Life Of Agony in Birmingham, October 2019

25.10.2019 @ O2 Institute, Birmingham, UK

When Life of Agony announced their European tour there were another two bands on the bill: Doyle and a new burgeoning band featuring former members of Hellyeah, Danzig and Fear Factory – Evolution Empire. However arriving at the venue we found out that Evolution Empire for unknown reasons have not crossed the pond to accompany the group on this tour and the evening started with Doyle taking the stage. Ex-Misfits guitarist Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein was dominating the stage with his presence and pounding downstrokes while the band was going through tracks from their both studio releases 2013 Abominator and 2017 Doyle II: As We Die.

The band’s frontman Alex Story was somewhat irritating though. I mean, there are only so many tracks one can introduce as “love song you can dance to.” Three, four songs into the set and the phrase has completely lost its effect.

A little bit of history: On 12 October 1993 Brooklyn band Life Of Agony released their debut River Runs Red, a concept album telling a story of a teenager’s drift into depression and talking about subjects like abandonment and suicide. The band’s legacy was cemented and the album became a cult classic of the grunge era as many listeners were able to identify themselves with the protagonist.

Now, 26 years later the band has released a sequel, The Sound of Scars, which came out on 11 October 2019 via Napalm Records. And the setlist on this Life Of Agony tour consisted mainly of songs from these two albums.

The band’s front woman Mina Caputo, with her charismatic presence, was commanding the crowd alongside bassist Alan Robert, guitarist Joey Z. and drummer Veronica Bellino. And their efforts were rewarded by loud cheers from the crowd and the evening ended with the band thanking fans for the 26 years of support.