The agony scene
| The agony scene | |
|---|---|
 |
|
 |
|
| General information | |
| origin | Tulsa , United States |
| Genre (s) | Metalcore |
| founding | 2002 |
| resolution | 2008 |
| Last occupation | |
| Michael Williams | |
| Christopher Emmons | |
Electric guitar |
Brian Hodges (from 2004) |
| Chris Rye (from 2005) | |
| Ryan Folden (from 2007) | |
| former members | |
Drums |
Brent Masters (until 2006) |
Electric guitar |
Johnny Lloyd (until 2003) |
Electric bass |
Matthew Shannon (until 2003) |
Drums |
Matt Horwitz |
Electric guitar |
Steve Kaye (2003-2004) |
The Agony Scene was an American metalcore band from Tulsa ( Oklahoma ).
history
Foundation and beginnings
The Agony Scene was founded in 2002 by singer Michael Williams and guitarist Christopher Emmons.
Long before the official formation, however, the band played with it, with the exception of Christopher Emmons and Michael Williams, members still unknown to this day. As a band that was finally complete in 2002 after initial difficulties and countless line-up changes, The Agony Scene recorded a demo and sent it to the Christian rock label Solid State Records, which signed the band. This contract meant that The Agony Scene is often - contrary to their self-portrayal - viewed as a Christian band.
Debut album (2003)
The debut album The Agony Scene was released in 2003 in America on Solid State Records and in Europe on Century Media and was produced by Adam Dutkiewicz .
The music style of this album can be categorized in Metalcore with Death Metal influences. In addition, the songs are provided with European melodies and occasional hardcore borrowings, which is not untypical for Metalcore.
A striking feature of the band's musical style, especially on this album, is Michael Williams' vocal style, which is also used in Black Metal . Colloquially, this type is often referred to as "Black Metal nagging".
The music style on this album is also categorized as Melodic Death Metal .
The debut CD contains not only the end of the songs of doom metal influenced The Damned also a track that is as typical metalcore - ballad as Unearth with Aries already had, may designate. The band also covered the Rolling Stones song Paint It Black . To the song We Bury Our Dead at Dawn one was music video rotated.
After the release, the band went on tour in America with As I Lay Dying and Demon Hunter . A participation in the tour Van's of the Wall with Suicide Machines and Avenged Sevenfold followed, later The Agony Scene played on the Roadrage Tour 2005 with 3 Inches of Blood , Trivium and Still Remains .
Second album: The Darkest Red (2005)
The second studio album The Darkest Red was produced by Rob Caggiono , the guitarist of Anthrax , and was released on Roadrunner Records .
Guitarist Johnny Lloyd was replaced by Brian Hodges and bassist Matt Shannon was replaced by Chris Reye.
The musical influences from different genres on this album range from Melodic Death Metal to typical Metalcore , whereupon the common name for Deathcore was found, which consists of elements of Death Metal and Metalcore. However, it is dominated by aggressive screams and the many staccato - riffs .
In contrast to the previous album The Agony Scene , which did not contain clear vocals , this one was partly interspersed in the chorus .
The album received 5.5 out of 10 points on the Metalglory website, where it was musically rated as a clear step backwards compared to the debut album The Agony Scene . The overall rating of the author is average and only considered worth buying for fans of the genre (= Metalcore ).
Get Damned (2006-2007)
In 2006, drummer Brent Masters left The Agony Scene, only in spring 2007 a replacement could be found with Ryan Folden. The third album, Get Damned , was released by Century Media in late 2007 .
On this album the hardcore roots of the band can be heard even more clearly than on the two other albums, which were more in the direction of the main subject Metal .
Dissolution (2008)
On October 8, 2008, singer Mike Williams announced that the band had split up in the spring of 2008, but no one had noticed anything.
"We have reached a point where it no longer made financial sense and we have realized that it is better to stop than do the whole thing and continue to mess up. I am sad to see how it ends goes before i was ready to go any further but tastes change and times do too and it was the right time to end, I've had some great experiences over the past 5 years, met some great people Played some shows with Danzig which was really amazing and been out of the country and all this. We did well and I got everything I could out of it. The shitty part of it is only when you've been your whole life takes a break and now you have to watch what you do with yourself when it's over. I've started something new in the musical field, something that couldn't be further from metal and hardcore. "
At the beginning of 2008 the band dropped out of their tour with Himsa because of "some personal problems that make it impossible to continue the tour". At the time, no one knew whether the band would actually split, especially since the band's MySpace page remained inactive for some time.
style
The music of The Agony Scene is typical metalcore with a strong melodic death metal influence . Other influences are rock 'n' roll , punk and thrash metal . Metalglory.de sees The Agony Scene on Get Damned closer to bands like Hatebreed and Sick of It All than to typical Metalcore. Sometimes the band does without guttural singing .
reception
Get Damned was named eighth best album of February 2007 by Rock Hard . It received 7.3 out of a total of 10 points. Boris Kaiser wrote in his review that the band has now achieved an open sound. According to Michael Edele on laut.de , the new album shows “at least one band that focuses significantly more on what they enjoy than on any trends and conventions.” Laut.de gave the album four out of five possible points.
Discography
- 2003: The Agony Scene (Century Media)
- 2005: The Darkest Red ( Roadrunner Records )
- 2007: Get Damned (Century Media)
Web links
- The Agony Scene at laut.de
- The Agony Scene at Allmusic (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ CD review , accessed May 17, 2008.
- ↑ CD review on vampster.com , accessed May 17, 2008.
- ^ The Agony Scene on starpulse.com , accessed May 13, 2008.
- ↑ Review on laut.de , accessed on May 14, 2008.
- ↑ Review on powermetal.de , accessed on May 14, 2008.
- ↑ Review on metalglory.de ( Memento of the original from August 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 14, 2008.
- ↑ Mike Williams on the separation ( memento of the original from November 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 23, 2008.
- ↑ Review by Boris Kaiser, in: Rock Hard No. 249, February 2007
- ↑ Review on Metalglory ( Memento of the original from February 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 1, 2008.
- ↑ Review by Boris Kaiser, in: Rock Hard No. 249, February 2007
- ↑ Review on laut.de , accessed on May 1, 2008.
