Ugly

This act rose from the bustling Brooklyn hardcore scene which started bearing some freaky mutations from the primal no-bars-held sound, ones that refused to follow the rigid canons, and branched out into the more or less unexpected. Prong established the thinking side of the modern thrash/post-thrash branch whereas Type-O-Negative and the band under scrutiny here swung towards the doom metal side, generating massive waves of shock among the more conservative fandom. Nothing bad about that, I should say, as both acts did very well to carve a niche for themselves on the doom metal arena. While the Peter Steele (R.I.P.) gang chose the more atmospheric, gothic-prone side of the spectre, our friends here went for the more flexible, more volatile sector where acts like Crowbar, Acid Bath and Down belonged. In other words, there was quite a bit of sludge, and even sincere hardcore, in their repertoire that by all means made things even more interesting and way more dynamic.

Their debut remains a milestone in the annals of said sub-genre, a definite highlight also being Mina Caputos’s highly distinctive emotional, soulful baritone that one can easily learn to recognize even in a sea of other performers behind the mike. Their happy-go-lucky blend of styles had a few more runs in stall, and here it was, the “ugly duckling” in the Life of Agony family. By no means is this ugly music-wise, though, as this is one of the coolest tributes to the sludge/doom metal field. The warm soulful, bluesy overtones of the opening “Seasons” hardly bodes any potential hardcore-ish outbursts, and indeed those are nowhere to be found. “I Regret” brings in more dynamics to the fore, but nothing above the clearly drawn doomy parametres. “Lost at 22” diversifies the formula with alternative and grunge additives, but the good tone is never broken everything contained within the pleasant friendly tones with “Other Side of the River” providing the soothing balladic respite. The title-track serves more playful, more uplifting rhythms looking at the stoner doom movement which already started shaping on the works of Cathedral and Kyuss; but “Drained” hardens the course towards more serious doomy territories recalling Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus in all their ship-sinking grandeur, a most brilliant doom metal hymn which later finds its match in “Damned if I Do”, another antediluvian moroser. Whatever officiancy the guys try to establish with these doom-laden anthems goes out the window the moment the closer hits, a cover of Simple Minds’ hit “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”, a somewhat underwhelming epitaph to this worthy tribute to the slower side of metal, quite faithfully performed at that.

This last track can hardly ruin the positive impression made by the other material which gives a more alternative interpretation of the good old doom with a few more optimistic twists along the way. The doom metal fanbase should have been satisfied all over, especially the one already open to the new stoned/spaced out possibilities within the genre presented by the other mentioned acts’ works. The new doom/stoner metal heroes? Why not, this was a new trendy phenomenon… well, not exactly as the band had other plans about their evolution which continued with “Soul Searching Sun” two years later, a self-reflective title, which saw the guys searching in the wrong places where grunge, alternative and numetal resided. No room for doom on such a varied mixture, unfortunately, that must have saddened many a metal fan back then. The band danced well for two instalments, but with this one they couldn’t quite convince a lot of people that this was a path worth exploring. Not surprisingly this led to a split-up.

The guys got together again in 2002 intent on prolonging their career by a few more years, but sadly “Broken Valley” couldn’t fix much from the damage left by its predecessor although it wasn’t a bad recording sticking to a safe alternative rock/metal formula. Live albums and compilations followed suit until the brand new “A Place Where There’s no More Pain” was unleashed upon the unsuspecting audience. 12 years is a lengthy period to be filled in distinctly, but at least this latest opus doesn’t try too hard to be anything too radically different. Those who dug the last two showings should be satisfied with this abrasive alternative rock/metal affair which again refuses to restore the doom metal domination. Well, one can only get that ugly once… I guess.