Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Artist: Agonist, The
Label: Century Media
Release: 2007
It’s rare to come across a metal band’s debut that has a fully worked-out sound from the very first chord. It’s rarer still to find fully fleshed-out substance that can handle conceptual layering, political engagement and as much sex appeal as the Montreal export The Agonist bring, a band that until recently went by the name Tempest. So what really sets them apart from the pack? Probably also the fact that this time the job of wrecking vocal cords goes to a young woman with a very sharp, clear and lucid attitude – Alissa White- Gluz. Don’t get me wrong: this isn’t yet another clone of bands like, say, Evanescence or Whitin Temptation. Sonically, The Agonist are closer to a slightly softened version of Arch Enemy and their angelic diva Angela. Despite being relatively fresh (they only formed in the first half of 2007), The Agonist are able to deliver a solid show of strength and musical vision. Maybe also because producer Chris Donaldson, otherwise the guitarist of Cryptopsy, took on the job with the youngsters and the young woman, while the final sound of the album was sculpted by Alan Douches, whose fingers have shaped albums by Unearth, Mastodon, Nile and Dillinger Escape Plan.
You could actually label Once Only Imagined a political treatise very quickly, a result of frontwoman Alissa’s consistently vegan stance, as she cranks up the rage from song to song and demands the protection of the planet ever more loudly. Somewhere in the spirit of a universal respect for the sanctity of life, the complex union of melodic and harsh female bipolar vocals, inner fury and the musical foundation laid by the instrumentalists Marino – Kells – McKay makes for a high-octane mix of melody, madness and provocative beauty all at once. A complementary mingling of opposites: listenability and massiveness of sound, sweetness and brutal loudness, anger and melancholy, the feminine and masculine principles, hope and death … The whole thing is inseparably One. The album opens with the half-minute overture ‘Synopsis’, which sounds like a hidden threat creeping in through a cloud of saturated interference. All to make the point of ‘Rise And Fall’ sharper and clearer. At the start, The Agonist sound like In Flames mixed with a female singer who’d be right at home in System Of. A Down. Personally, I think the depth of the inner message with which The Agonist call for breaking out of apathy and waking up to a world that has reached its technological peak is a slogan that’s been proclaimed quite a few times already, yet obviously not often enough, since that peak can also mean collapse and destruction. ‘Born Dead; Buried Alive’ is metalcore hammering nails into your eyelids, the ones they’re trying to nail to your forehead out of your tightly squeezed eyes. Clichéd? As much as the general awareness of the crisis is muffled by a melancholic posture that it’s all too late now and nothing can be done anymore. The furious guitar passages become something you get used to easily. ‘Take A Bow’, ‘Trophy Kill’ carry on mixing everything that makes some people love bands like Shadows Fall, Walls Of Jericho and Arch Enemy, or Sontata Arctica – speed and virtuoso musicianship – with a stereotypical use of feminine sex appeal as the main weapon of this particular listen to the latest from the Canadian corner of the world. The record’s first hit, ‘Business Suits And Combat Boots’ is an anti-war manifesto and a triumph of the will to live over death. The battle of the feminine principle against guidelines staked out by a macho male hand (until recently metal was entirely, or at least almost entirely, in the hands of male representatives, right?) has borne fruit that’s edible to plenty of a carnivorous “head banger”. Alissa knows how to shred vocal cords. She can scream. She can sing beautifully at the same time. She can write lyrics that have balls and substance. Still, it bugs me that the songs are too similar to each other. If metalcore and deathcore are saturated with clones that have gradually drained the vitality – hell, the very life – out of their first-born enthusiasm, and the genre often resembles a parade of zombies and anemic patients, then Agonist went so far in copying their own expression and everyone else’s that they lost the dividing line, the multidimensionality. The Agonist are balm for the soul of genre fans. To anyone else they offer just what the name offers – agony and torment, and plenty of people could bail halfway through at this point in the watered-down atmosphere. Neither ‘Memento Mori’, a reminder of death and dying, nor ‘Serendipity’ help get us out of this situation. The Agonist twist from one musical figure into another, skillfully and fluidly, but before we get to the grand finale ‘Forget The Tomorrow’, which heralds the apocalypse and calls for rebellion today, the only balm for the ears on this road of madness is ‘Void Of Sympathy’, an acoustic interlude of guitar wandering. The wandering is short, and then comes an attempt at an epic close to the cycle with the final act.
Right off the bat, The Agonist sound like one half-hour track that starts and ends, with the layers of separation disappearing in between. The membranes between the individual cells have disappeared. They have the skills of musical creation, but that craftsmanlike skill can’t erase the regret that you can also dismiss them very easily. The politically engaged lyrics, the groovy guitars and the screams of sweetness and suffering struck some sparks this time, but we’re still waiting for the flame. For a debut it’s a cohesive whole that shows a lot of promise, but it definitely doesn’t belong in the league of musical standouts. All we can do is wish them better luck next time.
Lineup
Alissa White-Gluz – vocals
Danny Marino – guitar
Chris Kells – bass
Simon McKay – drums
Derek Nadon – drums
Production
Chris Donaldson
Tracklist
1. Synopsis
2. Rise And Fall
3. Born Dead
4. Buried Alive
5. Take A Bow
6. Trophy Kill
7. Business Suits And Combat Boots
8. Serendipity
9. Memento Mori
10. Void Of Sympathy
11. Chairoscuro
12. Forget Tomorrow
ALBUM LENGTH: 38:16
