{"id":26616,"date":"2015-02-23T00:00:12","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T00:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=26616"},"modified":"2015-04-02T13:43:00","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T13:43:00","slug":"feature-the-agonist-02-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-the-agonist-02-15\/","title":{"rendered":"THE AGONIST – They Endeavour (February 2015) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE AGONIST – They Endeavour<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nFebruary 2015<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Agonist (l-r): Simon McKay, Chris Kells, Vicky Psarakis, Danny Marino and Pascal \u201cPaco\u201d Jobin<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\nOn March 17th, 2014, it was revealed that vocalist Alissa White-Gluz had parted ways with Montreal, Quebec, Canada-based melodic death metal outfit The Agonist, joining Swedish melodic death metallers Arch Enemy. Following a 14-year tenure, previous singer Angela Gossow wished to focus on family commitments, remaining Arch Enemy\u2019s business manager nevertheless. At the time of the announcement, June 2014 Arch Enemy full-length War Eternal<\/em> had already been committed to tape.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found out about it after she had already recorded their entire album,\u201d reveals Danny Marino, guitarist and co-founder of The Agonist. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t like \u2018Hey guys. What do you think of this idea?\u2019 It was just like \u2018I went, I did this, and this is happening now. So, you\u2019re just gonna have to be okay with that.\u2019 We said… Because even though we were pretty shocked \u2013 like \u2018What the hell?\u2019 about the whole situation \u2013 we knew that to change singers was a huge deal. We considered \u2018Okay. How can we make this work?,\u2019 so we asked her for her Arch Enemy schedule, of what the coming year or years were gonna work like. As you can tell by now, basically her schedule has been non-stop and still going throughout 2015 even. Basically, we were looking at taking a two-year break as a band not just for this album, but for every album. <\/p>\n

\u201cArch Enemy\u2019s gonna wanna keep making albums and so are we, so we would always need to just take a long break every time and wait for the Arch Enemy touring cycle, which \u2013 as we know \u2013 is one of the heaviest touring cycles of metal bands out there. For us, we can\u2019t do that. We\u2019re not a part-time band, we\u2019re not a side project. We\u2019re still a young band; we\u2019re trying to grow, we\u2019re trying to establish ourselves, and so there was no bending on their end. They have their plans, and so we said \u2018Well, we can\u2019t work with this. We wanna continue playing music as The Agonist.\u2019 We had a bunch of songs already written ready to go for the new album. Yeah, that\u2019s how that happened (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

Such comments suggest The Agonist were merely informed of developments at the 11th hour, without being consulted. \u201cThere was no discussion, like asking us or anything like that,\u201d the axeman confirms. \u201cShe made the decision. It\u2019s her own life decision. She got an offer. That\u2019s fine if she wants to do that, but all I can say is that there were four other lives at stake in the band, and we can\u2019t be expected to just completely turn our lives upside down because one person makes a career decision. We said \u2018No. We wanna continue being a full-time band.\u2019 Already we had written the music anyway, so what\u2019s the problem?\u201d<\/p>\n

Alissa could\u2019ve better handled the situation, it could be argued. \u201cPossibly,\u201d Danny considers. \u201cIt probably would\u2019ve been better had we been told all of the details upfront, but at the end of the day, it was a really rough whole time that happened and a very difficult time for everybody. Everyone\u2019s way more happier now as a result though, so I\u2019m really glad that everything happened the way it did. The band is doing better than it has ever done in terms of releasing music and just on a personal level as well, the vibe between the whole band is much better. Even Alissa\u2019s off being super successful, so she\u2019s happy. In the end, the whole thing was a blessing in disguise.\u201d<\/p>\n

That very same day on March 17th, 2014 when Alissa\u2019s departure came to light, The Agonist announced the addition of vocalist Vicky Psarakis. \u201cOnce we found out that Alissa was joining Arch Enemy and that she had no time for us, we knew that we needed to start looking for a new singer if we wanted to continue with the band,\u201d the composer explains. \u201cI first asked around a bit among close friends, maybe looking into some of the existing names that are out there that possibly could fill the spot, but no-one could really fit. Either they were of a too different style or just weren\u2019t good enough perhaps, so then I started to look online for maybe an undiscovered talent or a talent that I had never heard of before. <\/p>\n

\u201cI came across Vicky\u2019s YouTube channel; she had a lot of different covers and things up there that showed a lot of different types of singing, all of which I thought were really great. Either it was something that was perfect for our band or something new that I had never thought of doing in our group, so I started messaging her \u2013 learning a bit more about her, about her personality and what she wants to do with her life, and all this. Everything matched up perfectly. She\u2019s super passionate about music; she just wants to play music for the rest of her life, and make that her career. That\u2019s always a good attitude to have. That\u2019s pretty much the gist of it, of how it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

The possibility of hiring a frontman had been momentarily considered. \u201cWhen this happened, we opened our minds to whatever made sense\u201d, Danny reasons. \u201cWe never really auditioned a guy, but briefly thought \u2018Should we maybe do that?\u2019 We were automatically cutting out 50% of the possible people just by saying that we couldn\u2019t have a guy, but in the end, it just didn\u2019t make sense to me. That was especially because the band has melodic singing vocals as well, so when it came to singing the old songs and all that, it felt like a male voice singing these songs that were written for a female voice just wouldn\u2019t work. As long as we could find the right girl, then there was no point in looking at that, and we did find the right girl (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

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Writing sessions for February 2015 full-length Eye Of Providence<\/em><\/a> \u2013 the band\u2019s fourth overall \u2013 began at the start of 2013. \u201cWith the first demo tracks, we recorded three songs that are on the album now \u2013 the instruments,\u201d the axe-slinger informs. \u201cThey didn\u2019t have names yet, at that time. It was just instruments, but the tracks were \u2018Danse Macabre\u2019, \u2018Follow The Crossed Line\u2019 \u2013 they went through a bit of a metamorphosis in the instruments by the end of the recording \u2013 and \u2018The Perfect Embodiment\u2019. It was at the very beginning of 2013. Basically, it\u2019s been two years now since those demos were recorded (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither lyrics nor vocal melodies were authored prior to Vicky\u2019s arrival. \u201cIt was just music, just the instruments,\u201d Danny shares. \u201cI\u2019d say more than half of it was written and demo recorded. We\u2019ve had a lot of these songs for quite a long time now, and that was perhaps another thing in the back of our minds when we heard about this whole Arch Enemy thing. As it stood, we didn\u2019t even know if she was in the band. We felt like she didn\u2019t have time to write this new album, because we had all of these songs written for a long time and still hadn\u2019t heard any vocals yet. We were already worrying that our album wouldn\u2019t be ready when we needed it to be and then we found out that, to which we were like \u2018Oh, okay. Well, it\u2019s definitely not getting done now.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cSo yeah, more than half was demoed already. Once Vicky came in, we started immediately working on the vocals and lyrics together. She\u2019s a creative person \u2013 she\u2019s not just a singer. That was another thing, another test that we needed to give her. We don\u2019t want just some singer who doesn\u2019t have any creative process, where we just tell her \u2018This is what you sing.\u2019 I sent her one of the demo tracks, and said \u2018Give me something on this. I want you to write something, and I\u2019m not gonna tell you what to write.\u2019 She came back with a great song and other than some little changes here and there, that composition is what\u2019s on the final album.\u201d <\/p>\n

The lyricist happens to be The Agonist\u2019s primary songwriter with respect to the music itself, although he isn\u2019t responsible for all of Eye Of Providence<\/em>\u2019s material. \u201cThere are two songs on this album that were written by Paco (Pascal Jobin, guitars) and Simon (McKay, drums); Simon wrote \u2018Architects Hallucinate\u2019, and Paco wrote \u2018I Endeavor\u2019,\u201d he credits. \u201cIf you\u2019re a fan and follow us closely, you can hear it too, because Simon also wrote \u2018Anxious Darwinians\u2019 on Prisoners<\/em><\/a> (June 2012) and Paco wrote \u2018Predator & Prayer\u2019. If you hear those songs and then you hear these two that I mentioned, you can hear styles there, like the difference between my writing and theirs. The rest of the songs were composed by me, but there are little parts here and there as well that were contributed by the other guys. (Chris) Kells the bass player wrote a few verse sections and things like that that ended up becoming a part of songs. We kind of work together. <\/p>\n

\u201cI come in and say \u2018Here\u2019s my song idea.\u2019 I\u2019ll have the parts and put it into a structure; sometimes it\u2019s a very put together and structured where I know exactly what I want, but sometimes it\u2019s a little open and loose and then we jam it together. I send the song to them, and we start playing it together live in the room. That\u2019s when we start making the decisions, like feeling it out. It\u2019s a lot of live playing. We don\u2019t really do so much… Like when I\u2019m writing a song, I don\u2019t just record it in ProTools and then put drum programming on it. It\u2019s more just \u2018Let\u2019s get together in the room, and let\u2019s play it,\u2019 and once we start hearing it as we start playing it, we do what we feel works \u2013 like \u2018Let\u2019s maybe change this drum fill.\u2019 We work it out like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certain motifs denote the respective writing styles of Paco and Simon. \u201cPaco usually writes high energy, really tough guy kind of riffs,\u201d Danny scrutinises. \u201cHe\u2019s got that bad ass vibe to his writing \u2013 you can almost hear that he has a big beard when he plays guitar (laughs). It\u2019s high energy, pulsing, head-banging kind of riffing and with lots of guitar work as well, because he\u2019s a very technical guitarist. Simon plays guitar, but he\u2019s not a technical guitar player at all. He very much songwriting wise likes interesting chords and moodiness. A lot of his writing comes out like ambient black metal; he\u2019s very influenced by Enslaved and bands like that, so you\u2019ll hear this kind of moodiness but mixed with very Norwegian black metal vibes in there too.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, differing influences inform their respective writing styles. \u201cWith Paco, I can hear Lamb Of God and Pantera in there, but then there\u2019s a very melodic side too just because he\u2019s a big fan of prog like Dream Theater \u2013 things like this,\u201d the Agonist mainman cites. \u201cIt\u2019s very involved, guitar-driven music that often has a really head-banging kind of pulsing beat to it, whereas Simon\u2019s is very open-ended and kind of dreamy \u2013 it\u2019s a little bit of a trip kind of thing. You have to really get into it, and listen closely. It\u2019s not something that you can just mosh to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critiqued against past The Agonist outings, Eye Of Providence<\/em> happens to be \u201cthe most thought-out,\u201d Danny contends. \u201cI feel like there\u2019s a maturity in the songwriting that I\u2019ve been striving for for some time. It\u2019s all about thinking for the song; everyone looks at the song as the art piece, and so we all worked together to create a song that makes you just feel something. That\u2019s what we wanted. We don\u2019t want people to just hear the songs and then hear the individual parts, like \u2018Oh, that\u2019s the guitar line… And that\u2019s the drum fill… And that\u2019s the vocal.\u2019 Ideally, we just want the song to evoke an emotion on its own. I\u2019ve heard that back from people that have heard it as well and it\u2019s a really good compliment to hear, that the songs stand up on their own just as a whole, and it sounds like the band is playing together, and we\u2019re all working together when we play. It\u2019s not as much like we\u2019re battling for space in the music.\u201d<\/p>\n

The musician is inspired by \u2018artists with the courage to take a listener to many different places in one album,\u2019 taking that lesson into Eye Of Providence<\/em>. \u201cIt starts out right away with American thrash riffing just to get it started, with \u2018Gates Of Horn And Ivory\u2019,\u201d he references. \u201cIt\u2019s also an area of metal that we didn\u2019t explore that much before; most of our metal I think was either European \/ Swedish death metal or black metal, or was even American hardcore. We really embraced that San Franciscan thrash sound. We do that a bit on this album, so that was kind of fun, but then it goes from that to the Swedish death metal sort of area to this dreamy metal \u2013 like I said, with Simon \u2013 to a fully acoustic song. It\u2019s a very dark, acoustic, moody piece. <\/p>\n

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The Agonist (l-r): Chris Kells, Simon McKay, Vicky Psarakis, Danny Marino and
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\u201cThere\u2019s two songs on there that I would classify as rock, because there\u2019s very little metal in them \u2013 \u2018The Perfect Embodiment\u2019 and \u2018As Above, So Below\u2019. It\u2019s influenced by bands like Muse and The Foo Fighters, or even Tool and A Perfect Circle. We try to go a lot of different places, whether it\u2019s somewhere where people can just mosh and have a good time in the crowd, or really go introspectively and think about perhaps life and what they feel matters to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

A rock orientation is especially apparent on \u2018As Above, So Below\u2019. \u201cI\u2019ve had some of those parts of that song for many years now,\u201d Danny admits. \u201cIt\u2019s something that I\u2019ve been playing with. I always thought \u2018Well, this is just not gonna suit The Agonist. It\u2019s too out there,\u2019 but once Vicky joined it started to make more sense, and everything was like \u2018Well, why not? I write a majority of the music already and this is something that I really like, so why not? Since we\u2019re a band that kind of likes to go to different places, let\u2019s do it.\u2019 It comes from the influence of some of the progressive rock bands, like I named Tool before, The Mars Volta, Circa Survive \u2013 things like that. In the end, some people have said that it\u2019s their favourite song from the album. It turned out really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking listeners to many different places in one album is something the guitarist has attempted to achieve since February 2009 sophomore effort Lullabies For The Dormant Mind<\/em>, something which wasn\u2019t the case with August 2007 debut Once Only Imagined<\/em>. \u201cFirst of all, when we wrote and recorded the first album, we were just kids,\u201d he reflects. \u201cWe were 18-years-old when we were writing those songs, and we hadn\u2019t really found our identity yet. I don\u2019t think we started to really find our identity until Prisoners<\/em>, because before then we were just recreating based on the influence of what we heard. What happened was when we got signed off of that first album, we began actually touring \u2013 we had never toured before. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe started touring the world opening for all of these other bands and hearing them every night, and just opening our eyes and our ears to new things. Whether it was just hearing those bands each night onstage, or even just travelling the world and learning about a lot of different new things and new music, I think the influence started to grow from there. You heard on Lullabies For The Dormant Mind<\/em> a very European influence, I think, which came in on that record. You can hear a lot of Swedish death, and symphonic metal, and all this kind of classical music came in. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was cool. I used to like it a lot, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a 100% representative of The Agonist as a whole. Then we moved into Prisoners<\/em>, where you heard a lot of progressive metal elements come out from all sorts of areas. It was a lot of ideas, a lot of ideas all mashing together. At times it wasn\u2019t very focused because everyone was just thinking perhaps a little bit too selfishly as a musician, and not thinking about how it fits in the music and the song. I think on this latest record is where we\u2019ve found that balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vicky employs a \u201creally diverse\u201d vocal range, Danny submits. \u201cIf you\u2019ve heard the whole album, you can hear various voices she uses throughout the record; whether there\u2019s a very sweet, soft, jazzy timbre to her voice to belting power metal or belting rock music singing. Then with her growls, I find her growls are a lot more… It\u2019s funny, because she\u2019s European in descent, but I find her growl to be a lot more American sounding than what we had previously in the sense that it\u2019s really pushed screaming deep from the gut. Very guttural, kind of reminiscent of a Corey Taylor (Slipknot) or even thrash metal screamers and things like that \u2013 Exodus or what not. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really pushed, and I like that personally. I like when you hear someone screaming that you know that they\u2019re actually screaming, that they\u2019re not creating a cookie monster voice and then holding the microphone really close so that it\u2019s loud, which is a normal screaming technique used by many singers in metal. I\u2019m not hating on it, because guys like Randy Blythe from Lamb Of God do amazing things with their voice, but Vicky\u2019s method I think is a lot more from deep down sort of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Penning general tracks as well as guitar riffs, the Agonist co-founder tries not to devote too much thought towards the process itself. \u201cI find if you get too cerebral about it, you lose the emotion and what\u2019s important to the song as a whole,\u201d he figures. \u201cI often just pick up a guitar and start playing; I start jamming with myself. Improvisation, just playing, playing until something comes about. There are some parts on the album that are very difficult to play and some that are quite simple, but I find that the ones that are simple to play still are awesome riffs or awesome songs. That\u2019s the most impressive thing to me \u2013 it always has been. The ability to write a piece of music that\u2019s not too difficult to play, but is an amazing song. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe actual playing… If you listen, there are a number of guitar solos throughout the record. For the most part, if you hear any kind of shredding, fast playing, that\u2019s Paco. That\u2019s his area; he\u2019s an amazing technical guitarist. We\u2019ve somewhat found that balance within us where if there\u2019s kind of a more feel, slow, melodic solo that\u2019s more similar to a singing line, that\u2019s probably me what you\u2019re hearing. If there\u2019s one that really sounds like an actual guitar solo that\u2019s just awesome, fitting riffing with melodic passages on the other hand, that\u2019s him. We\u2019ve got this balance, and there are a few times where a solo is half me and half him \u2013 we split it. That was fun, because we never did that before.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Eye Of Providence<\/em>\u2019s album title, meanwhile, is a concept Danny devised based on two keen interests. \u201cOne is ancient mythology and ancient civilisations, and the other is technology,\u201d he lists. \u201cBasically, if you were to research the Eye Of Providence<\/em>, you would see that it\u2019s a concept from many different religions and ancient mythologies. It\u2019s the all-seeing eye, the idea that there\u2019s an all-seeing eye that can see everything that is going on in the universe at all times \u2013 it\u2019s always watching you. I found that concept interesting, but really, where I took it is with the technology aspect; today in 2015. Because of the rapid advancements in our technology, everyone has the devices. They\u2019re constantly interfacing with technology at all times. We\u2019re living in the age of the Eye Of Providence<\/em>. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real thing \u2013 it\u2019s not some god or mythical idea. It\u2019s just that technology has reached a point where we can basically see everything at all times in real time, and it\u2019s only going faster. Artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly, and I think within our lifetime, we\u2019re gonna be seeing some things that only ten years ago seemed like total science fiction because of the exponential growth of technology. It just doubles constantly. I just find it really fascinating. As much as it\u2019s scary perhaps and presented in a way that it\u2019s a negative thing, obviously it\u2019s a huge positive too because of the advancements of our planet and everything. Science is for the good, but it also can be used obviously for a lot of evil. If it\u2019s put in the hands of people who are… A lot of people are just inherently selfish (laughs). Science is this amazing, powerful thing that can be used against humanity, but we\u2019re being told that it\u2019s for us when it\u2019s really against us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the aforementioned ties in with the platter\u2019s lyrical content. \u201cWe basically named the album that, because it is the most recurring theme in the lyrics,\u201d the axeman divulges. \u201cIt\u2019s not a concept album. Not every song is about that; there are a couple of songs on there that Vicky wrote the lyrics for that are personal to her and about her personal life experiences, so that has nothing to do with what we\u2019re talking about. A good four to five songs go in that topic though, so Eye Of Providence<\/em> was fitting for the name of the album.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eye Of Providence<\/em>\u2019s artwork was designed by Aaron Marsh at Sons Of Nero. \u201cThat was based on the Eye Of Providence<\/em> concept that I came up with,\u201d Danny tells. \u201cI thought it would be a pretty interesting image to have, an eye looking upwards towards some omnipotent light or something. We did real photography for it rather than CGI or drawn images, which we\u2019ve done on the previous three albums. Once we had the photo done \u2013 the close-up of the eye \u2013 we passed that onto Aaron Marsh at Sons Of Nero, and he turned that into the artwork that you can see with the colouring and the cabling. If you open up the inside of the jacket, he did all of that layout and all of that imagery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recording sessions for Eye Of Providence<\/em> commenced at Montreal\u2019s The Grid in roughly February to March 2014. Concluding in August, Christian Donaldson sat in the production chair once more. \u201cIt was the first time recording in his new studio, which is The Grid,\u201d the Agonist songwriter elaborates. \u201cThe last three albums were recorded in his home. He\u2019s been growing a lot as a music producer, growing his equipment and his range of recording. He\u2019s actually got his own full studio now, which we went to record this one at. It was a great time; it was the most positive recording experience we\u2019ve ever had. It was a lot of work, but somehow, it was really enjoyable for the most part \u2013 the whole process. Me and Vicky, it\u2019s our favourite place to be is recording. Creating music, that\u2019s what we got into this for. We love playing live, but really, the creation of the music from start to finish is the main reason that I do what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through the years, Christian\u2019s approach towards producing The Agonist has evolved. \u201cHe\u2019s evolving as a producer,\u201d Danny concurs. \u201cHe\u2019s getting more and more organic in how he does his production, and that\u2019s another reason why we stayed with him. When we first started with him, he was much more digital in his processes. It\u2019s still digital because everything is digital, but I just mean in using samples, sounds, and re-amping, or even using actual digital guitar sounds and all these kinds of things, and moving more and more away from that. With this latest album, the drums are the drums \u2013 straight from the room. It\u2019s not re-sampling and all this stuff, and triggering, and it\u2019s the same with the guitar. Everyone\u2019s re-amping pretty much now, but we didn\u2019t even re-amp. The amp was on while I was playing. We never re-sent it through other… <\/p>\n

\u201cWe found our sound. It took some time, but once we did, the amp and microphones stayed there for days and days until it was done (laughs). Everything was a lot more real, which is really good. We wanted to get away from some of our previous productions, which were a little too cold sounding for our tastes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lead single \u2018Disconnect Me\u2019 was issued on April 29th, 2014, and marked the first publicly available Agonist track to feature Vicky. \u201cIt was one of the more straightforward songs on the record, I think,\u201d the longtime songwriter judges, responsible for its authorship. \u201cWe just wanted to… We released that one just because at that point we only had two songs that had vocals on them, so it was between that and \u2018Perpetual Notion\u2019. We thought that \u2018Disconnect Me\u2019 was a better introduction to show people. Yeah, it was just a good song; a good live song, high energy, and a lot of fun to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paco recorded his parts for the composition with an injured hand. \u201cHe accidentally hurt his hand \u2013 broke his knuckle actually,\u201d Danny informs. \u201cI wasn\u2019t there. He was at home. It wasn\u2019t like we were together. I think he was just joking around with his friends, play wrestling, laughing and whatever (laughs). Accidents happen. He might\u2019ve had a couple of beers. I don\u2019t know (laughs). This was right at the time when he still needed to track a solo for that song, so he kind of screwed himself over. He had to think of something fast, because we needed it done and he really wanted to have it there. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole guitar tapping section that you hear, it\u2019s because he couldn\u2019t use his picking hand. He had to use his middle finger to do the tapping parts, and that came out. There\u2019s the first half of the solo, and then it switches. Like I said, you can hear sometimes going from maybe fast, technical playing to a slow, melodic line. That\u2019s halfway through the solo, and then I come in \u2013 you\u2019ll hear a pick actually being used at that point. That\u2019s kind of how that came about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Disconnect Me\u2019 is one of Eye Of Providence<\/em>\u2019s tunes which touch \u201con the whole technology aspect, about just disconnecting from people living their device 24\/7. You probably look at your phone about 200 times a day, always looking at a screen. You forget about how it is to just interact face-to-face with people, or even just a voice. First level would be actual face-to-face interaction, and then the second would be what we\u2019re on now \u2013 on the phone. I can hear your voice, and you can hear the emotion and the intonations in my voice. That changes the way you perceive what I am saying versus typing, and also seeing someone\u2019s face in front of you changes the way you act. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow you feel an empathy for this person that\u2019s right there, rather than typing. I think that\u2019s why you see a lot of hateful comments online about various things \u2013 all kinds of trolling and all of this \u2013 because they feel safe in their computer world where they\u2019re disconnected from the other person. They can say the most hateful things you can imagine and not worry about it, whereas if that person was standing face-to-face in front of them, they never would\u2019ve said that because they have a certain level of human empathy for that person. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat whole song is literally \u2013 like I said \u2013 pretty straightforward in its delivery. It\u2019s literally about disconnecting yourself from technology, at least for a little while \u2013 you can try. I think with the younger generation, it\u2019s something that\u2019s lost. Myself, I\u2019m in that crossover generation \u2013 I\u2019m 30-years-old. I lived in a world when none of this existed, but it basically has grown throughout my life, and so I can see the difference. I feel bad for someone that\u2019s born today that have no idea what it was like when the only way you could speak to someone was if you called them, or if you went and met them face-to-face. It changes the way our society interacts, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Music videos were filmed for the tracks \u2018Gates Of Horn And Ivory\u2019 and \u2018My Witness, Your Victim\u2019. \u201c\u2018Gates Of Horn And Ivory\u2019 was done with David Brodsky,\u201d the axe-slinger discloses. \u201cHe did a couple of our other videos \u2013 like \u2018Thank You, Pain.\u2019 and \u2018… And Their Eulogies Sang Me To Sleep\u2019 (both from Lullabies For The Dormant Mind<\/em>). It was basically a take on the lyrics \u2013 the concept kind of came about from my lyrics. I wanted a way to show the dichotomy between what is real and what is fake, and what is truth and what is deception. I was thinking about what you can do with a band performing that shows that, and so we came up with the idea that we had. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea kind of pokes fun at the music industry, and how it tries to portray grandiose images of artists that are mainly not at all the truth of what they are, because they\u2019re just trying to make money off of it, and ourselves included have been in that position before. We just felt like it was time also for bit of a fun video, because our music videos and our music has always been serious \u2013 and it is. To a certain point though, we\u2019re actually really jokey kind of people. We like to laugh a lot, so we figured \u2018Why not show a bit of that side of us?\u2019 That came out like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018My Witness, Your Victim\u2019 was directed by Chris Kells our bass player, who shoots and edits music videos when he\u2019s not touring with us. That\u2019s what he does for a living, so it was really fun to finally do one with him. We went for the whole whore aspect \u2013 it\u2019s one of his specialities. I think he\u2019s really good at shooting gritty, that kind of violent imagery or just very aggressive kind of imagery. That\u2019s about it for those two.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Agonist (l-r): Chris Kells, Simon McKay, Pascal \u201cPaco\u201d Jobin, Vicky Psarakis
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By comparison with \u2018Gates Of Horn And Ivory\u2019, the music video for \u2018My Witness, Your Victim\u2019 isn\u2019t as direct. \u201cThat song is \u2013 again \u2013 about the Eye Of Providence<\/em>,\u201d Danny expounds. \u201cMoreso the all-seeing eye in that everything we do is tracked, whether it\u2019s governments or corporations using it against us and what not. We didn\u2019t want to directly show that in the video, so Kells was trying to think of a way that he could symbolically show that. There\u2019s a sort of loudspeaker there that is shown constantly in the shot with the torture, and the person being tortured. It\u2019s playing out the messages through the torture, and you can see throughout the video the torturer. You find out later that it\u2019s Vicky at the end, but you find out that they\u2019re having a hard time with it. Even though they\u2019re doing these acts to the person, they don\u2019t necessarily want to \u2013 it\u2019s a message that\u2019s coming from the speaker. Finally she breaks from it and decides to smash the speaker at the end, rather than smash the guy. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just being conscious and aware of all that is around you. We\u2019re all taking part in these amazing, new technological tools, like Facebook, Google and everything else. They do wondrous things for us, but you need to be aware that sometimes you\u2019re being guided and you don\u2019t even realise it \u2013 that you\u2019re taking actions that are subliminally given to you. It\u2019s much more so now than it was perhaps in previous generations, when it was TV that was doing that. Now it\u2019s something that\u2019s more direct, because it\u2019s your own close friend that\u2019s telling you this. You don\u2019t realise it though, because they\u2019re not really telling you that \u2013 it\u2019s just because they like something, like Oreos. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow you\u2019re seeing Oreo messaging and it\u2019s making you hungry, but it\u2019s coming from your buddy John \u2013 it\u2019s not coming from Oreo (laughs). That\u2019s just one way. There are many different ways, whether it\u2019s media or government or whatever it is. There\u2019s ways that we\u2019re all kind of being led a little bit. It\u2019s just being guided in certain directions, whether it\u2019s politically or not. That song is about taking back control and trying to remain conscious of everything around you, because you don\u2019t realise that you could be doing something horrible at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subliminal messages can arguably relate to certain groups\u2019 use of a frontwoman, certain groups using their frontwoman\u2019s image to garner sales and attention. \u201cThat\u2019s just kind of it,\u201d the wordsmith begins. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the main things that we\u2019ve changed on this album. We\u2019re trying to show that The Agonist is a band \u2013 a group of people \u2013 and that we have a female singer. It\u2019s not a female singer that has a band. It\u2019s much more representative of our group to say that we\u2019re a band because as I said, the band writes the music together and we function together. We have a fantastic singer, just like other bands have a fantastic singer. There\u2019s a huge stigma with female-fronted groups \u2013 I actually don\u2019t even like that term. When a band has a female singer though, they automatically get lumped into this group. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know there are bands out there that really do that a 100%; that\u2019s all they are, and that\u2019s all they rely on. They just sell the sexiness of the singer only, and the music is very mundane. There\u2019s not much to it, and maybe that singer\u2019s not even a good singer. I know that that exists, but there\u2019s also a whole bunch of other bands that have amazing female singers, and are good bands. They get lumped in by people thinking that they\u2019re just one of those bands who uses the hot girl, though. That\u2019s blatant prejudice. I don\u2019t think The Agonist is that band at all, and I think that there are a lot of other bands out there that get that sexism sort of put on them. It\u2019s really just pure prejudice, and I hope it ends eventually. It\u2019s been over 20 years that females have been singing in metal bands; I think it\u2019s probably time for people to get over that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The blame for using sex appeal to further sales can be placed on several different quarters. \u201cIt\u2019s the media that choose to push it that way, and then it\u2019s also the fans of those that go along with it and buy into it, and then further that stereotype,\u201d Danny reckons. \u201cIt\u2019s a blend. It feeds itself. The media knows how to make the people do the work for them, and that\u2019s really what they wanna do. They wanna get everyone else talking, so that everyone else promotes their thing that they want for them. It\u2019s much better that way, because it\u2019s way better when your friend tells you \u2018Hey, check this out\u2019 than when some commercial tells you that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eye Of Providence<\/em> was released on February 23rd, 2015 in Europe and subsequently on the 24th in North America, all via Century Media Records.<\/p>\n

Interview published in February 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE AGONIST – They Endeavour Anthony Morgan February 2015 The Agonist (l-r): Simon McKay, Chris Kells, Vicky Psarakis, Danny Marino and Pascal \u201cPaco\u201d Jobin On March 17th, 2014, it was revealed that vocalist Alissa White-Gluz had parted ways with Montreal, Quebec, Canada-based melodic death metal outfit The Agonist, joining Swedish melodic death metallers Arch Enemy. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,300],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-the-agonist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26616"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45971,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26616\/revisions\/45971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}