My Riot

Book excerpt: “Miret’s captivating and harrowing, no-holds-barred account of a life lived in the trenches . . . You don’t have to be a major Agnostic Front fan to get maximum enjoyment out of this book. . . . A compelling read.” ―Classic Rock Revisited "Miret’s memorable, affecting stories capture an important time in the hardcore music scene. . . . Equal parts music memoir and gritty coming-of-age story, it’s an eminently readable and fast-paced look at life during hardcore’s heyday. . . . Not just for music fans, My Riot is a valuable snapshot of an important time." ―Foreword Reviews “My Riot is a powerful and riveting read. A brutal look into the life of a man that did what he had to do to survive.” ―Scott Ian, Anthrax Born in Cuba, Roger Miret fled with his family to the US to escape the Castro regime. Through vivid language and graphic details, he recounts growing up in a strange new land with a tyrannical stepfather and the roles that poverty and violence played in shaping the grit that became critical to his survival. In his teen years, he finds himself squatting in abandoned buildings with unforgettably eccentric runaways and victims of similar childhood trauma. With like-minded misfits he helps pioneer a new musical genre, but with money scarce and commercial success impossible, he turns to running drugs to support his family and winds up in prison. It’s the ultimate test of his toughness and perseverance that eventually sets him on a path towards redemption. My Riot is both an unflinching portrait of downtown New York in the 1980s and a testament to the perils of growing up too fast. “It's a great read, tracing the roots of New York Hardcore via lots of crazy stories about potentially deadly situations. . . . Pick up this book and take a walk back in time through the Lower East Side when it was still a hair-raising adventure.” ―D. Randall Blythe, Lamb of God