THE AGONIST


Once Only Imagined
11 tracks - playing time: 38:17 min.
Century Media
Rating: 4/10
 
Rachel from Occult and Sinister, Angela from Arch Enemy, Sabina from Holy Moses, Sonia from Bestial Holocaust: female grunting vocals always seem to be a bit more edgy, more furious. Perhaps this is caused by some extra effort they put in, to compete with the lower and fuller male growls. Alissa from Canadian The Agonist tries hard, but seems to lack some power. She varies grunts with clean vocals; the first are quit weak, the last sound just horrible. With the exception of track 10, a weird, acoustic guitar intermezzo, the music consists mainly of power metal: melodic and with lots of breaks; and Gothenburg death metal: simple, sing-along tunes.

A flaw in the production of the album is the drumming, which at times is barely audible. The Lyrics deal with political themes like pollution (climate change), third world countries, mistreated animals, children with guns, bureaucracy and intolerance, and so on. As big selling point, political songs are stated to be a rare with newer bands, which is of course total nonsense.

In short: The Agonist is an unoriginal mixture of In Flames, Iced Earth and Gwen Stefani with throat cancer.

(Mart)

© Rockezine.com Nov 10, 2007, viewed 2922 times since 666
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