo Yawk credibility, I guess, and the band's ruthlessness gets the job done and then some . (PO Box 15793, Philadelphia, PA 19103)--SUBURBAN VOICE
Von CAUSE FOR ALARM- und AGNOSTIC FRONT-Ex-Mitgliedern gegründete und von Billy Milano produzierte Götter-Scheibe. Herrlich ungeschliffener und street as fuck-mäßiger Old School-Hardcore, ohne Punkt und Komma! In bester A.F. meets WARZONE-Tradition werden hier 18 Songs runtergebolzt, mit Chören, Bass-Soli und phantastischem Ohhhh-ohhh-Sing-Alongs. Kult! (Marc Lohausen) --OX-FANZINE / Ausgabe 31
This NY band started by Rob Kabula of Agnostic Front, are like 80's NYHC in the vein of Agnostic Front's Victim In Pain era. Fast, pissed off New York HC with good hard breaks in the right places With 17 songs the band brings back memories of Agnostic Front with a twist of today's newer harder style music. It contains a pretty good quality recording but hey! It s engineered and produced by Billy Milano (S O D) who also appears on the song Doubted and Roger Miret (Agnostic Front) appears on the song Last Word. NY old school hatecore fans, you should have this piece of collection right in your hands --WWW.HEMISPHERE.NL
AGAINST THE GRAIN/FACTION ZERO-WAR STORIES (FZ/WASTELAND)
Split album by 2 bands who were well known in the mid 90s on the NYHC scene. First up are Against The Grain who give us 6 tracks old school hardcore mixed with bits of hard rock and punk, one of which is a S.O.D. cover about the Middle East, and for me they dont have a bad track on here. Faction Zero offer 7 tracks of pretty much the same kind of stuff but its a lot heavier and had a more distinct metal edge to it, sort of Agnostic Front with metal solos. Again not a foot put wrong on any of their tracks. Any fans of old school hardcore will love this and it should also appeal to a few metal heads as well. For more details go to www.factionzero.com 4 out of 5-Review by Paul-(June 06)-WWW.PUNKANDOIUK.COM
BETWEEN THE LINES/AGAINST THE GRAIN-SPLIT CD (FUNTIME RECORDS)
Between the lines is the first band on this split! And they do a great job at kicking off! Five fast paced Old-school/Youth-crew songs with a lot of melody in it! It isn't really original but it rocks. The production is just like it should be… raw… Against the grain is less youth-crew oriented, more raw. The production is not as good as the production of BTL, but okay it's old-school so it should sound a bit crappy. The songs are really catchy and have got some really cool breaks. Both bands really made a good impression on me, and are definitely worth checking out!-WWW.ASICE.NET
NYHC! A primeira banda do split é o Between The Lines. O som dos caras é um hardcore NY old school meio Sick Of It All, meio Kid Dynamite. O grupo aparece com cinco músicas e logo dá espaço para o Against The Grain. o ATG é oriundo de Nova Iorque e foi fundado por Rob Kabula, atualmente no Agnostic Front. O som, como era de se esperar, é um hardcore old school nervoso, berrado e, por vezes, sing along. Destaque para a nervosíssima "Lets Bomb" e a insana "The Monkey", de apenas três segundos de duração bem no estilo da música "Momo" do grandioso S.O.D. Veredito: HCNY de verdade está aqui.--www.ZONAPUNK.COM.BR POR WLADIMYR CRUZ
Kabula on bass and AG on vocals
Carlito
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