By Rich Hobson
West coast titans, both Life of Agony and Doyle have a storied history of ruling the roost so far as alternative metal goes, the former as radio-toppling warriors throughout the 90s, the latter as the iconic guitarist of legendary horror punks The Misfits. With such stacking – right before Halloween no less – you can bet your bottom dollar that we wouldn’t miss such a gig for the world. Or at least, we wouldn’t if Birmingham’s O2 Institute weren’t so abysmal at crowd management, the queue as doors open stretching right down the expansive length of Digbeth high street, making it apparent that nobody is getting in any time soon.
Facing an early curfew, Doyle had originally been set to play just 20 minutes after doors. Mercifully, the band are delayed to allow people to actually show up, meaning that while the room is by no means packed by the time they hit the stage, there’s at least a few bodies in to bear witness to the muscular prowess of some primo heavy metal. Unlike so many other icons gone solo, Doyle doesn’t just trade on a few Misfits covers, the majority of the set built around the hugely satisfying riff-fests that were his two solo records. Tonight, the sound gremlins aren’t on the band’s side, robbing some of the potency from an otherwise storming set.
Frontman Alex ‘Wolfman’ Story is a snarling beast on-stage, grimacing with the best of them, but unfortunately there’s only so far you can go with theatrics when the sound is liable to drown you out every third syllable. Even so, this is heavy metal at its purest – slick, heavy and carefully balanced between crushing brawn and alluring groove. Doyle are grindhouse Pantera with goth-tinged anthems to match, the likes of ‘Headhunter’, ‘CemetarySexxx’ and ‘Kiss Me As We Die’ begging the question – why haven’t we had this lot over for festival season yet?
It’s been 25 years since Life of Agony released their seminal debut ‘River Runs Red’, the band having navigated extreme highs and lows over the interim period. Unlike so many other bands caught up in dew-eyed nostalgia, LoA haven’t gone down the ‘Album in full’ route to commemorate their breakout but rather used it as a launchpad to explore exactly who they are now. Touring in support of new record ‘The Sound of Scars’ (a spiritual and thematic successor to the story of ‘River Runs Red’) it’s not entirely surprising to see both records make up the majority of the set. Not that we’re complaining mind – if comeback record ‘A Place Where There’s No More Pain’ was a bounce-back blast of riff driven alt metal goodness, ‘The Sound of Scars’ is an anthem-heavy affirmation of exactly who LoA are and always have been.
Opening on the roaring ‘Scars’, LoA set the pace early on with unassailable power, energy and emotion levels rocketing as the band plow through hits both old and new. There’s a workhorse mentality to tonight’s set, the band wasting no time between songs to lurch into the next riff-heavy monster, flowing the likes of ‘Scars’, ‘River Runs Red’ and ‘Bad Seed’ into each other to leave some very sore necks and vocal chords. Swinging wildly between moods and styles, LoA have deftly put together a discography that can at once encompass elements of alt metal, doom, hardcore and straight-up heavy metal whilst never falling into the pit of any one particular style.
Linked only through the constant grind of riffing and vocalist Mina Caputo’s emotional vocal register, LoA communicate life lived and love lost through every song, feeding into an atmosphere that feels utterly devoted to the band on-stage. One casualty of the tight scheduling of the show is that Mina’s wit is much less prevalent than the last time she played this venue. There’s less back-and-forth, but that doesn’t stop crowd members roaring their love to the singer and band, nor Mina expressing her own gratitude to the braying masses.
While not entirely giving in to nostalgia, Life Of Agony still have a mind for the past on this current setlist, packing it heavily with material from the band’s heyday rather than choice cuts from their interim years (which in some ways is a shame, as both ‘Broken Valley’ and ‘A Place Where There’s No More Pain’ have stellar moments). Nonetheless, there is a vitality to the band that speaks testament to how they have grown, Mina’s rock star strutting and the intense tightness of musicianship speaking volumes to just how on form they are these days. One-time rulers of the airwaves, Life of Agony still deliver the goods 30 years on from formation.
- ‘The Sound of Scars’ is out now via Napalm Records. Life of Agony return to the UK next summer when they play Bloodstock 2020.
- PHOTO CREDIT: Photos courtesy of the author.
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