Life Of Agony
Amager Bio, Copenhagen - 2025
Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen
Two of New York’s finest, Life Of Agony and Biohazard, were doing a long overdue co-headlining tour, and towards the end of their European leg, they came to Copenhagen.
This was of course impossible for us to miss out on, so off we went.
We were obviously not the only ones who felt like this, as Amager Bio was nearly filled to the brim. I had been a bit worried about the lackluster attendance for LYLVC, but as soon as it was time for Life Of Agony as the first of the two headliners to play this evening, the room filled up in the blink of an eye.
“Copenhagen! You’re beautiful, you’re fucking beautiful!”
- Joey ‘Z’ Zampella (guitar)
Life Of Agony have been frequent guests of Copenhagen for several years now, and their visits are always welcome. This night was no exception, and the air felt positively electric when they entered the stage and went straight for the throat with River Runs Red. This Time quickly followed suit, and rounding the opening trio of songs out with Bad Seed made for an incredibly strong start of the show. Keith Caputo, who has transitioned back to Keith late last year (although, according to his own statement at the show, he’s still waiting for his final reptilian shape to take form) was singing his heart out, keeping the songs fresh by rephrasing the melodies and jazzing it up with how he timed his sentences. This of course made it… interesting to sing a long for one highly conditioned in the delivery on the albums, but what the hell, there’s nothing wrong with the crowd acting as a traditional choir to his more personal performance.
The rest of the band was on fire as well, no surprises there. Zampella was jumping, rocking out, and always ready to connect with the audience, both physically and just by looks. Alan Robert delivered on being the groovy backbone of the band of course, but as Zampella, he was also highly active in his performance and in connecting with the crowd. And you know we have to shine a light on Veronica Bellino! It’s been a smart move on Life Of Agony’s side to include her in the band, because god damn what an energy she also brings to the table - standing up while playing several times, and really being an active part of the performance, not just the music, she is really, really cool!
Caputo was taking it to the next level though, quite literally at times. Already in the first song, he steadied himself on one of the photographers while leaning from the stage out towards the crowd, and later he would leave the stage altogether to go stand on the security fence in order to get nice and close. He was demanding as well as giving however, and the crowd had to show up for this as well. When he wanted action, he wasn’t shying away from asking for it, and if things weren’t sweaty enough, he called it out! Always with a wry smile ready.
There was quite a bit of talking actually, and I have to admit, it wasn’t always that I managed to follow his sometimes seemingly random trains of thought - like the statement “You can’t have sex without a condom”, what was that about? No shame in practising safe sex, but yeah, random is the word.
What was less random was the set. On their last visit, Life Of Agony was celebrating 30 years of the River Runs Red album, and the setlist was still leaning very heavily on said album, with a couple of Ugly songs and one Soul Searching Sun track thrown in for good measure. Oh yes, and there was the Cro-Mags cover We Gotta Know, a fast paced hardcore track that got us all on our feet (figuratively, this was a standing show after all). What mad ethos extra fun was the short medley of riffs they played leading up to it - starting out with a Metallica riff which I’m sadly blanking on at this moment, followed by Pantera’s Walk and Sepultura’s Roots Bloody Roots, the latter vocally handled by Zampella.
A positive thing about an all classics list of songs like this, is that it’s incredibly easy to follow along. River Runs Red was a formative album for me growing up, and I’ve listened to it countless times, and I’m still not even close to being done with listening to it live, but I could still hope for something different. For example, I would love to hear Fears one day - maybe next time?
Life Of Agony delivered a wonderful concert filled with energy. It had some small slopes along the way, but the band was always quick to pick it back up again and continue on, and they gave the crowd a nice, warm workout, that’s for sure. Biohazard had something to live up to after this!
Setlist:
River Runs Red
This Time
Bad Seed
Respect
Method Of Groove
My Eyes
Lost At 22
Weeds
I Regret
We Gotta Know (Cro-Mags cover)
Through And Through
Underground
This was of course impossible for us to miss out on, so off we went.
We were obviously not the only ones who felt like this, as Amager Bio was nearly filled to the brim. I had been a bit worried about the lackluster attendance for LYLVC, but as soon as it was time for Life Of Agony as the first of the two headliners to play this evening, the room filled up in the blink of an eye.
“Copenhagen! You’re beautiful, you’re fucking beautiful!”
- Joey ‘Z’ Zampella (guitar)
Life Of Agony have been frequent guests of Copenhagen for several years now, and their visits are always welcome. This night was no exception, and the air felt positively electric when they entered the stage and went straight for the throat with River Runs Red. This Time quickly followed suit, and rounding the opening trio of songs out with Bad Seed made for an incredibly strong start of the show. Keith Caputo, who has transitioned back to Keith late last year (although, according to his own statement at the show, he’s still waiting for his final reptilian shape to take form) was singing his heart out, keeping the songs fresh by rephrasing the melodies and jazzing it up with how he timed his sentences. This of course made it… interesting to sing a long for one highly conditioned in the delivery on the albums, but what the hell, there’s nothing wrong with the crowd acting as a traditional choir to his more personal performance.
The rest of the band was on fire as well, no surprises there. Zampella was jumping, rocking out, and always ready to connect with the audience, both physically and just by looks. Alan Robert delivered on being the groovy backbone of the band of course, but as Zampella, he was also highly active in his performance and in connecting with the crowd. And you know we have to shine a light on Veronica Bellino! It’s been a smart move on Life Of Agony’s side to include her in the band, because god damn what an energy she also brings to the table - standing up while playing several times, and really being an active part of the performance, not just the music, she is really, really cool!
Caputo was taking it to the next level though, quite literally at times. Already in the first song, he steadied himself on one of the photographers while leaning from the stage out towards the crowd, and later he would leave the stage altogether to go stand on the security fence in order to get nice and close. He was demanding as well as giving however, and the crowd had to show up for this as well. When he wanted action, he wasn’t shying away from asking for it, and if things weren’t sweaty enough, he called it out! Always with a wry smile ready.
There was quite a bit of talking actually, and I have to admit, it wasn’t always that I managed to follow his sometimes seemingly random trains of thought - like the statement “You can’t have sex without a condom”, what was that about? No shame in practising safe sex, but yeah, random is the word.
What was less random was the set. On their last visit, Life Of Agony was celebrating 30 years of the River Runs Red album, and the setlist was still leaning very heavily on said album, with a couple of Ugly songs and one Soul Searching Sun track thrown in for good measure. Oh yes, and there was the Cro-Mags cover We Gotta Know, a fast paced hardcore track that got us all on our feet (figuratively, this was a standing show after all). What mad ethos extra fun was the short medley of riffs they played leading up to it - starting out with a Metallica riff which I’m sadly blanking on at this moment, followed by Pantera’s Walk and Sepultura’s Roots Bloody Roots, the latter vocally handled by Zampella.
A positive thing about an all classics list of songs like this, is that it’s incredibly easy to follow along. River Runs Red was a formative album for me growing up, and I’ve listened to it countless times, and I’m still not even close to being done with listening to it live, but I could still hope for something different. For example, I would love to hear Fears one day - maybe next time?
Life Of Agony delivered a wonderful concert filled with energy. It had some small slopes along the way, but the band was always quick to pick it back up again and continue on, and they gave the crowd a nice, warm workout, that’s for sure. Biohazard had something to live up to after this!
Setlist:
River Runs Red
This Time
Bad Seed
Respect
Method Of Groove
My Eyes
Lost At 22
Weeds
I Regret
We Gotta Know (Cro-Mags cover)
Through And Through
Underground
Life Of Agony
