CoC : Christ Agony - Trilogy : Review

Christ Agony - _Trilogy_
(Pagan, 1998)
by: Paul Schwarz (7 out of 10)

Christ Agony are a band whose underground respect I have never been able to understand. Though I have never heard their _Unholyunion_ debut, my experience of their _Daemoonseth (Act II)_ and _Moonlight (Act III)_ has never provided me with sufficient proof of their worth, and I found _Darkside_ an awful and uninventive venture into the realms of industrial-tinged metal. What always seemed to let the band down was their inability to know when to stop. Songs with sufficient riffs to sustain a 3 minute song ran for 10 minutes. At last, it seems, Christ Agony have taken mercy on their listeners. _Trilogy_'s seven tracks fill less than half of this CD's length, with the bonus of their second four track demo providing 27 of the CD's 52 minute total running time. In the 25 minutes Christ Agony produce the most concise and listenable work of their career: tracks like "Hellspawn" and "Eternal Darkness", displaying the guitar riffing and drum style they have practiced for so long along with Cezar's distinct vocals. All are mid-paced, the drums utilizing a few different parts of the kit and the guitars a few chords and lots of palm-muting along with some skillful acoustic accompaniment. Add some keyboards, as is their trade, and, on "Dying Star", some dance beats which actually sound cool. Overall, Christ Agony have not written an album which changes their trademark sound, but what they have done with it is made it less indulgent and, as a whole, made an album which is possible to see through without having a lot of patience and a lot interest in their music. The band's apparent usage of a drum machine does seem to make the music a little too regimented and I'd suggest they recruit a real drummer for the future. What some might say is that Christ Agony's greatest problem is that their record company have some calculation problems, as they seem to think that this 52 minute CD provides "over an hour" of Christ Agony's music. I just hope they don't persist in these mathematical difficulties when it comes to paying their artists. This is definitely the best -album- Christ Agony have produced thus far in my experience.

(article published 1/9/1998)

ALBUMS
16/10/1997	A Lewandowski	4	Christ Agony - Darkside
17/7/1996	S Hoeltzel	7	Christ Agony - Moonlight - Act III