Customer Reviews

Once Only Imagined

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a pretty decent debut album from Montreal's "The Agonist." It's your standard metalcore a la Killswitch Engage, only instead of Howard Jones, you have Alissa White-Gluz behind the microphone. Which is stellar. I have to say that "The Agonist" isn't a total "rip off" of Killswitch Engage (or other metalcore bands). They do their own thing and (I think) make their place well defined within the metalcore genre. I do enjoy their sound, and I really enjoy listening to Alissa's performance vocally. She's awesome! Hopefully they will be around for quite a while, and overtime become more widely known and respected for their talents and musicianship. However, I do feel that they have great potential for growth as artists on their next release (which they are currently writing new material for).

Overall, if you're really into metalcore music, this album is MOST DEFINITELY worth purchasing, especially for the price it's being sold for. I listen to it quite frequently. They are up and coming, trying to further the genre, and I support them for it. 5 stars for their effort.

The primary component that sets The Agonist's debut record apart from other metalcore recordings is the vocals of Alissa White-Gluz. They are incredibly varied, and while some listeners might not appreciate some of her vocal parts, I love the contrast between piercing screams and rumbling growls, which at times are spat out with terrific pace, and melodic parts. Even her screams and growls are varied - check out the sweet death-metal growls at the end of Momento Mori - gives me chills.

Another aspect that appeals to me is the lyrical content, which often centers around criticism of popular culture, government, materialism and greed, and the ignorant behavior of humans. I'm not a vegan or animal rights advocate like she is, but I respect her opinions, and her ability to deliver them in such an artistic way. Business Suits and Combat Boots includes some incredibly fast screaming rants against materialistic obsession.

Alissa is the real deal - one of few women to front a metal band that is capable of melting my face! The guitar parts are solid, and varied enough, with the occasional dischordant components to provide a good platform for the vocals and lyrics. I recommend that anybody open to hearing female leads in heavy music give this record a listen.

And the exciting part is that The Agonist is recording a new record, and Alissa has said that she is experimenting more with different vocal styles on the new record. I'll be first in line to listen, and I'm seeing them live as soon as they tour.

Very heavy stuff! wasen't sure at first how the rest of the cd would sound after only hearing one song, but was not dissapointed! Great vocal work!

I love this album, Allyssa's vocals are crazy, you can hardly believe it's a beautiful young lady making all those crazy sounds.....I recently bought their second album, and, while it's a lot different than this one, The Agonist NEVER dissappoints!

Upon the first listening when the vocals on "Rise and Fall" began, I had to double check the liner notes to make sure I read this correctly. This is a female with the growls that would put most death metal vocalists to shame. Even though this has been done before, and mastered by Angela Gossow from Arch Enemy, the impressive thing here are the beautiful clean vocals that Alissa White-Gluz is able to follow up with; it is nearly as mesmerizing as what Mikael Åkerfeldt does.

Although there isn't anything overly impressive with the rest of the band, there isn't too much that can be said negatively either. Each musician is solid and lays down impressive tracks at different parts of the album. The main part that came across as annoying was the strange "noise" in the background of the song "Serendipity". It sounds as if there was a problem with the bass or there was a problem that occurred during mixing. If it was done purposely, it was a poor choice in song writing because it is very distracting to the rest of the song, which is one of the better songs.

There is strong potential here for greatness and hopefully the band will be able to continue to put out material that is interesting (especially lyrically). It would be a tragedy to see this band fall to the wayside as so many metal acts often do with follow ups to their strong debuts.

Note: The track listing on the back of my copy of the album has the songs on the second half of the album in the wrong order. Also, at the end of the song "Chiaroscuro" it sounds as if they sampled (or inadvertently recreated) some of Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive", but I could be just hearing things.

Now, I'm not that big a fan of metalcore, especially since it's gotten to be really generic these days. However, I do like a few metalcore bands, like All That Remains, As I Lay Dying, and Killswitch Engage. And now The Agonist.

Musically, they're rather generic metalcore. You could listen to almost any metalcore band and here a lot of these riffs. Some of it sticks out, but for the most part, it's nothing you haven't heard before if you listen to metalcore.

Obviously the thing that makes this band stick out way beyond others is the lead female vocalist. She has a great range in the growls, unlike In This Moment, where the lead vocalist can do high-pitched shrieks. Honestly, I thought it was a guy doing the growling until the clean singing came in. The clean vocals are great too, and while some of the singing sounds rather similar and over-dramatic, it's still nice to hear.

Another thing that makes The Agonist better than most metalcore bands is the lyrical content. It's not the generic "I'm gonna sing about how my girl/boyfriend left me and how I'm so broken up about it, even though I may not actually feel that way." No, a lot of their lyrics deal with issues like animal cruelty and social/economic issues. It's pretty interesting hearing these things sung/growled, I gotta say.

So yeah, they may be metalcore, with almost all that genre title entails, but they're a lot better than most metalcore bands out there.

I've actually had the pleasure of complimenting her on her voice after a performance the band made in NH a while back with Visions of Atlantis and Epica. The lyrics have much meaning behind them, and are much wiser than the things you hear from young artists today. And Alissa's vocal range is incredible. That isn't a male on the track growling that deep, it's her!!! She has an amazing voice.

"You cannot know the sweetness of victory without first dwelling in the agony of defeat" - Business Suits and Combat Boots

I saw Agonist live when I went to see After Forever, and was pleased surprised. I enjoyed the way they sounded live, so I decided to buy their CD. I really like the songs and everything overall. The one thing I didn't like is the drum sound. The kickdrums sound so fake that it hurts. But overall, pretty good cd/band.

Once only imagined is actually the agonists' second album release,a follow up album of infinite resistance,released october 11,2000.The agonist has not failed to release an awsome line up of hard hiting songs.Every song on this album is beautiful done,filled with inner conflict and a stand on stereotypes we all deal with daily.alissas' voice is captivating from the harsh screaming to the soft melodic tones she cares thru the whole album.Once only imagined is simply that,once only imagined.

Yet another Group that has barely scratched the surface within the music Industry. A very articulate yet unbalanced blend of music within this Album. I hope that they take their time and patience before releasing their follow up Album.