Your Life Style Determines Your Death Style

My Great Grandfather was an Artillery Gunner in the First World War and a heavy smoker, because let's face it back in those days it was marketed as good for you.
Despite these odds he lived to a fairly decent age but eventually the cordite from the guns and the years of smoking caught up with him and his lungs disintegrated.
Why do I bring this up in a blog about Metal Music?
Well, the point is that my last memories of him were of a frail old man getting weaker and less present with each visit that got further and further apart, until sadly he passed away and as my first childhood experience of death it left a profound sadness that was in truth long overdue by the time his passing was announced.

This week Life of Agony drummer Sal Abruscato announced to the world that the band were officially calling it quits. In a interview in Poland whilst touring for his new venture, the surprisingly good A Pale Horse Named Death he stated,
'"We're not gonna play [anymore]. We moved out of our studio. We all kind of feel like we're at the end. We're never gonna make another record, because of those kinds of problems I was talking about [earlier in the interview] — we can't agree on writing a song. And Keith [Caputo, vocals] wants to pursue his life and his lifestyle. And that's pretty much the reason why also I've moved on and I'm doing my own thing… to just keep going; I didn't want my career to stop with LIFE OF AGONY. LIFE OF AGONY doesn't tour, LIFE OF AGONY doesn't do much. And so we were at a point where it was like… We did the last three shows in July [2011] and then we moved out of our studio, and that's it. I don't foresee anything in the future; I highly doubt it. I don't know how that would happen."

This statement echoes earlier hints by the band's frontman Keith Caputo that,
"We realize that LIFE OF AGONY has become an extremely nostalgic act and the music that used to not be dated, in our eyes, is dated, and the whole situation is dated. It's a nostalgia, and we don't want to take advantage of that nostalgia anymore, nor do we wanna take advantage of the fans. We've got three shows [in July 2011] and it's probably gonna be the last shows that we do for a very long time. In fact, we just may call it quits. Because we feel like we set out to do what we needed to collectively. We're very honest people, we love each other dearly, but we just can't get it on; we can't turn each other on in the studio. We hit a brick wall together, and it ain't cool. So there's probably not gonna be a new [LIFE OF AGONY] album, nor a new single… So people better start getting used to [the 2005 album] 'Broken Valley', because that's probably the last piece of music that they'll hear from the band."

In all fairness this announcement, whilst tinged with sadness, is the best thing that could happen, that once and for all LOA can be laid to rest.

I appreciate that it seems like I am eulogising a family member or a beloved pet, but personally I don't think you can underestimate the effect that music can have on you, particularly in your emotionally vulnerable formative years and those of you looking for the usual bile, I promise I'll post up something about Larz and Megadave very soon just to balance it out... but for now I am going to lament the passing of what to me, was a very important band.


I believe there are tiers of liking music - people ask you to do a top 5 or a top 10 and you can snap five automatic responses off in no time, but there are another tier of band that don't immediately crash into that list that can be held as special.
For example if you have never met me, read this blog before, then you might not be aware that Iron Maiden are my favourite band, however lyrically and on some level emotionally they are very hard to connect with - I have never been a British Solider, an Egyptian Mummy, An Ancient Mariner even, but there are bands like Nine Inch Nails (earlier works it should be pointed out) who I have felt so profoundly that at times I have had to put the album away because emotionally the weight is crushing.
For me, Life Of Agony was such a band.

LOA was formed back in 1989 in Brooklyn, New York by Keith Caputo, cousin Joey Z (guitars) and Alan Robert (guitars/vocals). Growing up in the tough neighbourhood they would all experience harsh childhoods including a back drop of abuse, absentee parents - through abandonment/suicide - and drug use to the point where Keith was sent to live with Joey.
All of which would provide the band with the ammunition to pen some of the most hard hitting lyrics committed to disc.
After playing with several drummers they enlisted the then Type O Negative (RIP Pete) drummer Abruscato and roped in his former band mate Josh Silver to produce their debut album which would become one of Roadrunner Records greatest releases, River Runs Red.


RRR was released in 1993. By and large it is considered a concept album it deals with the family struggle of a teenage boy whose life is falling apart, at home, at school, at work and in love.
The music is primarily metal, but tinged with the influence of the NY Hardcore scene that saw them drawing crowds at the legendary CGBGs night club.
This album contains some of their greatest songs - Underground, Method Of Groove, Through And Through, This Time and of course the epic title track all inter-cut with snippets of the boys week.
As great an album as it is, River Runs Red is an extremely dark journey and without trying to give too much as a spoiler to those interested, when they called themselves Life Of Agony they meant it and this is a concept album without a happy ending.
Although for the band (and principle song writer Robert) this remains the pinnacle of their work.


Two years later LOA returned to the studio to record their follow up album. Coming as a surprise to their hardcore fan base, Ugly, saw a softening of the bands style from the aggressive gang chorus to a heavy rock sound that was more in common with bands like Stone Temple Pilots than Sick Of It All.
No less emotionally weighty the album saw major contributions from Abruscato and Captuo, the latter particularly on the subject matter dealing with his parents drug abuse, his missing mother and from Roberts' part the death of his mother and the frustrations of growing into adulthood.
It is a beautiful, but downright depressing affair at times that not even the pointless throwaway cover of Simple Mind's 'Don't You Forget About Me' could lift.
Despite the radical departure and large disdain it was greeted with from the wider public LOA retained their fan base and successfully toured with Ozzy Osbourne, Korn, Anthrax and fellow Brooklynites Type O Negative.
However during one of the shows on this tour a fan fell from the stage trying to stagedive and died. As a result the band were implicated and cleared in a lawsuit but saw Captuo deeply effected to the point years later on the River Runs Again DVD he warns the crowd to watch out as they 'have already lost a life'.
Following and despite all the tours momentum Abruscato exited the band after the tour, and was replaced by ex-Pro Pain/Crumbsuckers drummer Dan Richardson.


In 1997 the band returned to the studio to record Sun Searching Sun, this record continued the bands evolution away from metal and was met with further confusion, this time from the bands fanbase as well.
Featuring some of the bands most upbeat songs the material often jars against themes of underlying depressing such as the lead single Desire - lyrical hook 'I'm comfortable feeling miserable and I never want to change'.

Despite having signed up for a world tour, waif like renaissance man Keith announced that he was no longer feeling the music and departed the band.
Undoubtedly crushed by their band mate/family members departure the band ploughed ahead, taking the bizarre step of recruiting former Ugly Kid Joe vocalist Whitfield Crane to man the mike in Caputo's departure.


Now taking a step back here I saw LOA on this tour with Crane, despite his involvement in the aural equivalent of Aids, he was actually a pretty fine vocalist (check out the under rated Medication album featuring whit, Logan Mader formerly of Machine Head and Roy from Soulfly) although trying to instil a bouncing, party crowd during heavy weight anthems like Other Side Of The River and the fact that LOA had a family orientated and loyal fanbase meant that he would never be accepted.


Couple this with the fact that the new material didn't endear itself to the hardcore following and Whit was on to a losing streak from the off. During this show I saw a tiny girl in New Roc boots axe kick a stereotypical looking hardcore dude (you know... wife beater, too many tattoos, bulging neck muscles) out cold. Her reason you ask?
She was pissed off cos they were playing SSS single 'Weeds' and it is (in her words) 'A fucking pop song'.
At this juncture I exited the pit...

Once home from the Soul Searching... tour the remaining band members decided they no longer wanted to continue as LOA without Caputo and Crane left as quickly as he came and eventually they crumbled and disbanded in 1999 with Caputo re-emerging on Roadrunner as a solo artist with the fantastic Died Laughing album.

In truth I mourned them back then and it was over until a family tragedy brought them back together. Keith's father passed away in late 2002 and the grief reunited all the band members to play two reunion shows which would be released as River Runs Again - reuniting the classic line up.


Following the success of the shows the band retuned to the studio in 2005 to record their first new material in eight years in the form of 2005's Broken Valley.
It's fair to say the album is their weakest and was not well received by their fanbase at large (although in my house I still spin it) as the music was closer to Velvet Revolver style stadium rock and the mellower moments of Ugly. After a short tour the band all but vanished again as Caputo once again reiterated that this was not the style of music he wanted to play.

And there they should have left it, but they have been playing festivals in Belgium and club shows in the states occasionally and in 2009 they performed all of River Runs Red which left me with a sour taste in my mouth. When I saw them in 2005, finally with Keith, it was clear that as much as Roberts, Joey and Sal were enjoying themselves Caputo was a man (yes he was still a man back then...) going through the motions and to see one of the most emotionally moving bands I knew almost faking it was a sad sight to see.
And so they limped on, almost reuniting every now and then for the cash top up, until 2010 when they released the 20 Years Strong: River Runs Red, Live in Brussels CD/DVD set which I have to say I couldn't bring myself to buy.

Now it seems like they have finally decided to call time on the whole affair - a prolonged and undignified death for a great band who profoundly effected my life growing up.

What happened next:

As detailed before Keith Caputo has forged a decent music career post LOA with his last full solo album A Fondness For Hometown Scars being released in 2007 and a side project called The Neptune Darlings was released last year. I have already mentioned in this blog about his transition from male to female and his annoying Facebook outpourings so I'll leave that one here.


Alan Robert has released music under the banner of Spoiler NYC which I must confess haven't heard and has more recently entered the comic book industry, writing and releasing horror/conspiracy tale The Wire Hangers in 2010 (which he has announced will be made into a live action movie) and his latest project Crawl To Me was released in 2011.


Sal Abruscato formed A Pale Horse Named Death which sees him move from the drum stool to the guitar and microphone. Their 'And Hell will Follow Me' album was released last year and is a great album that combines a hard grunge style of rock with the more gothic Type O and states "This is my pinnacle creation, the best album I have ever done, and after listening, most people are tending to agree."
Much as I love it, I'll be falling outside that category.


Joey Z formed Stereomud after the first LOA split and released two albums. I have the first one somewhere, didn't like it. Sorry Joey.
They broke up when LOA reformed and since the second split he has owned and run Method Of Groove studios in his home town of Brooklyn.

RIP Life Of Agony.