The Agony Scene

The Agony Scene was a Metalcore band from Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. On October 8th 2008, frontman Mike Williams confirmed that the band had broken up in the spring, and that most people had not noticed until now. The Agony Scene is also generally considered to be a part of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal.[[1]][2]

The band has released three albums, one on Solid State Records, one on Roadrunner Records, and one on Century Media Records. They were also signed to Abacus Records for a while before it folded.

EARLY HISTORY

Formed in early 2001, The Agony Scene was the brainchild of three Tulsa musicians; Johnny Lloyd, Rod Burguiere, and Daniel Hickman. Originally looking to form a spirit-filled hardcore band in vein of Zao and Overcome, Lloyd and Hickman took guitar duties with Burguiere as the frontman. The arduous search for a rhythm section eventually exasperated Hickman, who left to join Tulsa metalcore outfit Enlow. Burguiere then looked to his former bandmates Mike Williams and Brent Masters and things began to mesh. The four piece, with Williams on bass and Masters on drums, eventually came across Chris Emmons as a second guitar and the lineup was solidified.

For the first year TAS made a name for themselves in the Tulsa hardcore scene and playing shows around the Midwest with fellow Tulsa acts Enlow and Plan B. In late 2001, Williams left the band to join Tulsa grind outfit Thirty Called Arson and was replaced by Garrett Grover.

January 2002 saw TAS’s first studio recorded demo which subsequently landed in the hand’s of Seattle’s Solid State Records and eventually a record deal. Immediately following their performance at Cornerstone that year, Burguiere stepped down from vocal duties and was replaced by former bassist Mike Williams.

Since Solid State records is generally considered to be a Christian music label, some people have assumed The Agony Scene to be a Christian band. So the band since moved to a new record label.The band has since confirmed in an interview with HM magazine that since parting ways with the label, they are not a Christian band and are the farthest thing away from that type of band. On why a band would want to be part of the Christian music scene, the band had this to say: "Why would you? I have no idea! I would never want to be part of the Christian music scene at all. I don’t want to have anything to do with it, honestly. It just absolutely disgusts me. That’s totally cool. Believe whatever you want." ^[1]

In late 2006 the band parted ways with drummer Brent Masters, and invited the newest member Ryan Folden a Spokane, WA based drummer to join the band.

In early 2008 the band dropped out of a tour with Himsa due to "some major personal situations that make performing on this tour impossible", according to Himsa's management. It is unknown if the group has resolved these issues or has in fact broken up. The groups official website has also been shut down which may further assumption that the group has disbanded.

Slipping by the radar, The Agony Scene actually broke up this past spring following their pulled tour with Himsa earlier this year. Band frontman Mike Williams had the following to say about the split: "The agony scene is no more, for those of you who didn't already know. We reached a point where it wasn't making financial sense and we felt it was better to quit while we were ahead rather than dragging it out and dragging ourselves further into debt. I'm sad so see it end before i was ready to move on, But tastes change and times change and it just felt like the right time to call it quits. I had some amazing experiences over the last 5 years, met some amazing people, played shows with Danzig which is insane, traveled abroad and all that. We had a great run and i got everything out of it that i wanted to. The shitty part is when you put your whole life on hold and have to figure out what to do with yourself now that it's over. I'm starting something new musically, something that couldn't be further away from metal and hardcore. I'll post something when it gets recorded."

At present, Williams has been working on some solo material.

Band Members

Mike Williams - Vocals
Chris Emmons - Guitar
Brian Hodges - Guitar
Ryan Folden - Drums

Former members

Rod Burguiere - Vocals
Matt Shannon - Bass
Brian Stewart - Bass
Brent Masters - Drums
Matt Horwitz - Drums
Johnny Lloyd - Guitar
Stephen Kaye - Guitar
Pete Webb - Drums
Chris Rye - Bass

Discography

Date of Release	Title	Label
unknown	live june.03.01	none
June 10, 2003	The Agony Scene	Solid State Records
May 24, 2005	The Darkest Red	Roadrunner Records
October 23, 2007	Get Damned	Century Media Records

External links

References

^ HM - Internet Exclusives

[1] HM - Internet Exclusives

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