* En anglais uniquement
Brooklyn, New York's
Life of Agony are an uncompromising alternative metal band. Beginning with 1993's now legendary
River Runs Red, thrash and post D-beat downtuned metal riffs jostled one another for dominance in songs that contained more melody, emotional honesty, and physicality than most of their peers. The band won a fan base early on with the intense energy of their live shows and their hybrid sound behind the clean vocals of
Keith Caputo (now
Mina Caputo), and as early as 1995's Top 200 entry
Ugly, the band crafted melodies that wed riffs to hooks and lyrics that resonated even outside the underground scene. As their reputation and revenues grew, so did tensions within the band.
Caputo left after
Soul Searching Sun, a commercially successful album that brought them to the brink of mainstream recognition. The band ultimately split after a tour with
Ugly Kid Joe; vocalist
Whitfield Crane replaced
Caputo, but the writing was on the wall. Three years after a reunion tour, they issued the ill-fated
Broken Valley, on which Sony embedded the infamous Root Kit software. A court order forced the album to be withdrawn from store shelves. It was the band's final studio outing for 12 years. In the interim,
Caputo transitioned fully to
Mina, and the band split and reunited again, issuing 2017's
A Place Where There's No More Pain on the Napalm label.
Singer
Keith Caputo, guitarist
Joey Z., and bassist
Alan Robert played the New York underground scene with several different drummers. They perfected their angst-filled hardcore/heavy metal hybrid along the way, obtaining a devoted audience in the process. On the eve of signing with Roadrunner Records, the band enlisted former
Type O Negative drummer
Sal Abruscato as a permanent member. The resulting album,
River Runs Red, was similar to their stage show at the time -- straight-up energy and aggression in a hardcore/thrash format, with shards of heavy metal cutting through at times. The group toured extensively upon its release.
Once the tour was completed,
LOA went directly back into the studio to work on their next album, 1995's
Ugly, which signaled a complete overhauling of the band's signature heavy-duty sound. The album resembled the sounds of the alternative stars of the day, especially
Stone Temple Pilots, and it wasn't greeted favorably by the record-buying public.
LOA were still able to retain their audience, and the resulting tour was a success, as they opened for the likes of
Ozzy Osbourne,
Korn,
Type O Negative, and
Anthrax. Drummer
Abruscato exited the band after the tour, and was replaced by ex-
Pro Pain/
Crumbsuckers drummer
Dan Richardson. Their next release, 1997's
Soul Searching Sun, followed essentially the same formula as its predecessor, and was again met by a varied response.
Keith Caputo left the group before the tour, letting the members know that his heart was no longer in the music. The other bandmembers were crushed, but because of their commitments they needed to fill the spot immediately. At an
Anthrax show a few years before, former
Ugly Kid Joe vocalist
Whitfield Crane had told
Joey Z. about his desire to play heavier music, so
LOA's manager spoke to
Crane and he jumped at the chance. The new lineup had only a week to rehearse, and the bandmembers barely knew
Crane when they let him join. Once the tour ended, they went back to the studio to record, only to realize that they no longer wanted to continue as
Life of Agony without
Caputo. They flirted with the idea of
Robert singing with
Stuck Mojo bassist
Corey Lowery filling his spot, but the lineup was doomed from the start and the band officially disbanded in April of 1999.
That was the final word on
Life of Agony until 2003, when the original lineup reunited for two shows. The reunion led to a live album (River Runs Again) as well as the studio effort
Broken Valley, issued on Epic Records in June 2005. In 2009,
Life of Agony performed their debut album,
River Runs Red, in its entirety as well as other material in front of a sold-out house in Brussels, Belgium. They recorded and filmed (via a ten-camera shoot) the proceedings. In 2010, I Scream Records released the CD/DVD package, 20 Years Strong: River Runs Red, Live in Brussels. The following year the band once again decided to go on hiatus after unsuccessful attempts to produce new material that they felt did justice to the band's name. That same year,
Caputo announced that he was in the process of gender reassignment and transitioned to
Mina Caputo. In 2014, the group announced they had re-formed and headed to Belgium to play the Alcatraz Hard Rock & Metal Festival, following it up with a show in New Jersey just a few months later. By 2017, the group had recorded their fifth studio album and announced they had signed to Napalm Records. The resulting
A Place Where There's No More Pain was issued at the beginning of the year. Two years later, with new drummer
Veronica Bellino (
Jeff Beck),
Life of Agony delivered
The Sound of Scars, a conceptual sequel to
River Runs Red issued some 26 years before. Produced and mixed by the Grammy-winning
Sylvia Massy, it was issued in August of 2019. ~ Greg Prato