Agony of Death

What is the shortest synonym for one eternal Sabina and thousand ephemeral musicians? You're right, Holy Moses is the solution. "Agony of Death" is another album of the front woman with an interchangeable line-up in the background. Well, a lot of these German bands that started in the eighties have a surprising stamina. Formations such as Grave Digger, Kreator, Sodom and many more have released tons of records throughout the decades and the question remains: was this really necessary? The names of the most popular works of these bands are "Pleasure to Kill", "Agent Orange" or, in the case of Holy Moses, "Finished with the Dogs" and they indicate that the most creative days are long gone. Nevertheless, "Agony of Death" removes dust from the Moses monument. More than that, it is a surprisingly strong performance.

No doubt, the songs have a good foundation. There is a lot of substance, energy and dynamic. Good preconditions for a thrash metal party, if I am not mistaken. Sabina's clever marketing strategy also works. Since "Queen of Siam", she always sounded like an old witch after 48 hours without sleep and now, more than 20 years after the release of the debut, she has no problem to stick to her style. (I don't want to say that she has become old or that her voice sounds grumpy, this would not be very charming...) Melodic vocal lines have never been her metier and so she just keeps barking monotonously. But despite this monotony, she has a certain charisma and it goes without saying that she is one of the most important and formative voices of German thrash metal. It is great to hear that this voice is still a very good partner for the jagged and edgy riffs that shape great sections of the album. These riffs are the main pillar of the songs and they form exciting tracks like the openers ("Imagination" and "Alienation") or "The Cave (Paranemsia)". The climax is reached with "Pseudohalluzination" (have a look at the self-referencing lyrics of the chorus, Sabina travels through time) where the band integrates smoothly a guitar line of "Near Dark", the first track from "The New Machine of Liechtenstein". Or do I suffer from a pseudohalluzination? The artwork also builds a bridge into the past, because the strange creature from the debut's artwork spreads its wings again on the back.

Indeed, the guitars prevail, but synthesizers also play a role. Their intermezzos connect the songs and this original yet dubious idea is at the expense of the density of "Agony of Death". Okay, one might say this is no big problem, because the songs themselves are never dominated by these atmospheric gimmicks. Nevertheless, I do not really understand why the band chose this approach. Maybe the quintet wanted to demonstrate that the record has a good production, regardless of the vehemence of the music. This plan worked; the album sounds forceful, but it also puts the interludes into the right light. In other words, the production is on a par with that of its pretty strong predecessor, "Strength Passion Will Power". Inter alia the drums score with a natural sound and I enjoy the fact that Atomic Steiff played them. This legendary dude was also involved in one of the best debut albums ever. Naturally, I am speaking about "Malevolent Assault of Tomorrow" from Violent Force, the most tragic band of the early German thrash scene that never released a successor. Their album avoided lousy tracks and the same goes for "Agony of Death". The twelve pieces of the special version form a really vigorous unit and everybody with an affinity for large-sized (playtime: 70 minutes!), mature yet angry thrash can have a good time with this output.

Agony of Death introduces a few new elements into the Holy Moses formula that create quite a fascinating contrast to the harsh, straight modern thrash of the previous two albums. Most prominent of these are the futuristic synthesizer intros and outros used throughout the album, courtesy of Ferdy Doernburg (Axel Rudi Pell, etc), which give it an atmosphere you would never have discovered on the older records. It's almost like the album were going for a Blade Runner or Mass Effect type blend of future thrash, which frankly is a delicious idea, but mostly executed here through Ferdy's contributions and the psychological lyrical explorations of social castigation and other problems at large. There are also some nice leads, mixed a little low against the rhythm guitars but feeling flush and atmospheric, and a number of other guest contributions that lend the album some needed character.

I say that, because at the core of this is a fairly average propulsion of hammering thrash that doesn't stand out from prior efforts. The guitars manage to maintain a strident velocity through most of the songs, like "Alienation", "Pseudohalluzation" and "The Cave (Paramnesia)", but the actual riffs themselves are fairly common for the Holy Moses catalog. Thankfully the 'whole package' here works out in the band's favor. Henning Basse of Metalium loans some backing vocals to the track "Schizophrenia", lending it a pretty epic power/thrash feel and nicely grinding against Sabina's blunt and rasped delivery. "Angels in War" has a rousing backing vocal section and a guest solo lick from Obituary's Trevor Peres. "The Cave (Paramnesia)" has some brutal backing vocals courtesy of Schmier, and the closing ambient sequence is quite wonderful, serving to wrap up the dystopian package hinted at by the mecha-Sabina cover art against the wasted urban backdrop.

I only wish that Classen's vocals and the guitars were a little better throughout. Both will be familiar to anyone who has experienced the band's catalog, but they just don't sound all that thrilled to be here among this decaying landscape of ideas. They're not exactly boring, but if you took them out of their environment they'd feel like a pretty throwaway collection of compositions that don't in any way distinguish themselves from the crowd. The tone is a bit crisp, which feels digitized in the wrong direction against the leads, intros and vocals, and thus the production does come across a little dry. It's a shame, because I truly buy the idea of a cyberpunk-style thrash record, and other bands that have explored dark futurism (like Paradox) have done quite well with it. In the end, Agony of Death is another decent Holy Moses effort, but no better or worse than the last, and void of its clever seasonings it would fall well behind the rest of their 21st century offerings.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

They say you can't teach an old dog a new trick. Maybe that's for the better. Holy Moses is and was on the outskirts of the German thrash scene back when the torches were burning and kids were cutting their palms because Paul Baloff said so, and you never questioned that, no sir. At the time "Agony of Death" was released, Holy Moses was clocking in nearly three decades in the bis and a lot of studio work in the rear-view mirror. However great and awesome their older stuff may be, "Agony of Death" is the age-old psalm redefined: you can't teach an old dog a new trick. Old they are, yes, but thrash has evolved into something not-so-retro with all these modern influences going about, and "Agony of Death" is - I'm sorry to say - another example of modernity taking advantage of an aged entity. In their willingness to try something new, they actually didn't screw it up that much, but Holy Moses did make one of the most tepid and uninteresting thrash albums I've heard in recent memory, especially from such a well-respected band with such a nasty legacy underneath their belts.

Stop and relinquish yourself in the word "there." That is all "Agony of Death" truly is: there. The riffs aren't particularly great, nothing emerges from the vocals, the percussion is dire and generic, and maybe a fancy solo shows up here and there for whatever reason; overall, it's just painfully unmemorable. Perhaps the fast picking you might be hearing is real, but does it actually trigger anything? Clearly this is a "modern" thrash album layered in influences from the early 1980s and today's thrash revivification scene with more obscure elements carefully colored by death metal touches, melody, and Vital Remains-like harmonies appearing from time to time, but what comes out of it, really? Seemingly nothing fun, exciting, interesting, or relevantly noteworthy in any way, which is sourly disappointing.

I remember listening to this sucker from "Imagination" through the finale "Through Shattered Minds/Agony of Death," almost certain I was sent back to the beginning of time with Xenu and his magnificent volcano, took a vacation with this creep Virgil to Hell (which wasn't bad, surprisingly), witnessed the rise and fall of Hitler, and had to sit through the Summer Slaughter tour of bullshit. "Agony of Death" is nearly seventy minutes in length. Seventy minutes! That's a long record; you'll relive the ages, believe me. The length shouldn't be a problem for any band as long as they've got their heads on straight and can write decent music, but this is where Holy Moses becomes the butt of the jester's joke: the band quickly falls into a number of deplorable banes when trying to reignite the thrashing flame that once burnt so vehemently. It is a representation of agony, albeit a lengthy one, and certainly not for the best.

Mediocre thrash, mediocre vocals, mediocre solos, mediocre this, mediocre that, yadda yadda yadda. The story that has been written before and will be written many times in the future: old-timers plodding on and on, just because. Whatever the point, the spark they've forged couldn't set a firepit doused in gasoline ablaze. What had the potential to be a headbanging frenzy becomes a storm of frustration and ultimately some cash down the drain for basic, everyday metal from one of thrash's unsung warriors, now acting like a tribute band. Steer clear peers.

This review was written for: www.Thrashpit.com

Since Holy Moses lost Andy Classen from their ranks prior to the release of "Strength Power Will Passion" in 2005, we were all worried if the song writing for the band would suffer. But it didn’t, as we saw on that album, but I was still cautious going into this album (excited too to tell the truth) on the terms that their last effort could have been a one trick pony.

Holy Moses is not a one trick pony.

This latest album, "Agony Of Death" not only showcases the best of this band in this modern time but perhaps some of the best material for the band in its entire career. "Agony Of Death" is some of Thrash Metal at its best - particularly in it’s aggressive German niche.

One thing that is interesting about this release is that it does not necessarily have some of their catchiest tracks as individuals. But this album as a whole is entirely impressive. The solidity of this release as one album, and not as 12 songs, is outstanding. The guitars, the bass, the vocals, and the massively impressive drumming all work as one as they pummel and shred their way through this release with little effort and even less hesitation. Monster riffs, melodic leads, fret burning solos, thundering bass, machine gun drumming, sinister vocals – this release has everything a Thrash fan could love – and everything Holy Moses could bring to the table.

But there is also something unique on this album. The fact that each song is threaded together with atmospheric synthesizers and keyboards is a great concept for the band. My one complaint with this album at all is that sometimes these interludes get to be a little long, like one or two minutes. Add that to the fact that this is a long album to begin with and sometimes I just crave getting to the next song. This is just a little nit-picky complaint to an otherwise practically perfect release.

"Agony Of Death" was everything I wanted from a Holy Moses release. They dogs are definitely reborn on this release - and the Thrash fan in me couldn’t be happier.

Songs to check out: "Pseudohalluzination", "Angels In War", "Alienation".