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THE AGONIST
Prisoners

Century Media (2012)
Rating: 7.5/10

The Agonist return with their third album, Prisoners. Following a ton of touring in support of their sophomore album Lullabies For The Dormant Mind (2009) with a diverse group of artists from Sonata Arctica to Kittie to Overkill, the Canadian band are poised to meet the masses head on and this could very well be the album that elevates them to the next level. While the band seemed to initially get lumped into the metalcore genre, they show so much dynamic energy on Prisoners that it’s getting harder to imagine them being boxed in as such.

“We hear you. We don’t care”, rings out through the voices of children before the band goes crazy on the album’s most impressive track ‘Predator And Prayer’. The band grinds out the metal while vocalist Alissa White-Gluz pontificates in a variety of heavy vocal styles (all seemingly done with ease).

‘Ideomotor’ also captures a nice groove that gives the album a bit more of a dynamic atmosphere, even lending itself to comparisons to European bands like Callenish Circle and Darkane musically. The album opener (which features an acoustic intro that is beautifully executed), ‘You’re Coming With Me’, and the fist pumping rage of ‘Everybody Wants You (Dead)’ firmly cement this idea with driving guitars, new millennium soloing and breakdowns that will make American metalcore bands wet their pants. ‘Lonely Solipsist’ on the other hand just goes for the throat from start to finish showcasing the idea that they can keep up with the best bands in today’s scene.

There are a couple of tunes here that are simply driving, hard tunes as well. ‘The Mass Of The Earth’ and ‘Anxious Darwinians’ channel Gothenburg’s best, while ‘Revenge Of The Dadaists’ opens with a spoken word acoustic piece that capture your attention before the band takes off in a riff heavy direction that will make even the meanest heavy music lover crack a smile. It’s damn good stuff. So much so that by the end of the album, you are ready to revisit about three-fourths of it. ‘The Escape’ being the sole throwaway track, and parts of others lose the listener at various intervals but always managing to pull them back in.

The third album can be a pivotal point in a band’s career as fans will forgive a sophomore slump if the next album knocks them senseless. That is precisely what The Agonist have done here. While they don’t knock it entirely out of the park, they certainly establish themselves as a serious force to be reckoned with. Prisoners is not a perfect album, but so much of it is great that I’m starting to believe The Agonist may have a classic inside them.

Mark Fisher

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