Stop and relinquish yourself in the word "there." That is all "Agony of Death" truly is: there. The riffs aren't particularly great, nothing emerges from the vocals, the percussion is dire and generic, and maybe a fancy solo shows up here and there for whatever reason; overall, it's just painfully unmemorable. Perhaps the fast picking you might be hearing is real, but does it actually trigger anything? Clearly this is a "modern" thrash album layered in influences from the early 1980s and today's thrash revivification scene with more obscure elements carefully colored by death metal touches, melody, and Vital Remains-like harmonies appearing from time to time, but what comes out of it, really? Seemingly nothing fun, exciting, interesting, or relevantly noteworthy in any way, which is sourly disappointing.

I remember listening to this sucker from "Imagination" through the finale "Through Shattered Minds/Agony of Death," almost certain I was sent back to the beginning of time with Xenu and his magnificent volcano, took a vacation with this creep Virgil to Hell (which wasn't bad, surprisingly), witnessed the rise and fall of Hitler, and had to sit through the Summer Slaughter tour of bulls***. "Agony of Death" is nearly seventy minutes in length. Seventy minutes! That's a long record; you'll relive the ages, believe me. The length shouldn't be a problem for any band as long as they've got their heads on straight and can write decent music, but this is where Holy Moses becomes the butt of the jester's joke: the band quickly falls into a number of deplorable banes when trying to reignite the thrashing flame that once burnt so vehemently. It is a representation of agony, albeit a lengthy one, and certainly not for the best.