Agonie - Nemesis EP 2015 - German Black Metal

Agonie – Nemesis EP 2015 – German Black Metal

I hadn't heard of Agonie until I was browsing through EP's and demo's on Bandcamp earlier this week, and of the twenty or so records I downloaded, Agonie is the pick of the bunch. That's not something to say lightly either, with Black Falcon, Basura and Scumguts all producing stellar offerings. Agonie though, with their three track EP 'Nemesis' really steals the show.

Hailing from Germany, Agonie take their brand of black metal back to the early days with a really harsh and hateful 16 minutes between two of their own songs and a cover of 'Kriecht Zu Kreuze' by Zerfall (No, I don't know of Zerfall, either but they're on my ever growing list of bands to check out.)

The title track, Nemesis is one of the strongest openers I've heard on an EP for a long time, it's powerful, it's raw, it's loud and angry, it's everything you would want it to be. Agonie have also managed to avoid falling into the various traps littered around the black metal scene. Whilst the recordings remain raw and harsh, they have achieved a fantastic BM sound without putting out a woefully underproduced record as so many bands do. By the same token though they haven’t gone the other way either, leaving that harsh sound in without TOO much of a clean up of the recording. They’ve got the balance absolutely right.

Second is ‘Aufgelost in Wohlgefallen’ – which according to google means ‘Situated Lost in Pleasure’. I’m not sure that’s actually what is being got at with the title, but it’s an ace track anyway. Continuing in much the same vein as Nemesis, the two original tracks on this EP really give you a feel for what Agonie are all about, harshness in the extreme, all superbly done.

The cover ‘Kreicht Zu Kreutze’ is also outstanding. As I’ve said, I don’t know Zerfall, the band who originally recorded the song, but the way Agonie have gone about it almost makes me not want to. It’s a great track and I almost don’t want to be able to compare the two, Agonie have clearly done a stellar job with the cover, and the original would do well to be any better.

The EP is available as a physical copy through contacting the band on their Facebook page, although only 25 copies have been made - https://www.facebook.com/agonie.black.metal?fref=ts

And you can download Nemesis, as well as 2014’s release ‘Mammon’ from the bands Bandcamp page - https://agonieblackmetal.bandcamp.com/releases

Please do check out Agonie, they are an excellent band, and this is 16 minutes of black metal that you need to hear.