RSS Feed


THE AGONIST
Eye Of Providence

Century Media (2015)
Rating: 8/10

After a decade in the metal scene, Montreal’s The Agonist is no stranger to fans of aggressive music. In case you have been “finding yourself” on a mountain retreat for the last year or so, the band got a lot of press in 2014 when former vocalist Alissa White-Gluz split to front labelmates Arch Enemy.

Accepting the challenge, the members vowed to carry on, promptly enlisting new vocalist Vicky Psarakis and returning to the studio. The result is Eye Of Providence, the band’s fourth and most diverse album to date.

The Agonist, rightfully so, take this album on as if their career depends on it. All guns are blazing on a number of songs here. The band deliver the heavy, metalcore sound we are used to on songs like ‘Architects Hallucinate’, where the music stomps and grooves and stutters behind Psarakis’ scratchy throated growl and soaring clean vocals, and ‘I Endeavor’, a melodic death metal ode that has a progressive guitar work which will win you over when the vocals can’t carry it.

The opening shotgun blast, ‘Gates Of Horn And Ivory’ set the stage for those songs with thick guitars and growling vocals littered with clean vocal parts. The clean vocals are fun to sing along with but undeniably take away from the overall crush of the music.

Another bullet that The Agonist fully load this time around is the hook. While the band has always flirted with being a little more accessible, they embrace it this time. ‘My Witness, Your Victim’ has a melodic bounce and a lot of fist pumping groove as well as the now standard beauty and the beast vocals. ‘Disconnect Me’ is largely the same, using the themes of loneliness and desperation to inspire self-reliance and confidence over a backdrop of anthemic choruses and crushing verses.

The band even stalk their progressive inner beast as well on the eight-minute epic ‘As Above, So Below’, relying almost entirely on clean vocals and straightforward guitar tones. While not nearly as heavy as the rest of the record, The Agonist make up for it with a lot of energy that satisfies the curiosity of what the band might sound like if they were just a rock band.

There will certainly be a significant portion of the metal community that cry “Sell-out!” at the top of their lungs when they hear this album. But, that lame cry is expected when a singer switch (especially from a well-liked vocalist) happens, so diehards won’t give it much credence. Fortunately, Psarakis is the real deal and will quickly transcend your expectation. This is easily the band’s musically strongest and most interesting album since 2007 debut Once Only Imagined.

Mark Fisher

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share