End of July, anno domini 1995, Cairo Montenotte, Italy: four young thrashers, plus one not so young anymore, are ready to start the best live show of the entire thrash metal scene in the history of music.
The band's name was Agonia, and this is the story of the band.
The characters of the story are:
- Wiz, rhythm and lead guitar
- Mirko, rhythm and lead guitar
- Eros, vocals
- Ringo, drum and vocals on Rock'n'roll
- The writer himself, bass guitar and vocal on Anarchy n the UK.
"Agonia" is the italian word for "Agony": we're starting already very high here. 100% thrash.
Everything started when Wiz and me, friends before the kindergarten era, decided to play an instrument. Pretty much at the same time, he bought his first guitar, and I bought my first bass guitar (a blue 4 strings Washburn like this one).
We were metal, we were young and we were playing sort of death-metal/thrash music. The first incarnation of Agonia, was a band called "Ossuary". We were usually playing in my garage as a duo but we weren't going anywhere.
Then Mirko became the third head of the group and we started to fly high. Wiz was becoming a wizard of the 6 strings, and Mirko was already really really really really good. I sucked as usual, but it was fine: nobody cares about the bass anyway...
So at this point we were almost complete, and we started to take it more seriously: we moved our sessions into a "real" studio and we were playing a lot of Metallica and Megadeth cover.
One cloudy Sunday (yes, I have a sharp memory and I remember details, deal with it), Wiz knock on my door: "We have a drummer.".
The drummer was Ringo: I've never known his real name.
Actually I don't think he has a name. He was (he is?) a weird guy: much older than us, he was a classic thrasher 80' style, with skinny-dick compressor black pants, sneakers and an underground-thrash metal band t-shirt. He had very long but very few hair and he had the particular characteristic of smelling like a fish while he was sweating. This was due to the fact that he was working at the fish-market, so we couldn't blame him for that (by the way, he was the only one with a real job: at that time we were all going to high school, and we had only summer jobs [I was actually building this ship, but this is another story]).
Anyway, now we were really ready to kick asses. We were playing a lot of covers, we had a bunch of songs written by us and we were perfect.
Then it happened.
There was the real chance to play live.
We jump in and we got the date. We were playing at the local summer beer fest in our small city.
Maybe it sounds lame, but for us was bigger than opening for Metallica.
In that moment the band wasn't Agonia yet. We didn't have a name. We were too busy on our rehearsals. The name came out from Mirko mouth when one of the organizer asked about the name. The conversation went pretty much like this:
Organizer: "Guys, we need a name to put on the flyer... What's the name of your band?"
Me: "Eeeeemmmhhhh.."
Wiz: "Aaaammmhhh..."
Ringo: "What?..."
Mirko, out of the blue: "Agonia."
...and Agonia was.
The date of the show was coming closer and closer, we were playing basically every day (ah, the old good day of summer vacation with no school) and the set list was getting perfect.
But, wait, we were missing something.
We were missing a fucking singer.
We realized that three (3) days before the show...
Now, Cairo Montenotte usually lacks in thrash singers, so we were a little bit desperate.
Luckily, we know this guy, Eros: it was already a good singer and he was partially listening our stuff, so we proposed him the deal.
He joined us, and after 48 hours of a full immersion into the thrash world, we were -kind of- ready to kick asses on the stage.
The show was awesome: we played in front of -to be generous- maybe 50 people, most of them our friends, but as I said, for us was really huge.
We played (not in order): Enter sandman (Metallica), Symphony of destruction (Megadeth), Fade to black (Metallica) [I still remember the climax reached during the second solo: Wiz and me playing the rhythmic session, I looked at Wiz, he looked at me back with the "Fuck-yeah-kind-of-eyes" and I got goose bumps], Last cares (Metallica version [c'mon how many other bands have you ever seen playing Last cares? I'm telling you how many: none.]), three instrumental songs written by us, Rock'n'roll (Motorhead), Nothing else matter (Metallica. This one was for the "love-moment", because we were thrasher but also, we were romantic) and we end with Anarchy in the UK (Megadeth style, but since I was singing, he came out more Sex Pistols style [note: I have zero singing skills], also because I had part of my hair dyed with blue in that period, so it was really punk).
Everything was recorded and I have the mp3 file. Every once in a while I listen to it, and honestly, I'm a kind of proud of it (do you think is shit? Try to do better, asshole. [sorry, this is the angry me talking]). It was something small, but still really huge. We were just 4 teenager (plus 1 teenager only inside) that built something starting from nothing, with no money and zero help. We were professional and we believed in the project. Honestly, I think we did something really big (angry me again: do you think it's easy motherfucker? Come on, do the same, and do it better if you can...).
Anyway, it was a hell of a show and we were so proud.
After that single show, like every great artist, Agonia just dissolved in the air.
It was a real short life, but it was lived at 200%.
Agonia lives!
By the way, everything here happened before the Rockwool era.
Little up-date.
Thanks to Mirko here is the original flyer of the show:
AGONIA IS ALIVE!
Everything started when Wiz and me, friends before the kindergarten era, decided to play an instrument. Pretty much at the same time, he bought his first guitar, and I bought my first bass guitar (a blue 4 strings Washburn like this one).
We were metal, we were young and we were playing sort of death-metal/thrash music. The first incarnation of Agonia, was a band called "Ossuary". We were usually playing in my garage as a duo but we weren't going anywhere.
Then Mirko became the third head of the group and we started to fly high. Wiz was becoming a wizard of the 6 strings, and Mirko was already really really really really good. I sucked as usual, but it was fine: nobody cares about the bass anyway...
So at this point we were almost complete, and we started to take it more seriously: we moved our sessions into a "real" studio and we were playing a lot of Metallica and Megadeth cover.
One cloudy Sunday (yes, I have a sharp memory and I remember details, deal with it), Wiz knock on my door: "We have a drummer.".
The drummer was Ringo: I've never known his real name.
Actually I don't think he has a name. He was (he is?) a weird guy: much older than us, he was a classic thrasher 80' style, with skinny-dick compressor black pants, sneakers and an underground-thrash metal band t-shirt. He had very long but very few hair and he had the particular characteristic of smelling like a fish while he was sweating. This was due to the fact that he was working at the fish-market, so we couldn't blame him for that (by the way, he was the only one with a real job: at that time we were all going to high school, and we had only summer jobs [I was actually building this ship, but this is another story]).
Anyway, now we were really ready to kick asses. We were playing a lot of covers, we had a bunch of songs written by us and we were perfect.
Then it happened.
There was the real chance to play live.
We jump in and we got the date. We were playing at the local summer beer fest in our small city.
Maybe it sounds lame, but for us was bigger than opening for Metallica.
In that moment the band wasn't Agonia yet. We didn't have a name. We were too busy on our rehearsals. The name came out from Mirko mouth when one of the organizer asked about the name. The conversation went pretty much like this:
Organizer: "Guys, we need a name to put on the flyer... What's the name of your band?"
Me: "Eeeeemmmhhhh.."
Wiz: "Aaaammmhhh..."
Ringo: "What?..."
Mirko, out of the blue: "Agonia."
...and Agonia was.
The date of the show was coming closer and closer, we were playing basically every day (ah, the old good day of summer vacation with no school) and the set list was getting perfect.
But, wait, we were missing something.
We were missing a fucking singer.
We realized that three (3) days before the show...
Now, Cairo Montenotte usually lacks in thrash singers, so we were a little bit desperate.
Luckily, we know this guy, Eros: it was already a good singer and he was partially listening our stuff, so we proposed him the deal.
He joined us, and after 48 hours of a full immersion into the thrash world, we were -kind of- ready to kick asses on the stage.
The show was awesome: we played in front of -to be generous- maybe 50 people, most of them our friends, but as I said, for us was really huge.
We played (not in order): Enter sandman (Metallica), Symphony of destruction (Megadeth), Fade to black (Metallica) [I still remember the climax reached during the second solo: Wiz and me playing the rhythmic session, I looked at Wiz, he looked at me back with the "Fuck-yeah-kind-of-eyes" and I got goose bumps], Last cares (Metallica version [c'mon how many other bands have you ever seen playing Last cares? I'm telling you how many: none.]), three instrumental songs written by us, Rock'n'roll (Motorhead), Nothing else matter (Metallica. This one was for the "love-moment", because we were thrasher but also, we were romantic) and we end with Anarchy in the UK (Megadeth style, but since I was singing, he came out more Sex Pistols style [note: I have zero singing skills], also because I had part of my hair dyed with blue in that period, so it was really punk).
Everything was recorded and I have the mp3 file. Every once in a while I listen to it, and honestly, I'm a kind of proud of it (do you think is shit? Try to do better, asshole. [sorry, this is the angry me talking]). It was something small, but still really huge. We were just 4 teenager (plus 1 teenager only inside) that built something starting from nothing, with no money and zero help. We were professional and we believed in the project. Honestly, I think we did something really big (angry me again: do you think it's easy motherfucker? Come on, do the same, and do it better if you can...).
Anyway, it was a hell of a show and we were so proud.
After that single show, like every great artist, Agonia just dissolved in the air.
It was a real short life, but it was lived at 200%.
Agonia lives!
By the way, everything here happened before the Rockwool era.
Little up-date.
Thanks to Mirko here is the original flyer of the show:
AGONIA IS ALIVE!
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