Review THE AGONIST “Five” (by Droll)

THE AGONIST “Five”
Napalm Records

The Agonist‘s fifth album, simply named Five leave a listener in a loss. Especially after such statements like «We are so anxious to release this record to our fans and the rest of the world! This album represents another shift in the evolution of The Agonist! […] I’m very proud of everyone’s hard work making this the most diverse and interesting record for us to date!» – Danny Marino and «…I can say that Five is the record where I believe that we finally found our sound!» – Vicky Psarakis. And it’s not about that the music became less brutal – it has become much more boring.

Decade ago The Agonist with blue-hair beautiful Alissa White-Gluz favorably differed from the hundreds similar bands. And it is not only because of Alissa’s talent: outstanding material, playing techniques and supply – that’s why many people loved the band. In 2014 Vicky came to the band and Eye of Providence was recorded. It was clear that the music will change, but yet wasn’t clear how and in which direction. And now, a year later, here is the moment of truth – Five.

First of all let’s talk about vocals. After two years in The Agonist, Vicky’s vocal straightened and sounds much more confidently. I’m talking about clean vocals, because extreme, to put it mildly, disappoints a little. It has no brutality that inherent to extreme vocals, but there is a feeling that she sings on the verge of hysterics.

The music is really diverse, though all the songs have something in common, and it is not a concept of an album. It’s about triviality. Moreover, it doesn’t matter which song: opening “The Moment”, metalcore “The Villain” or acoustic “The Raven Eyes”. The problem even that it’s definitely clear what rhythm pattern will be next, but that such a drab and ordinariness wasn’t expected from, let’s not prevaricate, talented musicians. Although, some premises were even in The Prisoners album.

For the justice it needs to say that there are also some bright moments: some solos, little choir in “The Chain”, unexpectedly calm and nice interlude “The Wake”, perfectly done cover “Take Me To The Church” (that sounds probably better than original song) – it all present. But, alas, it’s not even colored patterns, but some bright spots on a grey background. And they have very little effect on the overall impression.

Honestly, it’s not so understandable why was the rush? The band has its fan-base and quite huge fans’ credibility. So they certainly could not be hurry with new material. But what’s done is done. So, as a result, we have some absolutely not catching, ordinary musical product from good musicians.

The album will be released on September, 30 by Napalm records.

(c) Droll (www.dailymetal.com.ua)