February 2015 Album of the Month: The Agonist’s Eye of Providence
Thursday, 5th March 2015
Narrowly edging out both Sarpanitum and Ensiferum in DR’s staff voting, The Agonist’s Eye of Providence sees the band in top form. After losing Alissa White-Gluz to Arch Enemy and bringing in Vicky Psarakis, it appears that the band is perhaps more whole than before. The band’s songwriting is at its strongest here, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a more diverse offering of tracks that came out last month. Despite the diversity, the songs click, and together create something greater than the sum of their parts. The Agonist’s strongest and most complete album to date, the band has unequivocally proven they can move on past the loss of a prominent vocalist and find even greater success.
An excerpt from Kyle McGinn’s 9.5/10 review, which posted on February 5th:
As previous album Prisoners was one of the strongest albums of 2012 (to these ears anyways), the bar was set quite high for Eye of Providence. Where Prisoners was a bit chaotic at points, with some frenzied transitions, Eye of Providence sees the band dialing it back a bit and really focusing on “the song”. The Agonist is still just as diverse as they’ve always been, if not more so, but they stick with a feeling for an entire song as opposed to having “moments.” From the visceral aggression of “Gates of Horn and Ivory” (that opening is just wicked) to the dark and almost-jazzy vibe of the ballad “A Gentle Disease” to the rock-ish approach of “The Perfect Embodiment,” there’s plenty to explore upon repeated listens.
With a renewed focus and revitalized approach, The Agonist have no problem smashing the lofty expectations set before them. Eye of Providence captures everything one would like to hear in melodic metal and then some. Lock this one in as the one to beat so far in 2015.
Read the full review HERE.
