The Agony Scene

All Music Guide:

The Agony Scene hail from Tulsa, OK, where they formed at the start of the new millennium, broke up, made up, and eventually recorded a self-titled debut album, released by independent Solid State Records, in 2003. At this time, the band consisted of vocalist Michael Williams, guitarists Christopher Emmons and Johnny Lloyd, bassist Matthew Shannon, and drummer Brent Masters, and even though said album contained relatively run-of-the-mill metallic deathcore, the quintet still managed to score a deal with heavy metal powerhouse Roadrunner Records for its sophomore effort, The Darkest Red. Released in May 2005, following Lloyd and Shannon's departure and replacement by Steven Kaye (guitar) and Brian Hodges (bass), this album showed little creative growth over its predecessor, and met with only slightly less public indifference, despite the Agony Scene's high-profile tours in support of Danzig and Lamb of God later that year. Sure enough, the under-performing group was soon dropped by Roadrunner, but eventually resurfaced in 2007 (after welcoming new bassist Chris Rye and drummer Ryan Folden, plus Brian Hodges' move to second guitar) with a new album, Get Damned, released by Century Media. On a final note, the Agony Scene have always insisted that they are not in fact a Christian band, regardless of name and lyrics that suggest exactly this.

Wikipedia:

The Agony Scene was a metalcore/deathcore band from Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. On October 8, 2008, frontman Mike Williams confirmed that the band had broken up in the spring of that year. Although The Agony Scene was known for blending several corrosive elements from genres including thrash metal, black metal and hardcore punk, the band was also generally considered to be a part of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal.[1][2]

The band had released three albums, one on Solid State Records, one on Roadrunner Records, and one on Century Media Records. It had been signed to Abacus Records for a while when it folded.

History

Formed in early 2001, The Agony Scene was the brainchild of three Tulsa musicians: Johnny Lloyd, Rod Burguiere, and Daniel Hickman. Originally looking to form a spirit-filled hardcore band in vein of Zao and Overcome, Lloyd and Hickman took guitar duties with Burguiere as the frontman. The arduous search for a rhythm section eventually exasperated Hickman, who left to join Tulsa metalcore outfit Enlow. Burguiere then looked to his former bandmates Mike Williams and Brent Masters and things began to mesh. The four piece, with Williams on bass and Masters on drums, eventually came across Chris Emmons as a second guitar and the lineup was solidified.

For the first year The Agony Scene made a name for themselves in the Tulsa hardcore scene and playing shows around the Midwest with fellow Tulsa acts Enlow and Plan B. In late 2001, Williams left the band to join Tulsa grind outfit Thirty Called Arson and was replaced by Garrett Grover.

January 2002 saw TAS’s first studio recorded demo which subsequently landed in the hand’s of Seattle based label Solid State Records, that eventually granted the band a record deal. Immediately following their performance at Cornerstone that year, Burguiere stepped down from vocal duties and was replaced by former bassist Mike Williams.

Although the band was signed on with Solid State Records for a time, which mostly signs Christian acts, The Agony Scene confirmed in an interview with HM magazine that they were not a religious band.

In late 2006 the band parted ways with drummer Brent Masters and invited Ryan Folden - a Spokane, WA based drummer - to join the band.

In early 2008 the band dropped out of a tour with Himsa due to "some major personal situations that make performing on this tour impossible", according to Himsa's management. It was unknown at the time whether the group has subsequently managed to resolve such issues or had in fact broken up. The group's official website had also been shut down, which furthered the assumption that the group had disbanded.

Slipping by the radar, The Agony Scene actually broke up in the spring of 2008 following their pulled tour with Himsa earlier in the year. Band frontman Mike Williams had the following to say about the split: "The Agony Scene is no more, for those of you who didn't already know. We reached a point where it wasn't making financial sense and we felt it was better to quit while we were ahead rather than dragging it out and dragging ourselves further into debt. I'm sad to see it end before I was ready to move on, but tastes change and times change and it just felt like the right time to call it quits. I had some amazing experiences over the last 5 years, met some amazing people, played shows with Danzig which is insane, traveled abroad and all that. We had a great run and I got everything out of it that I wanted to. The shitty part is when you put your whole life on hold and have to figure out what to do with yourself now that it's over. I'm starting something new musically, something that couldn't be further away from metal and hardcore. I'll post something when it gets recorded."

At present, Williams has been working on some solo material. Drummer Ryan Folden went on to join Burn Halo but left it and now is a member of After Midnight Project. Johnny Lloyd is now a distinguished graduate fellow at Oklahoma State University where he is working on an advanced degree in molecular genetics. Rod Burguiere enlisted in the US Navy as a Hospital Corpsman and did a tour in Iraq with 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. He completed his active duty and is now a brewer at Stone Brewing Company in Southern California.

Members