This here, metalheads ... is one of the most aggressive, painful and true albums ever recorded. Period. To me this album sure has meant more than a lot. Dealing with many tough subjects, I recognize much of it myself from growing up. Not only is the messages deep, but the music as well. The musical style on this album is a crossover of hardcore-punk and heavy / thrash metal. Straight New York City scene and I love music from NYC! I prefer most bands from the east coast before the west coast acts. That's simply because the music's darker, have better messages than just "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll", and the music is also usually better overall in my opinion. Life of Agony's debut ain't no exception.
Starting off as young teens around '89 in Brooklyn, Life of Agony were made up of Keith Caputo (vox), Joey Z (guitar), Alan Robert (bass) and Eric Chan (drums). They were, as I've understood it all, very active in the underground / demo scene. I've heard some of their demos and they're very raw, energetic and with lots of feeling. These demos were VERY influenced by hardcore-punk as well, much more than the actual debut album, which also only includes a few tracks from these demos. But this wasn't how I discovered the band anyway.
Some years ago, 2008 I imagine, I searched through YouTube for some kick-ass metal from the early 90's (the late 90's was too much nu metal crap) and I stumbled upon these guys. It was the music video for "This Time" that I first saw and my first reactions were, 1. the music is heavy, groovy and really good. 2. the singer looks like Chris Cornell?? Well, I don't know if I'd say that today, but that was what I was thinking back then at least. Also, my love for the band has grown from "really good" to "totally awesome" over these past three years. Anyway, I was hooked with that video, bought the album off a Swedish auction site for maybe three or four bucks and played it many times over and over. This album could be viewed as a concept album. It's about a dude and a week of his life, so the album has these "day-tracks" in which he gets home, learns that he's failing school, his girlfriend's dumped him, etc. I think that's kinda cool. It sure gives the album a whole nuther athmosphere than if the tracks just flowed on.
I didn't realize it at the time due to not listening to them, but Life of Agony, on this album at least, sounds quite a lot like early Type O Negative here. This album is in fact also produced by TON's keyboardist Josh Silver, so that makes it even sound like a TON album productionwise. I also discovered later that Sal Abruscato, the drummer for this album and Eric Chan's replacement, was in TON before LOA and played drums on their first three albums. His last TON album was their break-through, platinum-selling album "Bloody Kisses", on which Keith Caputo apparently did some backing vocals. Sal's depart from TON is said to have been because he didn't want to tour so intensely or something, so he joined LOA and recorded this album in the same year (1993).
Musically this album is mostly mid- to up-tempo with groovy riffs and some hardcore parts here and there. Occassionally some of the songs have calmer parts, like the breakdown in the middle of "Bad Seed", which just is simply beautiful and touching. I ain't too much into hardcore-punk so I can't really compare too much with other bands, but think of their style as a mix between Cro-Mags* (which I like and know pretty good), Pantera, Type O Negative*, and thrash acts like Metallica and Anthrax* (*all NYC bands, afterall). Keith's singing style on this album is unique to how he sang on later albums. Here it sounds like a mix of Glenn Danzig and Chris Cornell to me. "Method Of Groove" is probably the most hardcore-influenced tune on the record. Joey Z and Alan Robert shares singing duties during the verses while Keith takes the chorus, and during the verse it sounds very much like the way they sing in hardcore-punk bands. The album's closer "The Stain Remains" probably is the album's most beautiful yet still angry piece. It's this album's equivalent to a ballad.
To round off this, for now at least since I most likely will come back to this album many times over, I just wanna say that I totally LOVE this album. I can't explain how fucking awesome it is, but then again, others might not think the same. It's a world where people all have, or at least should have, their own opinions. I hate these wankers on YouTube who can't accept other people's opinions. If someone says, "this song is my favorite of Megadeth", which is HIS / HER opinion, then someone else often comes and like "dumbass, not that one, it's this one!". Does that change the first person's opinion? Hell no! I just hate those people, thinking their opinions are what matters in the world. I have my personal favorite, you have yours. Both opinions are right. So here: from this album my favorite track is "The Stain Remains". My opinion. You have a different one? Good for you. Share it if you want, BUT it won't change my opinion. I say one thing, I stick to that thing. That is the key to not fall for group pressure and it has worked for me since my early teens. I don't smoke, do drugs, slice my wrists or drink any kind of alcohol at all. I ain't a believer in any religion. I ain't on the left or the right side in politics because someone told me "that is better". This because I chose my own way, stayed true to myself. So I hope all of you out there do the same, and Life of Agony certainly has helped me to get here.
Thank you guys, for your therapy and music. I appreciate it. Ladies and gentlemen, Life of Agony! Horns up!
Final rating: 98/101
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