Fleshgod Apocalypse - Agony (2011)

So, all the metalheads came from somewhere; we all had a gateway band that acted as our proverbial serpent of Eden.  For me, that band was Nightwish, and as a result, I've seemed to tend towards music that incorporates orchestral elements.  But lets be honest.  Nightwish might technically be metal, but power metal is too corny to be brutal, and once you go brutal, there's not really any going back.  Don't get me wrong, I love some good battle metal, as long as it draws on the Icelandic and Nordic traditions of battle, not that bullshit French chivalric tradition.

But that's why there are albums like Italian technical death metal band Fleshgod Apocalypse's 2011 masterpiece, Agony.  I never, and I mean never, thought that something using orchestral instrumentation could be so fucking brutal.  Now, for the Nightwish fans out there, don't go into this album expecting nine minute concertos or oboe and bassoon duets ("Ghost Love Score" anyone?).  The genius of Agony isn't the complexity of the orchestral arrangement, but the perfect fusion that the score has with the traditional metal instrumentation.  Throughout (almost) every track, between Paoli's neckbreaking blasts  and Trionfera's facemelting solos, there is a present orchestral line woven into the musical infrastructure.

Metal album or tentacle porn?
You decide!

Speaking of neckbreaking blasts and facemelting solos, lets just take a minute to recognize these musicians for their feats of creativity, and in Paoli's case, endurance.  Watch a video of the man: those snare strokes are all Moellar technique, no flappy fingers or garage black metal unintentional decrescendo blasts - the fucker could probably blast on pillows.  Or Travis Barker's face.  Actually I wouldn't mind seeing a video of that.  

The guitar solos of Agony echo the dichotomy that the rest of the album strives for: melody with brutality. Whether it's the scale grinding in "The Violation," the sweeps of "The Hypocrisy," or the brilliant tap riff from my favorite track, "The Deceit," the melodic element clearly is favored in lieu of atonal tritonic arpeggios up and down the fretboard.  Although, given the technicality of the album, I have no doubt that they could do either.

In an expression of what I can only imagine is the band deciding to tell the world "fuck yeah we're that awesome," the album concludes with the title track "Agony," following in the tradition of their previous album Mafia.  "Agony" is a solo piano piece whose dark intensity mirrors that of the rest of the album with a decidedly Rachmaninoffian taste.  The brilliance of this last piece is the manner in which it captures the tone of the whole album in such an accessible medium - seriously, show this song to your grandma, and she'll probably ask you for the song (if she knows what a CD is).  


Agony isn't perfect; the seamless transition between tracks, while exceptionally badass between "The Deceit" and "The Violation," tends to run the songs together, making the album seem more like one really long, brutal eargasm.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when you want to show your friend that sick guitar solo and you've been through every song on the album twice already, it can get old.  Rossi's high pitched waily bits can be a little trying at first as well, but I found that after some time, I grew to enjoy them.  


Now, if you're not sold on the album yet, here's the kicker: Fleshgod Apocalypse can do this shit LIVE too.  I had the opportunity to see them open for Decapitated at the Fox Theatre in Hollywood, and I don't know what I expected, but it sure as fuck wasn't five Italian motherfuckers in black shredded tuxedos and corpse paint chugging Jack Daniels like clergymen.  Even though the orchestration was all done through recording and synths, the performance was musically tight and, as far as I could tell, flawless - though my observational skills were somewhat hindered by furious headbanging.  Oh well, what can you do?