Birth / The End is the first full lenght album of Agonizer. After a period of nine years with some failed negotiations with records labels (Century Media among others), line-up changes and releasing five self-produced demos, it was time for their full length debut. Agonizer is a Finnish band with the principle of playing melodic heavy metal with their own sound and style.

This last statement is made in their biography and isn’t completely true. While listening to this album, some other Finnish bands came up in my mind. The vocals of Pasi Kärkkäinen are in some songs comparable with the vocals of Ville Laihiala (Poisonblack, ex-Sentenced). The music itself isn’t very authentic either. Take for instance the intro of the song ‘Black Sun’, this intro could easily be an intro for a random song of Sonata Arctica.

Besides the similarities between other acts - you can also hear a little bit of H.I.M. in the music - the debut album of these guys is a decent piece of work. All guys can control their instrument very well, there are some really nice instrumental parts in some songs. ‘Prophecy’ , for example, is also very promising. Unfortunatilly not all tracks are of this level. Agonizer does have some potential, but it’s not totally coming out on Birth / The End. With some time they may be able to create their own sound and style and therefore I’m looking forward to their second full length.

A remarkable thing is that the band has got a typical Finnish kind of vibe in their music. This is not a bad thing or something, but it's just like you can hear whether a gothic rock band is Dutch or not (I'm not sure if everybody can hear it, but the Dutch themselves certainly can). So if you like Finnish metal: check them out!