Agony Column’s new album
one of the summer’s best
by Micnaei ueeas
Senior Editor
Agony Column
“Brave Words & Bloody Knuck
les’’
Big Chief
Using a few brave words of their
own, Agony Column dubbed their
sound a “hellbilly dcathmetal on
slaught” on the back of their last
album, “God, Guns & Guts.”
“Dcathmetal onslaught” may
not be completely accurate, as it
somehow insinuates Slayer-like
speed.
But “Hellbilly.” Hmmm.
Hailing from Austin,Texas, this
raunchy quartet has emerged from
the studio again, this time with
“Brave Words & Bloody Knuck
les,” the raunchy full-length fol
low up to their live EP, “Agony
Column Comes Alive.”
Combining bayou blues with Mo
torhead shock-rhythms, Agony Col
umn comes across this shot as a
more mature, but still self-parody
ing bunch of demonic goat’s head
ropers. From the sub-rappish rhythm
guitar of “Angel of Def” to the
pig-sampling prelude to ‘ ‘Hillbilly
Blues,” these guys pass out drip
ping-fresh meat in a stable of stale,
rotting deathmctal band carcasses.
Vocalist Richard Turner slides
easily from growl to baritone and
on to a falsetto shriek that would
curdle Axl Rose’s blood. Mean
while, guitarist Stuart Laurence
spews out a constant barrage of
. Celtic Frost-style riffs that are short
on complexity, but long on catch
' incss. And while the band does
lean for the speedmetal point on a
few tunes, they never hit overdrive
and force Turner into the auction
eer role that plagues so many vo
calists.
Most often, Agony Column stays
in mid-metal gears, pulling a few
cliches out of the basket of fun, and
ripping out good old rockabilly
death sounds rounded with scream
ing whammy climbs. These guys
sound like they shoot pool between
lakes and spit tobacco on their strings
for that extra deep down-South
twang.
“Brave Words” is the band’s
best effort yet - the production is
nicely raw and what these guys
play, they play well. The members
of Agony Column arc as lighthearted
as they are serious, and do the
deathmctal genre justice. “Brave
Words” is one of the freshest al
bums to hit the metal market this
summer.
Fair
Continued from Page 1
midway is the ’80s form of freak
show, evidently adapted during the
Nancy Reagan era.
AMY: “Still alive inside. One trip
too many,” said the billboards out
side the trailer.
“If we can keep one boy or girl
from turning to drugs through this
exhibit, then all our travels, world
wide, will not have been in vain.”
See Billy Reed, the boy destroyed
by drugs.
The premise of the show is proba
bly a good one. Naive teenagers pay
to walk around a cage and peer at
Billy, a guy who looks as if he hasn’t
blinked in two years and beats on the
bars of his cage for jollies.
Billy dropped too much acid and
now believes nis dead boyhood friend
has been reincarnated in a two-foot
long boa constrictor, according to the
sign on the inside of the cage.
MICHAEL: No doubt about it,
Billy’s got a problem, but whether or
not it’s drugs is questionable.
AMY: The show lost any sense of
realism when we saw the sign that
said Billy would stick nails up his
nose if you dropped 50 cents in his
cage.
Great. Billy is supposed to be
emotionally unstable, so you can’t
engage him in conversation, yet you
can pay him to prod his honker.
We looked around for the rest of
the freak show: that usually accom
pany a midway, but couldn’t find
any. The' * Dump Bozo in the Water”
game had no Bozo and , as far as we
could tell, had no water cither.
MICHAEL: As far as traveling
carnivals go, ihc ride situation was
par, but not especially impressive --
especially for as much as $2.50 a ride.
The “Moonraker,” though quite fun,
did not last as long as Van Halen’s
“Jump,” which plowed from four
speakers sunounding the ride.
We weren’t sure what to try after
the Moonraker, so we did the logical
thing and visited the fair’s beer gar
den. Beer was $1.50 -- $1.75 with
tomato juice so that any accidental
vomiting became more colorful.
As far as stomach churning goes,
we found the “Kamikaze” to be quite
unpleasant. And ladies, you must leave
your purses on the ground, though the
fine carnival gentlemen assured us
nobody would touch them.
AMY: When we finally decided to
ride the Kamikaze, I was having sec
ond thoughts about agreeing to do
this story. I still get the same sick
feeling in my stomach that I did when
I was eight from walking up to a
Ferris wheel or roller coaster.
MICHAEL: The Kamikaze is like
a giant jackhammer in the belly but
ton; a nasty pendulum that swings
you back and forth at high rates of
speed. And best of all, unlike the
“Ring O’ Fire,” it doesn’t hang up
side down for half the evening. Amy
loved it.
AMY: Once it got going, anyway.
We didn’t do much after the
Kamikaze. We’d already blown five
bucks each for entrance to the fair and
about $15 on rides.
MICHAEL' That’s 50 nails up the
nose in Billy Reed jargon.
Deeds Is a senior news-editorial major
and the Daily Nebraskan arts & entertain
ment editor. Kdwards is a senior news-edito
rial major, the Daily Nebraskan writing
coach and Diversions editor.
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