The Agonist have not turned their back on what they’ve done in the past, and no more is this evident than in Alissa White-Gluz’s vocals. She is the type of female singer the closet-dwelling metal nerds can’t stand; a good-looking woman with crazy, dyed hair who has no problem with the occasional suggestive pose. When it comes down to the task at hand, she is equally matched with any other vocalist in metal, both male and female. Her good cop/bad cop routine has been reproduced a jillion times, yet her brutal harsh growls and angelic clean wails are tough to match.
For the first time on any of the band’s studio albums, they employ the services of a second guitarist. Whether this helps with the technical-edged riffs or increase use of solos is not known, but it wouldn’t be a surprise. Longer songs help to flesh out ideas that were normally packed into four minutes, and the band has a clear intent of ambition that was only hinted at on the previous two albums. There’s no way that they could have pulled off the low-key wonder of “Revenge Of The Dadaists” five years ago.
If Prisoners has one running theme, it’s how clearly these ideas come across. The stripped-down acoustic intro to “You’re Coming With Me” hides the stark beating the next few minutes have in store. “Dead Ocean” motions in a soulful ending that didn’t seem possible, judging by the tough exterior of the first half. The big success on Prisoners is the eight-minute “Ideomotor,” which is lifted to an elite status by its lengthy outro that feels significant in its scope.
The Agonist came onto the scene as a bland metalcore act, but Prisoners disproves this notion. They have come far from being just another metal band with a female singer, and don’t deserve any of the bashing that female-fronted bands get thrown at them. Prisoners is a much tamer album than Lullabies For The Dormant Mind, with less additional instrumentation, but is just a smidgen better due to the combined effort of each member.
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