Life Of Agony

K

eith Caputo (vocals), Joey Zampella  (guitar) and Alan Robert (bass) came together in 1989 to form Life Of Agony, after recruiting Sal Abruscato on drums shortly later. River Runs Red, their 1993 debut on 'Roadrunner' was an album of uncompromising hardcore metal/grunge mix that was complimented by a seemingly bleak outlook. With a heavy tour schedule they gained enough fans to experience brief chart success with their second set Ugly (1995) making the US top 200.

Caputo's melancholy vocals was mixed with a post-Grunge/psychedelic/80's retro sound on the Tangerine track featured on their Soul Searching Sun release in 1997, an album that's widely considered their most compelling to date. But the album held one more huge surprise when a month after it's release Caputo leaves to be replaced by ex-Ugly Kid Joe glamster Whitfield Crane. More surprising was after Caputo's claim that he left due to his exhaustion with the business in the music business, he returned as a soloist with Died Laughing in 2000 while Life Of Agony broke up shortly later leaving two posthumous releases of a "best of..." compilation Life Of Agony 1989 - 1999 (1999) and a live effort Unplugged At The Lowlands Festival '97 (live; 2000).