AGONIA — En Ruinas (review)

AGONIA — En Ruinas album cover Album · 2005 · Crust Punk Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
siLLy puPPy
I just love bands from countries that pick up styles of music that aren’t native to their land and do things with them nobody else would. AGONÍA ( Agony ) is one of those unorthodox bands that formed in San Luis Potosí, México in the year 2000 and has released two albums since. The first was this debut EN RUINAS ( In Ruins ) which emerged in 2005 and the second came in 2011 titled “No Respiraremos el Aire Muerto ( We Will Not Breath The Dead Air ).

While not dishing out a wildly bizarre style of avant-garde metal or experimental rock, AGONÍA has been interesting in how it mixes elements of black metal, folk music, crust punk and even good old fashioned heavy metal into a steaming cauldron of explosive furor. This album of 13 tracks is only over 24 minutes long and is primarily classified as a form of crust punk for its brevity and directness that includes heavy distorted hardcore punk constructs and screamo style vocal shouts.

The black metal aspects are heard in the lo-fi production, filthy raw kvlt sounding guitar tones and overall bleakness. Folk melodies find their way into the mix as do unexpected anthemic 80s heavy metal musical scales. The contrasts are rather unique and although perhaps not the most bizarre out there nevertheless offer an interesting deviation from anything i’ve really experienced before. The art is in how seamlessly all these styles are forged together in a cauldron of molten metal until a new bastard is born.

While in stylistic regalia EN RUINAS comes off as a hardcore crust punk album for sure but in composition is quite a different beast and just off-kilter enough to get my attention. No punkiness was sacrificed to make room for the other elements on board and the lyrics are evil and Satanic ( in Spanish ) and the music perfectly exemplifies such horrific subject matter. A nice little discovery from the middle of central Mexico. The second album took the black metal punk thing even further with aspects of death metal so all i can say is that i like this band’s approach.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Hin helga kvöl Atmospheric Sludge Metal
SÓLSTAFIR
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Cycles of Suffering Black Metal
BURIAL OATH
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Suns of Perdition - Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion Black Metal
PANZERFAUST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Facilis Descensus Averno Death Metal
SAEVUS FINIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Merciless Crossover Thrash
BODY COUNT
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

DAWN OF REVENGE - Sanctuary [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Farewell [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Curtain of Death - [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Vengeance [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - I Need You [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed