Montreal, Canada five-piece The Agonist are
fast becoming one of the most exciting and
interesting bands in modern metal music.
Three years on from their surprising and
critically acclaimed second album “Lullabies
for the Dormant Mind”, this year the band
returns with an incredible new record that
tops everything they’ve done in the past and
boasts an astonishing progression.
Scratch
the Surface scribe Raymond Westland
quizzed vocalist Alissa White-Gluz in order
to find out more about their third fulllength
record “Prisoners”.
I was pleasantly surprised by “Prisoners”, the latest album by Montreal,
Canada-based The Agonist. Vocalist Alissa White-Gluz was kind
enough to provide us with some insights on the album, working together
with Cryptopsy guitarist Chris Donaldson and getting involved
with MTV…
Thank for you doing this interview for Scratch The Surface. I must say
I’m quite impressed with your new album. Are you happy the way it
came out?
“Yeah. It’s hard to be happy with something like this because you always
want to go back and fix one thing or re-do one thing, but you just have
to at one point be happy with how it turns out and go from that.”
This time around you chose to go for a more straightforward metal approach.
What triggered this?
“Well, I completely disagree with that statement, and you’re the first
person who’s said that, so I don’t know how to answer that question. I
think it’s not a straightforward metal approach. I kind of wish it was, but
I don’t think it is at all, I think it’s quite the opposite. It’s more technical
and progressive than the last album.”
Can you share some insights on the themes and subjects touched on
“Prisoners”?
“The lyrics for this album
are, I guess, less perceptive. I kind of
just wrote the lyrics and let them live as
they were. I didn’t try to overdo any of them or rewrite them a
million times, because at first I was doing that. Like with ‘The Escape.’ I
wrote that song like three times before it turned into what it is now. So
for the rest of the songs, I was like, ‘okay, it’s going to take me ten years
to write this album if I do it that way,’ so I just kind of let the lyrics come
out and left them as they were. Even to the point where songs like ‘Idea
Moto’ are automatic writing.”
Read entire interview featured on Issue 3 here.
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