Life of Agony used to be one of my favorite bands when "Ugly" came out. Keith Caputo, who goes by something else now, has seen his voice evolve over the years . But things have changed. Let me stop you right here and say, I do not care what lifestyle choices he has made, I do care about can he sing like he once did . "Right this "Wrong" is better than the opener which sounds like a song that didn't make the cut on one of the post- Layne Stayley Alice in Chains albums . The instrumentation sound like them even if it's stuck in the 90s. The problem might be the hormones he took, sometimes the intervals being sung are what he might have sung in his past life, but the cool trembling vulnerability to his voice which was always juxtaposed by a more aggressive croon is gone making this sound like someone else. "Dead Speak Kindly" would have been a decent Life of Agony riff at one point. Even with the effects on his voice it lacks the balls he once had.
You can hear a little of who he used to in " A New Low'. The chorus of "World Gone Mad" really shows how little aggression he can manage to get out of his pipes these days. "Bag of Bones" is the first song that hits me as being half way decent. He also comes close on "Walking Catastrophe" , this is a song that would have nailed it if his voice still had the punch. Right now it sounds like I Mother Earth, but I guess it makes sense that if you turn into a woman you are going to sound like Perry Ferrell. "Song For the Abused" would not sound out of place on "Ugly" it's also one of the better songs on the album with the band beginning to rally in the third act. The well layered vocals give Keith more tools than he has used before.
The album ends with the piano ballad that is more of an overdone outro. I'll give this album a 7.5 , from a band that up until "Soul Searching Sun" kicked out 10s on their first three this is a let down, but better than shit like Volbeat or what ever radio rock you are jerking off to these days.
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