AGONY je Češka Doom/Death Metal grupa za koju većina metal populacije u Srbiji nije čulo. Ne, ovo im nije prvi album! Ovo im je tačno sedmi. Album Call The Rain donosi mešavinu skoro svih metal pravaca, i 33 minuta uživanja. Kad sam prvi put čuo ovaj album, nije mi se učinio posebnim. Što sam ga više slušao to mi se više svidjao, toliko da sam se "zarazio" i da ga stavljam na repeat da se vrti ceo dan! Petrin vokal je zavidan doom vokal, dok je Mrcy odličan posao obavio kao death vokal. Sve pesme prate živahne klavijature i "ubitačno" brze gitare. Teme pesama idu od ljubavi do mržnje, od radosti do besa, i sl. Pojedine pesme imaju i latinskih deonica, kao što je u In Nomine..: Et In Nomine Dei Nostri,Satanas Luciferi! Za sada turneja je isključivo u Češkoj, a nadam se da će uskoro krenuti i po celoj Evropi. U svakom slučaju nemojte propustiti ovaj album! Toliko je dobar da nemogu da izdvojim pojedinačno najbolje pesme. Mešavina svega i svačega..Ocena: 100/100. HARD & HEAVY Magazine (Serbia)

Die üblichen Verdächtigen kommen dieses Mal aus Tschechien und tragen den Namen AGONY. Lauscht man zum ersten Mal der neuen CD des Fünfers, drängt sich einem doch recht schnell der Verdacht auf, dass der Name lediglich aus Klischeegründen gewählt wurde, denn so traurig hört sich die Musik an sich gar nicht an, eher animiert sie stellenweise sogar zum fröhlichen Mitwippen. Liest man sich dann allerdings die dazugehörigen Texte durch, wird man diesen ersten Eindruck wohl recht schnell für null und nichtig erklären, singen die Tschechen doch über verlorene Liebe, unsere dekadente Gesellschaft und Vergewaltigung, so zumindest meine Interpretation der Texte, zu einer eigenen sei natürlich jeder selbst angeregt. Musikalisch wandelt man irgendwo in den Gefilden zwischen Death und Gothic Metal; Vocalist Mrcy grunzt mal aggressiv, mal voll Pein ins Mikrofon und wird dabei gesanglich von Keyboarderin Petra unterstützt, deren dunkler Stimme in den meisten Songs viele Textzeilen zugedacht sind, so dass man eigentlich schon von einem komplett zweistimmigen Gesang sprechen könnte. Sehr schön sind auch die Passagen, in denen sich beide abwechseln und so eine Art imaginäres Duett entstehen lassen. Überhaupt ist Abwechselung das Stichwort bei Agony, gleicht doch kein Song so richtig dem anderen, jeder hat seine eigenen besonderen Merkmale und meistens auch sehr eingängige Refrains. In den einzelnen Stücken wird auch das Tempo oft gewechselt, von Double-Bass unterstützten Schrammelparts über normale Midtempo-Nummern bis hin zu ruhigen, nur vom Keyboard unterstützten Momenten. Anspieltipp ist das Lied „In Nomine“, welches einen guten musikalischen Eindruck vom restlichen Album vermittelt. Ebenfalls interessant ist der erste Song „From dusk till dawn“, dessen Keyboards einfach etwas von einem metallischen Weihnachtslied, extrem betrunken vorgetragen, haben, da beisst die Maus keinen Faden ab. Um auch auf die Schwachpunkte der Scheibe einzugehen, muss die leider etwas enttäuschende Abmischung genannt werden, die das Album ein wenig unbeholfen klingen lässt, zu sehr sind die einzelnen Spuren breiartig vermischt. Außerdem trübt die kurze Spielzeit von gerade mal 33 Minuten den positiven Gesamteindruck von „Call the rain“. Da hier aber auf jeden Fall viele tolle Ideen eingebracht wurden und man der Band anmerkt, dass sie wirklich mit Herz bei der Sache ist, gibt es gerade noch die sieben Punkte. 7 von 10 Punkten. METALIUS MultizineARD & HEAVY (Germany)

I always enjoyed Agony’s special musical conception. All the Agony’s previous recordings showed a band tapping in on both dark depressive atmospheres and death metal surroundings…. So I was looking for more of the same classy depressive death doom metal. At first contact, it became quite obvious that «Call The Rain» may take a few repeated listenings to fully appreciate the band’s new musical direction. Eventually, one of the first things to strike you at the listening of the nine new compositions of «Call The Rain» is the variety. It’s got almost everything, this album is very good even if I missed the depressive atmospheres created by Agony in their previous studio recordings (still perhaps on the track «Last Wish»). «Call The Rain» is consistent and all the songs vary in structure and tempo (not uniformly slow or fast as lotsa acts seem to go nowadays). A fine album recorded by a fine act. PULL THE CHAIN (Belgium)

The first part of the AGONY song "BLACK VELVET" is beautiful, serenity defined, something I keep rewinding and listening very often, without paying attention to rest of the demo. It's that good. It starts very medieval amoves more into kind of death/doom variation, with death vocal and doom-ish music taht certainly seems original. A truly great song, one I inherently recommend to everyone. DRUNK & DISORDERLY #7 (England)

AGONY seem to have found the perfect balance between pure melody, death metal and some slightly out of tune. The gruff vocals are a favourite of mine, especially the way they're distorted but that could just be the accent I guess. The way it is followed by singing and narration al both over each other is the masterpiece that is the outro "DIRGE OF FALLEN GODS". A masterpiece like the whole demo. This is something I am truly in love with. DRUNK & DISORDERLY #7 (England)

New release that once again finds the band tapping in on both melancholy and catchiness. "...FROM RED HEAVEN" is without any doubt on of the best CD release of this year. Everything is perfect. This is ideally how death-doom metal must sound like. Drums, atmospheres and vocals are indubitably doom dark orientated. Songs have a direct impact and allow a quick access. Material is mainly mind-paced with some rythm accelerations. AGONY have an unbeliavle sense for songwriting, they find right balance between harmony, sadness and inner violence. Same goes for the vocal works, the mixing between Richard gurgled voice and Dasa's clear one is some of the most interesting ones. Thus excellent in every department. Tracks such as "WHEN MOON'S DYING... YOUR BEAUTY FADES" or UNDER A KILLING DARK SUN" feature more ideas than most nowadays CD releases. PULL THE CHAIN #11 (Belgium)

Listening to the stuff sent me fromAGONY I can say that they are really on of the most interesting bands in Czech Republic. After the second demo "THE ABANDONMENT" they've finally released a mini CD (out on Obscene prod.) called "...FROM RED HEAVEN" taht contains five songs (the first THE SCREAM OF ANGELS in an instrumental intro) of melodic and, at the same time, very sad and original doom metal, even id sometimes it reminds me Moospell's sound. The best songs are, in my opinion "LOSING ETERNITY": so sweet, with female vocals and violin too and the short, beautiful last one "DIRGE OF FALLEN GODS", where there's the contrast between the spoken men's voice and the woman's singing. If you want to feel deep emotions, then listen to "...FROM RED HEAVEN": you will surely like it! I'm anxiously waiting for your full-length album, AGONY!!! Kiara Benvenuti (Italy) for UNEXPECTED GUEST 'zine (Greece)

The kind of music this MCD shows is rather difficult for me to charakterise. AGONY bring a mild mixture of doom metal music with gentle keyboards and passionate vocals. There is a death metal growl used in places as well as black metal - like schrieking. It seems to me that only fault of this product is its length (20 mins). Definetely on of the most interesting Czech bands at the moment. Silence Diary #1 (Czech Republic)

Very fucking stylish music from Czech Republic. Dark doomy music with multiple influences and complex meanings. Five full time musicians and two guest players for female vocals and violin. Great sound quality and lots of bonus points for cover and lyrics. Vocals vary from death growls to whispers to spoken parts. Slow heavy rhythms with melodic interludes and occasional increases of temp. great violin work. Excellent! Lykos zine #3 (Portugal)

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