Artist - Life of Agony
Album - Broken Valley
Reviewer - Erwin Karl
Those of us who dig the dark and heavy sounds out of
Brooklyn have been out of sorts for a few years. It
has been eight years since the last Life of Agony
album, and we’ve had little other than a few releases
and occasional tours from Type O Negative to keep us
going. That has all changed with the June release of
“Broken Valley,” LOA’s fourth full-length which was
produced by Greg Fidelman (Jet, Slipknot).
LOA has achieved something a bit rare in the music
business. All four original members turned up for the
new album – Keith Caputo on vocals, Joey Z on guitars,
Alan Robert on bass, and Sal Abruscato on the skins.
They have also achieved something more difficult –
maturing musically to create complex and satisfying
textures without turning into a bunch of lightweights.
The results are more than obvious both in the
outpouring of thumbs-up from music reviewers and even
more convincingly, on the tracks themselves. There is
much of the heaviness that marked the band’s 1993
debut “River Runs Red” without being as relentless,
more of the moodiness and grandeur of 1995’s “Ugly,”
which I placed on my top-ten list for 95 and continue
to listen to. The band also breaks new ground. There
is an ease to the sound that suggests maybe the songs
fell into place as soon as the band members reunited
in the studio, an appealing streak in the songwriting
that harkens back to 1970s rock from bands such as
Cheap Trick or Grand Funk, and a punchy vibrancy that
is the unique thumbprint of LOA.
Sal Abruscato described the experience of keeping the
same band lineup, “There’s just a connection that’s
almost telepathic. It’s like a good recipe – you have
the right ingredients and you can’t change it.” Keith
Caputo added his take on how the band evolved for
Broken Valley, “Personally I think it’s the best album
we’ve ever done. It’s super-raw and aggro and has an
energy all its own.” Caputo could make a decent music
reviewer, recognizing the blend of "aggression and
elegance" that the band achieves this time around.
To figure out how the band was able to pick up where
they left off so easily, we must look back a little
further back than the band’s formation in 1989 – all
four members have known each other since they were
kids growing up in the same Brooklyn neighborhood.
This bond was strong enough to draw them out of
retirement for what band members thought was a one-off
show at Irving Plaza in 2003. That show led to a live
CD/DVD (River Runs Again: Live 2003), a US tour and
two European tours. The response of the fans on those
tours and the return of good vibes without the strains
of tour outings earlier in their career led inevitably
to the return to the studio for “Broken Valley.”
Although the album contains many dark images – song
titles include “Love to Let You Down,” “Wicked Ways,”
“Strung Out,” and “Junk Sick” – the tone of the music
is surprisingly upbeat. Keith Caputo explained, “Our
spirits going into this record were just so positive,
although you might not get that from the album itself,
because it’s about heartache and pain.” The themes on
the album point to a dark undertow to Brooklyn itself
– the title “Broken Valley” is a rough translation
from the Dutch name of Brooklyn. This seems to follow
also from the works of Type O Negative, also from
Brooklyn. The two bands not only hail from the same
borough of NYC, but also shared the same record label
– Roadrunner – and for a while shared a drummer. LOA
has switched labels, however, the new release was put
out on Epic Records.
If hearing cuts off the album is not enough, fans can
also connect with LOA this summer. The Brooklyn
heavies will headline the second stage on Gigantour
beginning on July 21 in Fresno, CA. It is not
surprising that LOA is sharing a bill with Megadeath
and Fear Factory for Gigantour, the real mystery is
that a band this good is on second stage rather than
the main stage.
