LIFE OF AGONY

02 Institute2, Birmingham - England

22 September 2017

words and photos Ivaylo Alexandrov

At the beginning of this year something happened to me that I almost did not expect to hit me again - a mad keen and total devotion to some band. A band that I have somehow missed when they were at their highest popularity but apparently they have created music that is quite valid and up to date two decades later and if you vibrate on the same waves ... well, it grabs you and knocks you out.

At the very beginning of 2017, Vassil Varbanov (again) lit me wildly on Life of Agony, without we both knew what was going on back in the moment. In the early days of January, the two of us were sitting at the Tangra Mega Rock studio (because the third agent, Nikola Shahpazov, was going through a difficult time and could not present), and we were discussing the music in the past 2016.

At least until the moment when afetr a few beers and whiskeys I let slip thay I have never paid much attention to Life Of Agony. An error for which I was pulled on ears on air and instead of new music, we only listened to songs from 'River Runs Red' in the last 20 minutes of the show, and I went home with mixed feelings (and beverages).

The next day I woke up (without a hangover) and played the album. And ... it fucked me straight through the heart! Now, at the risk of exposing myself (again) to the old fans of Life Of Agony, this album is so deeply embedded in the soul of a 90's kid - it is the emanation of that music - the nineties groove and it is loaded with the typical Brooklyn sound from that time, as well as with a brutal dose of energy, strength, power, talent and purity. For a few months I literally made up for the missed 25 years. Until April, when 'A Place There' s No More Pain' came out, I fell in love irreversible again.

The album is totally different from the debut, and at the same time it's as Life of Agony as any other record of the band. Just the four of them are different people from the kids they were in 1993. And Mina is no longer Keith. And at the same time, they are still the same.

I am pouring all this introduction simply because it's hard to start writing about one of the most important and great concerts I've ever been to. Because that January afternoon I discovered that I was a Life Of Agony fan - maybe I have always been without knowing it - even at the moment I listen to the undeservedly underrated 'Broken Valley' and I've got chills on my spine while I write and drink.

Because, dear Varbanov, just like 20 years ago, when I discovered my favorite bands with your show 'Zone 967' (you are to blame for Gorefest), now in 2017, consciously or not, you turned me into a totally devoted fan of Life Of Agony. Devoted to the level of "Let's see where they'll be playing this year... uh, there are English dates, Birmingham or London ... For only a few days what I'll see from London ... Oh, there are cheap flights right now to Birmingham. I reserve my ticket!"

So, on September 21, exhausted from a shitty Autumn virus, I climbed a shattered Ryanair airplane towards two dreams at the same time, even though one of them was 20 years ahead of the other. Two see England for the first time and to see a band in which music I burn for the last 9 months without even a slight sign to slake. 

In Birmingham there awaited me an old friend from Burgas, who has lived in Dudley with his wife for a year now (Yaro, thank you very much!). He took me in their place and for three days he was a great guide and a killer company in walks, pubs, music shops and traveling around the towns near Birmingham. 

The concert was on September 22 - my second day in the UK. We left the car in Coseley where we caught the train to Birmingham. 02 Institute2 is close to the station, and the place, I find out from local old dogs is super cult. For the fact that bands like Pink Floyd, The Cure and Johnny Mitchell have played there before they grew big.

Inside the venue there are several halls and Life Of Agony are in a relatively small one - for about 500 people, with a comfortable little terrace high and central against the stage.

In the morning of the 22nd I wake up with my head slightly tingled by the late beers and the passing virus. We drink coffee with Yaro and I receive a mail from Life Of Agony's Napalm Records contact person that my interview with Alan Robert is canceled because there is nowhere to be held (in all the halls of 02 Institute2 there are events and a room for a calm chat just does not exist). I mumble a cuss, answer the mail, open up a beer and pull off the apartment..

First on the bill are the Swiss Blood Runs Deep. I hear of them for the first time, probably the local audience too, because during their set there are only 20 people there, including the band and the staff in the hall. Yet their music fills the emptiness well.

A heavy, abrasive set in which the four of them merge into a monolithic sludge/ doom shatter a few of their songs, then they thank us politely and leave ... to be amazed by the unexpected attack by Yaro who has bought their vinyl impressed by their music and asks for autographs. The boys behave as if they rather would like him to sign it for them. And later the same night, already in Yaro's apartment, we hear on the turntable an album, heavily influenced by Paradise Lost (which sounds a lot heavier live).

Aaron Buchanan & The Cult Classics are the great live band of Aaron Buchanan - the former singer of Heaven's Basement. The dudes (and the chick - is Lauri sister, wife or daughter of Aaron?) are a superb live act and unlike the slick studio recordings I heard earlier on YouTube, whe on stage they have the power to get a sick paralytic on the dance floor with their electrically charged boogie and rock'n'roll. Aaron stumbles on the stage - slender, dressed in a glossy jacket - like a big band dandy, but with a face and gait of a typical British larrikin and voice suitable for any self-respecting punk rock band - a hell of a inciting and strong frontman.

Shortly before the end of their set, he shares two songs (one of which is 'Would' by Alice In Chains) with the perhydrol topped   Mitchel Emms, who has just left The Treatment, and, damn, it feels and sounds great!

The stage is emptied, the second set of drums disappears for a minute and I suddenly realize that in a few minutes I will see Life Of Agony.

That the hurricane that tears my flesh from within and blows up my emotional canvases for months will swoop up live here and now. My knees soften and the virus is not to blame. I need a drink. I'm going at the bar for a small Jack ("No, dude, I do not want Pepsi in it. Nope, I don't want it, it's cool, I know it comes with the price - I need only my whiskey), I grab the camera (Didi, thank you very much for the borrowed camera!) and I slid into the photopit.

I have seen every live video of Life of Agony on YouTube from this year I've come to. I know the band is in a brutally good shape. It is this expectation and knowledge which frightens me to the point of despair. What if it's not that good? What if something is not what I expect? Bullshit! The four leap on the stage directly with 'River Runs Red', which is such a punch - as if you were out in a friendly Aikido sparring and your opponent enters with his heel at your teeth.

The first 30 seconds pass just like this before I find out that instead of taking pictures, I headbang and scream. The song ends, I shoot, and watch my new heroes through the lens, and I realize how brutally strong they are alive. Life Of Agony is an absolute machine, an incredibly tighten up, straight-forwarded and crushing live band. Those people are on stage because they have to be there and do what their lives are - honest, strong and direct music. It is also seen by the fans - mainly people in their 30s (most of them are over 40), who obviously grew up with the band's music, and are still loyal and devoted.

The second song is the hit 'This Time', and for the second time I can't help from banging my head get a bow in front of the fence. There is a very big bonus in shooting a concert - pointing the lens to each member of the band individually, studying him, stalking him, watching his movements and gestures, capturing his moments. You see how he behaves in relation to the others, how they fit and adjust together - in the case of Life Of Agony, it's all natural and smooth.

But they are far from calm - Alan and Joey are super energetic, just like in the clips and concerts you watched. Mina ... Mina is great! A seemingly petty creature but she fills the stage, stands out on it - shows out and in the same time she does not overshadow the other three guys.

And how she sings ... I always thought she's making up her voice in the whole 'River Runs Red' record because she sins somehow higher and more emotionally in 'Ugly' and the albums after. And now, with the freedom she has declared and won, she is even more bold and strong vocally. 'I Regret' is not my favorite song by Life Of Agony.

But ... it was not. Because at the end of the song, when she sings that line: "The memories that I once had of the good time," and allows herself a slight frivolity in the album, in the live performance there is a strong vocal improvisation, a blues-like revelation, while Alan, Sal and Joey gradually raise the tension, Mina buzzes her voice close to the point of a scream, but still clean, strong, with a slight crunch - and when the song erupts in the finale, I find myself screaming, clutching the fence in front of me. 

Euphoria? Oh yeah! Life Of Agony is an absolutely euphoric band.

There follow two (only two!) tracks from the new album. Mina jokes with "all the 50 people who have it" and invites people to buy t-shirts from the merch - "come on, I'm sure you need new clothes by looking at your old and weary shirts." Actually, Mina Caputo is a great frontwoman not only for her presence and voice, but because she manages to get you out of the mood of fanaticism and fandom with her biting Brooklyn humor between songs and zero political correctness.

The final again is from the debut album. 'Through and Through' and 'Underground'. I'm sure I sang from the top of my lungs, I know I screwed off my head, shoulders, neck, back and legs with headbanging and jumping, but I have no memory of that. Now that I listen again and again to these songs and the lyrics are running in my head, I do not remember screaming even a word from them. Still, I obviously have done so, judging by my sore throat and the aching neck, back and limbs.

And because when the concert is over, Joey points at me finger and runs from of the opposite end of the stage to put a pick in my hand, and Alan high-fives me later. After the end of the concert, I talk to them both and they amazingly cool guys.

And Life Of Agony is one of the greatest live bands. A band, who made an intimate concert for about 400 faithful fans, literally at our fingertips, and yet again I experienced this gig as an internal microblast. Fuck, how cool it is your expectation from a concert not just to be justified, but to explode as a supernova. And, fuck, how good Life Of Agony are!