Teamwork making life a joy for The Agonist

The Agonist guitarist Danny Morino says new singer Vicky Psarakis changed the way the band writes music.

Morino says Psarakis brought a collaborative approach to songwriting sessions that was lacking when previous vocalist Alissa White-Gluz was at the helm.

White-Gluz left The Agonist last year to replace Angela Gossow in Arch Enemy.

And The Agonist’s upcoming album Eye Of Providence is the first to feature Psarakis, who Morino says was a breath of fresh air in the studio.

He tells Metal Wani: “The way we approached the songwriting process on this record was really different. The other three were all written in the same method. I would write a song and bring it to Alissa and she would write the lyrics and vocals. There was zero communication. No collaboration. There was no room for discussion with Alissa.

“After Vicky joined we took a much more collaborative approach. Everyone’s viewpoint on this album was what’s best for the song. Whereas on previous albums people got a little selfish thinking, ‘What about my vocal part,’ or, ‘What about my guitar part.’ Vicky lived with me, basically for the period that we wrote and recorded the album.

“So the songs ended up coming across like one piece of art, rather than different parts glued together.”

Morino says the feedback from fans since bringing in Psarakis has been mostly positive, but he knows some will never accept the change.

He adds: “I just love when I hear things like, ‘This is The Agonist,’ when people realise that the core of The Agonist is absolutely there. It’s a signature that we’ve created over the years and it’s not about one person. It’s not about Alissa and it’s not about me.

“At the same time, Vicky brings something different to the table. It’s refreshing. In any band that changes the lead singer there’s always going to be shock. But if the music is good, which we think it is, they get over it and go past it.

“With Iron Maiden and Judas Priest there’s people who just never got over it and I understand. If that’s how those people are I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but we’re here to stay and we’re gonna keep making music.”

Eye Of Providence is out February 23 via Century Media.

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.