The Agonist: Hope In A Weeping World

It’s an almost unwritten fact at this point that most bands – where they could – have spent the last eighteen months beavering away on new material or something new and exciting for fans. It’s been as much out of necessity to tide them over in an elongated album cycle as it has been borne of bands simply having much more time on their hands. Canadian melodic death metallers THE AGONIST are certainly no different, having spent a good portion of 2021 working on their latest EP, Days Before The World Wept. It’s a few weeks prior to release when we catch up with their vocalist Vicky Psarakis who, it transpires, has been even busier than most.

“So the pandemic started with the US tour that was supposed to happen with FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE that got cancelled about a week before it started. So I just came home, and there were a lot of question marks back then like, when this whole thing would end. A lot of people were naive enough to assume that it would be done by the summertime. I wasn’t one of those people – I’m like, I don’t know, I feel like I’m gonna be home for a really long time,” she begins. Those long months at home meant that she finally had time to do plenty that she’d not been able to do before because of a gruelling tour schedule. “I launched my Patreon, then shortly after that I started streaming on Twitch,” she explains. “While I started [that], we wrote songs with THE AGONIST for this EP earlier this year and since then it’s been. I don’t know how I have time to sleep or breathe or anything really, but it’s been really fun!”

Sonically Days Before The World Wept picks up where 2019’s Orphans left off; taking their melodeath roots and pushing out into new territories with flashes of progressive metal and even some symphonic elements seeping in. Lyrically it’s also a step forwards in some ways, representing a conceptual EP that, while not having a central narrative arc, is themed around death, rebirth and the afterlife. It’s an area that Vicky has always been passionate about, crafting lyrics that balance both metaphorical storytelling and deeper meaning, expressing “I think I care a little bit more, because I’m singing the lyrics. It’s like, the words are literally coming out of my mouth. So I don’t want to talk about nonsense or things that don’t matter to me.”

To hear her describe it, the EP isn’t fully a concept but has a loose framework; “there is no clear beginning-middle-end. The beginning is a question mark and the end is a question mark.” That’s not to say there’s no story at all; “Remnants In Time starts – and I think the video is a great representation of that – with a main character that’s about to die, that meets this demon character,” she begins. “The demon says to the main character, what would you do to be able to live a little bit longer? What would you give up? So there’s this whole, striking a deal with the devil sort of situation where it’s like, big surprise, the devil lied to you. You’re just going to die anyway.”

It may start in fantasy and science fiction territory, but it’s steeped in metaphor and deeper meaning, for each song. It’s not something she’s keen to necessarily divulge up front, though, preferring fans to listen for themselves, forming their own interpretation and applying it to themselves if they feel it does. “That’s why I write in that way where it’s up to interpretation. I actually smile when someone comes up to me and they’re like, ‘Hey did you write this song about this?’ And I’m like, no but reading the lyrics again, I could see why you think that and I think that’s really cool.” These deeper questions and meanings form the backbone of the EP’s lyrics, tackling a myriad of issues, all of which are important to them that they feel need addressing.

As dark as the concept of Days Before The World Wept sounds, there’s still some light to be found at the end. “I like to end things on a positive note. I like telling grim stories and very depressing things because I think, we have to. We can’t just pretend that everything is great but I always like ending on a positive note. I think music should give people hope, so even with a song where it has this post-apocalyptic sort of vibe and it’s very depressing. There’s a line [in the title track] where it says ‘I’ll hold out my hand’. That’s like, an image of, I’ll stay here and I’ll extend my hand to help you if you need help.”

It’s a stirring message that hope can be found even in the darkest of places; something that, for all the darkness that can be heard musically and seen through the videos, still shines through their lyrics, to reach out through them to fans who may need to hear that things do eventually, no matter how awful things are, do get better.

Days Before The World Wept is out now via Napalm Records.

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