EP REVIEW: Days Before The World Wept – The Agonist
Hailing from Montreal, Canada, THE AGONIST play a take on melodic death metal that spans metalcore, progressive metal and technical elements. They’ve gradually pushed and evolved their sound over the years, culminating in 2019’s Orphans. A bold step forward, it saw them crafting a career-best album and it looked like they were finally ready to seize their moment. An all too familiar story soon reared its head however; that of the small matter of a global pandemic. Instead of resting on their laurels though, the band have remained busy and are returning with brand new music in the form of their latest EP, Days Before The World Wept.
Comprising four brand new songs and one fresh re-working of an older song (Resurrection, from Five), it’s a step that further consolidates the sound they settled into with Orphans while still finding new ways to push themselves. Lead single Remnants In Time opens the EP with classically-inspired piano, but the peace isn’t to last as frenetic, technical guitar work, choral vocals and blasts make themselves known. The chorus recalls the blast beats of earlier with guttural lows from vocalist Vicky Psarakis, who is on top form throughout. The melodic vocal lines round the three-minute mark offer a brief respite before returning once more for a final chorus, with piano once more appearing to close out the song. Its inclusion is new to THE AGONIST and works wonders. That it doesn’t appear elsewhere on the EP feels not like a missed opportunity, but rather its brief introduction feels like a testing of the waters for something perhaps later down the line.
Second song Immaculate Deception begins with a brief spoken word interlude, a phrase that recurs throughout the song (“If you look at the face of evil/Evil will look right back at you”) before a stomping groove kicks the door in. Double bass work from drummer Simon McKay drives the song forward with mechanical precision, while in the final moments of the song there’s some vicious gutturals that end it in arresting fashion. The reworked song, Resurrection, has ditched the “The” from its name and boasts far more punch than its original version. Re-recording the song, given its themes of death and rebirth, fits well within the overall concept of the EP.
Latest single Feast On The Living and the title track close out the EP in furious fashion, the latter representing one of the more progressive moments on the release. Its acoustic intro gives way to blast beats interspersed with double-bass driven moments; it’s full-throttle and tightly controlled. The chugging groove is reminiscent of MESHUGGAH or GOJIRA in parts, though never strays from THE AGONIST’s own well-defined sound.
Days Before The World Wept isn’t just a lockdown release. It’s well-considered, and stands as the most cohesive record the band have penned yet, taking the identity they nailed down on Orphans, pushing into some new territories and consolidating others. The conceptual framework, centred around life, death and rebirth, ties it all together masterfully, with lyrics lending their own narrative through metaphor. Should they continue in this vein, there’s no doubt bigger and brighter things lie just around the corner.
Rating: 8/10
Days Before The World Wept is out now via Napalm Records.
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