Review Summary: The final album from a band that had so much promising potential, even though it doesnt show on this release. This is nowhere near as good as “The Darkest Red”, but there are some good tracks here and there.
In 2005, The Agony Scene returned to the heavy music scene with their sophomore effort “The Darkest Red”. The album was a major step up from the band and was a fantastic metal album overall, so expectations were somewhat high for their next album. “Get Damned” has some great songs on it, bit it is somewhat different from the last album, and not necessarily in a good way. The sound of the album is both similar in much different then anything they’ve done before. The way the music is presented on this release is different, and you can tell if you listen to the past albums and this one.
Longtime drummer and co-founding member left before this albums recording, and as a result the drumming on here is very bland and weak compared to The Darkest Red or even the self-titled album. While it was technical, fast, and relentless before it is basic heavy style drumming for a metalcore band which is shame because this aspect of the music could have been better. The guitars put out some catchy and really heavy riffs (like the riffs on Barnburner, Dance With Devils, and Rapture) throughout the record but the band has done better in this field on previous releases as well, and there are no solos on this album which is also another weakness when it comes to the guitars. The Bass is hidden behind the crushing guitars on practically every song here, leaving it inaudible and not much of anything worth noting. The highlight of this album and every album by The Agony Scene is vocalist Mike Williams. He has a very unique vocal style which works really well for every song on here, making each sounding very heavy and unique. Without him, this band would have failed from the beginning because much of their music focuses on his unique vocal style. On the previous albums, he even showed he could sing very well with his clean vocals on songs like Paint it Black, Prey, Procession, and My Dark Desire. Sadly, Williams only uses this style on one song here – Old Scratch. It turns out to possibly be the best song on the album with a great, addictive chorus that closes out the album. Backup vocals are also a key factor on this album as they are used a lot throughout some of the songs, like on Barnburner and Adversary (the Bassist contributes more to backup vocals then he does to actually making his instrument heard).
The songwriting on this album is also a weak point. Most of the lyrics on all the Agony Scene albums focus on the subject of death and this album follows that formula and doesn’t do anything to stand out. This proves that while the band put out some catchy and heavy songs the process can only work for so long before feeling used up and boring, making you want to turn the album off at the halfway point (or maybe even before that). It’s unfortunate that after this album the band split up because they had potential to release a really good record in time.
All In all, Get Damned is an ok album. It does nothing at all to stand out from anything else this band has done in the past but there are some great songs here, you just have to look for them. Give it a few listens and it might grow on you. If it doesn’t, or if you just want an overall better example of how great this band can be, check out The Darkest Red..it's better.
