Archives of the Dead part XXIII: Agonize – Fall (demo 1991)

Archives of the Dead part XXIII: Agonize – Fall (demo 1991)

Marco Giovanni Bove (bass), Steffen L. Nielsen (drums), Christian L. Nielsen (guitars), Ole Holm (vocals)

Recorded & mixed 16-18 of october, 1991, at Borsing Recording, Denmark

Produced by Jacob Hansen and Agonize

Mixed by Jacob Hansen and Agonize

Denmark was never my favourite place to search for some killer death metal bands. There are few Dannish bands, which I like of course, for instance Autumn Leaves, Detest, early Illdisposed, when speaking of the old scene. Plus three or four new bands. And I’m sure that there are some more, which I still need to check out. Agonize is a band, that I was familiar with, but I only knew their name, but I never had a chance to hear their demo until maybe couple of years ago, when I finally found a digital version of “Fall” (1992).

From the first listen you can hear that Agonize were damn solid band, but for my personal taste their music was not quite as brutal as I would wish. It is actually more like death / thrash, with some reminiscences of acts like Sepultura, Sadus, Invocator, Pestilence and so on. I like the music quite much, it’s technical, aggressive and relatively fast (check “Innovaphobia” for instance), definitely Agonize had many killer ideas for their music, especially in the song titled “The Disclosure”, which is a brilliant closing track. And yeah, it sounded good, but maybe the vocals could have been more brutal and aggressive. I honestly think that they’re the weakest characteristic of “Fall”. Sound could also have been a bit heavier, but on the other hand it fits the thrashing influence of Agonize, so it’s not a major disadvantage. It all works quite well, somehow I enjoy this demo and every time I play it, it brings me a good energy. I can even live with these type of vocals, because Agonize managed to bring some great slashing riffs and the whole demo has this nice aggressive manner that we need when listening to old and new death / thrash metal releases. So, it’s a solid release, it surely didn’t age badly. I’m sure though that with heavier type of vocals it would have been much better.

Standout track: “In Absence of Comfort”

Final rate: 70/100