Life Of Agony - A Place Where There's No More Pain

Published April 30 2017

*=Staff's pick	Meet My Maker Right This Wrong A Place Where There's No More Pain Dead Speak Kindly A New Low World Gone Mad Bag Of Bones* Walking Catastrophe* Song For The Abused Little Spots Of You

Genre	Groove Metal	Mina Caputo	Vocals
Tracks	10	Joey Z	Guitar
Running time	41 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Napalm Records	Alan Robert	Bass
Release	April 28, 2017	Sal Abruscato	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboard
Producer	Matt Brown
Similar bands	-

A Place Where There's No More Pain is Life Of Agony's first album in 12 years and my expectations beforehand were pretty low and the reason for that is that the band's last album Broken Valley wasn't so good to be honest and had only one great song, which of course is the opening track Love To Let You Down. Yet, when I was given the opportunity to listen to this new effort, I surely tried my utmost to approach it unbiased and unaffected by past achievements.

The problem is: It's really hard to do so, because somewhere deep inside their mind people always tend to compare new stuff to old stuff and I more than once think back to the River Runs Red days in 1993. Of course it would be just foolish to expect something like a carbon copy of the good ol' days, but the original idea has lost some of its footing over the years and their capacity to come out with awesome song after awesome song is just not there anymore. It's like the best songs on the record are equivalent to the least good ones on the first record, interludes excluded, which on the other hand isn't so bad if you think about it.

Part of the band's patented groove is still around; no doubt about it, but they are nevertheless unable to get me really attentive as they can't attain the high amount of energy that was there in the beginning. Before I go any further I think it's best to point out that I kind of like the record, but I also think that it lacks those massive attacks and effective thrusts in the songs that the band so utterly needs in order to get the music to a real attractive plane in general.

Surely the music behind Caputo's unique voice is heavy for the most part and I would love to really enjoy this record for what it is, but since the songs pretty much just run in a steady stream for 40 minutes and because there are only 2 songs that draw my full attention, Bag Of Bones and Walking Catastrophe, I simply can't do so. Quite a few of the songs have some parts where it definitely gets a little interesting, but those sections often last only for short moments and many times when my ears start to pick up something valid it kind of ends too quickly and falls right back into the common area again.

As you have already figured out I wouldn't say that Life Of Agony has come back with a vengeance, but it's still pretty good to some degree and besides the last song/outro Little Spots Of You none of the songs are crappy. A Place Where There's No More Pain is in my book an acceptable return to the scene and maybe if they keep going down this road again they can get all things in the right place the next time.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	5	7	7	6

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Tobbe