Agonizer comes from Pyhäjärvi, Finland. The band has been together for six with the principal of playing melodic heavymetal with their own sound and style.
At the beginning (1998) Agonizer's line-up was as follows:
Olli Solitanner / Vocals Mika Heinonen / Keyboards / Back-up vocals J-P Perälä / Guitar Lasse Löytynoja / Guitar Jussi Tikka / Bass Toni Qvick / Drums
Agonizer recorded their first demo ”Eternal night” at Studio Jambo in Iisalmi. The year was 1998 and the demo was critisised very well in finnish music magazine.
Next year 1999 they went to the famous Astia studio in Lappeenranta Finland. The Astia Studio is famous for example from being the ”homestudio” of Children Of Bodom. Agonizer made there their second demo ”Last sign of light”. It also got very good reviews. Little after that, Olli Solitanner left from the band and there came the new vocalist Pasi Kärkkäinen. His singing style was totally different from the previous vocalist Olli and the band was very pleased about the new way of music that came along with new singer. Agonizer went to the Astia second time to record new vocals to the demo ”Last sign of light” and made some gigs with Amorphis, Sonata Arctica and Children Of Bodom.
Year 2001 Agonizer recorded demo ”Lord of lies” at Astia-studio. Demo was very well received by band, fans and reviews but record companies didn't noticed the band even thought the band tried very hard to be noticed.
At last at year 2002 the band was in the break of something when ”Lord of lies” made it’s way to German to Century Media. Followed by six months of negotiation with the record company Agonizer was left again without the record deal.
Year 2002 agonizer also made new collection demo ”Anthems of agony”. It was made from the previous demos. At the end of the summer 2002 Agonizer also had some changes when their guitar player Lasse Löytynoja left from the band and Joni Laine replaced him. Joni was again totally different musician than the previous guitar player and at the end band was very pleased about the new member. New songs with new different sounds and more ruff attitude became to emerge and at the spring of 2003 Agonizer went to Astia-studios to record new material. New demo ”Cain” was born. ”Cain” was again some sort of breakthrough to Agonizer. It won a title of months demo release in Finnish music magazine Rumba and was played and reviewed all over the world. Number of radio stations played it in German, Greek, Belgium, Netherlands, England, Brazil, Peru, Lithuan and Spain. Still in the fall of 2003 Agonizer was an unknown band.
At the fall of 2003 Agonizer decided to go again to Astia studios with new material. Purpose was to promote the band right from the start of spring. New demo whs labeled "World of fools". Because of better promotional gain Agonizer decided to release self-produced EP. There were two songs from demo "Cain" and those two songs from "World of fools" on the EP and it was named "World of fools" like the last demo. Release came at March 2004.
World of fools gave Agonizer lots of new gigs and great reviews around the world. Also Agonizer was in two collections at same year. Inferno-Magazine's Kiirastuli II and Enclave Records's Metal Ostentation V.
At the start of year 2005 Agonizer was selected to play at first Finnish Metal Expo. At the expo Agonizer took apart for the band contenst called "Hilselinko" and was selected from total 148 Finnish metal bands to play in finals with three other bands. As a result Agonizer was selected to play at Tuska-Festival's club. At expo Agonizer was forced to release their drummer because of long continued differences between the band and the drummer. For coming summer Agonizer got a great new drummer Atte Palokangas.
Line up at 2005.
Pasi Kärkkäinen (Modi) / Vocals J-P Perälä (Jazzo) / Guitar Joni Laine (Jonez) / Guitar + back-up screaming Mika Heinonen (Mike OD) / Keyboards + back-up vocals Jussi Tikka (Tuzah) / Bass
Source: http://personal.inet.fi/koti/tuzah/agony/english/en_historia.htm
