Roger Miret

The mainstream may not understand his role in the history of punk rock, but one of the most important artists to grace the '80s scene was Roger Miret. As the singer for Agnostic Front, he helped create a bare-knuckled form of hardcore that combined the raw emotional abandon of punk rock with the vicious technical approach of heavy metal. The genre was given several names, but what was even more important was that the New York City scene was revived and artists from Sick of It All to Unsane learned their lessons at the alter of Agnostic Front. When the Reagan era ended, Miret was busted for drug possession and spent almost two years in jail. Upon returning, there were younger and more vital acts that had stepped into Agnostic Front's shoes, and despite an enthusiastic crew of older fans awaiting his return, it wasn't the event it could have been. After half-heartedly putting in a few years, the group disbanded and didn't re-form until 1997. By that point, they understood they would never take the genre by storm like they once did, but they still had music to make and the next five years showed them doing it. Miret started working on solo material at the same time, and by 2002, he had assembled a group out of several of his favorite underground musicians and put together Roger Miret and the Disasters. Filled with fist-pumping anthems and tales of the "glory days," the record was very much in tune with his work with Agnostic Front the year before. It was followed by 1984 in 2005 and My Riot in 2006. ~ Bradley Torreano