Life of Agony: Broken Valley
Life of Agony formed in 1989 and released their debut album, River Runs Red, in 1993, which they followed up with Ugly in 1995. Shortly after its release drummer Sal Abruscato left the band. They quickly found a new drummer and released Soul Searching Sun in 1997. However, lead singer Keith Cuputo left the band latter in the year over issues where the band was going. Remaining members, bassist Alan Roberts and guitarist Joey Z, tried to keep the band together by bringing in new members, but called it quits and broke up in 1999. Then in 2003 they announced they would do a “one time only” two-day reunion show with all the original members. But while doing it they decided to get back together permanently. They released The Best of Life of Agony and River Runs Red: Live 2003 in 2003, then went into the studio and recorded Broken Valley and released it in 2005.
Keith vocals on here are awesome, but can be a little hoarse at times. His voice is somewhat like Scott Weiland of Velvet Revolver. The lyrics here are pretty much about loss, which is not surprising since he just lost a family member. The drums provide some of the best parts of the album and are truly great on the single
Love to Let You Down. The bass and the guitar stay heavy throughout the album and flow smoothly and go well with the vocals and tone of the songs, with their standout point on
Wicked Ways.
The third best song on here is
The Day He Died. The lyrics on here are probably the best in the album. Drums are good, but don’t stand out as much as they do on the rest of the album. Bass and guitar have the same problem as the drums. The second best song on here is
Wicked Ways, which has good vocals and the lyrics are great: “Sooner or later I thought that a savior would come and save us all It seems that he left us to fend for ourselves just to make us strong”. The base and guitar are heavy and well done with them going back and forth at the beginning. The best song on here is
Last Cigarette, which seems like something Velvet Revolver would do vocally, lyrically, and musically. The song seems to be about someone tiring to stop someone else from committing suicide. It has some pretty amazing vocals. The drums, bass, and guitar, well you can guess. Everything on this song is perfect. The single is
Love to Let You Down, which is a good song with excellent drumming and vocals, but I would have preferred
Last Cigarette as the single. The worst song on here is the title track
Broken Valley. It’s the second longest song (5:16) on here and gets pretty repetitive after a while. Its vocals are good, but the lyrics are the worst on the album. The drums, bass, and guitar seem to lack a certain “it” factor that makes the other songs good.
Life of Agony make a perfect comeback, and besides that one song, every other song on here is classic with excellent vocals, lyrics, and music that I will be listening to for years to come. 5/5.
This Message Edited On 01.19.06
