Review by Paul Monkhouse for MPM
Kicking off their first UK tour, there couldn’t have been a more apt venue for Czech metalheads The Agony to start at than the famed Cart And Horses, North East London’s very own birthplace of titans Iron Maiden.
In fact, these four iron maidens had been brought up on a diet of 80’s hard rock and metal, cutting their teeth on their home circuit and playing with some of the best out there, including opening an arena show for the legendary Scorpions in Prague. Whilst the basement of the most famous boozer in the country may be a million miles away from the cavernous O2 arena in their home country, the band played the show like they were in front of twenty thousand people, making each note count.
With the furiously hard rocking one/two punch of ‘House of Mirrors’ and ‘You’ opening the set, lead vocalist/guitarist Nikola Kandoussi is determined to match sometime resident Steve Harris with regards to amount of stage covered, often climbing onto the monitors to lead the crowd in a whirl of headbanging.
There’s plenty of melody to leaven the muscle too though and the huge hooks of ‘Instant Reality’ could compete with KISS at their most dangerous and new song ‘Breathe Out’ has an undeniably funky edge, the cool bass playing of Domi Mrazkova and powerhouse drums of Martina Balcarova giving it the propulsive groove.
Having toured over here as part of Girlschool when Kim McAuliffe wasn’t able to play full shows last year, Kandoussi is already a known quantity but whilst she obviously had great fun on that jaunt, standing front and centre with The Agony is truly the place she shines, every sinew straining with an unbridled passion for rock ‘n’ roll nirvana.
The perma-smiling lead guitarist Petra Pohankova is equally enthralled by it all, her slightly more relaxed style nonetheless concealing some monstrous riffing and her solo during the ultra-fast ‘G.I.T.M.’ nothing short of incendiary. An insistent and sledgehammer heavy ‘Say Hey’ is played with a rush of urgency and the proto thrash and gang vocals of ‘Annie’ are other highlights, the quartet rocking out just as hard as any band ever to grace this stage.
Truly carrying the flame on from their big sisters in Girlschool, the Czech outfit brought that same pioneering spirit and groundbreaking feel that made the London mob such a powerful force in that previously male dominated scene, the playing tight and full of fire.
With a breadth of writing that goes from the venomous ‘History, No Future’, ballad ‘Nothing In The World’ and hair metal anthem ‘She Said’, The Agony have the material, attitude and musical chops to continue to make massive waves, their rise something that should see them making their own legends. The female of the species is certainly deadlier than the male.
