There is a moment on this magnificent forthcoming new live DVD from the Brooklyn hard rock legends that should give long time fans chills and also wow anyone somehow unfamiliar with this crucial and classic group. Seasoned and self-confident vocalist Keith Caputo, looking much more the stylishly disheveled pirate than he did in his early New York days, is crooning passionately through the truly emotionally heavy "Bad Seed". I won't tell you what the song is about, but suffice to say the pumped and sold out Brussels crowd is singing along word for word at the top of their lungs. Keith has grown with the material and is emotionally wrapped up inside the song and changing the cadence from the original 1993 Roadrunner Records recording, while the crowd are singing along with the cadence they have memorized on their hearts from the original album. While the crowd and Keith don't match up all the time (which should throw things into a confused disarray), the moment seems to surge and works even better, showing how Keith has grown as a veteran vocalist and how these classic songs about battling depression have weathered time and still matter so much to people across the world.

Out July 27th in the U.S. on I Scream Records, 20 Years Strong is damn near overwhelming. The live performance, filmed at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, Belgium back in April finds the band in top form ripping through the entire River Runs Red album and bands and fan favorites like "Love To Let You Down" and a fucking outstanding version of "Lost At 22" that closes out the concert on a total crescendo of blood, sweat, and faith. If only I could get a new Biohazard record sooner than later, along with this LOA release I could stay home just listening to music for months! While the LOA guys have all been busy with various things including Sal Abruscato's A Pale Horse Named Death record and bassist Alan Robert's Wire Hangers comic (which I am dying to check out!), Life Of Agony have been moving forward again with kick ass tours finding frothing fans eager to release to this music they have loved so long.

There are some records that just become a part of your life almost as intimately as a tattoo. We personalize them and our experiences become interwoven with our memory of the songs, like some people will always think of their high school prom when they hear Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)", for example. My car still has a tape deck and I found a tape of Ratt's Reach For The Sky recently, a record I didn't know as well as some of their other stuff. Listening to it, I was struck by how "What I'm After" was this near perfect pop-metal gem that many Ratt fans probably have a deep love for and connection with but I didn't know as well as their bigger hits. Back to the subject at hand… where Life of Agony is concerned, they definitely made a huge impact on many people's lives with their debut River Runs Red in particular, a record that tells the story of a descent into despondency and suicide JUST as effectively as Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral would a year later in 1994. "Respect" and the all-time anthem "Underground" are as meaningful as ever and carry deep messages. For the underground, River Runs Red was Life Of Agony triumphantly screaming up out of the New York Hardcore scene and featured some of its traditional trappings like call and response lead/back up vocals, but the band blew minds with their unique twists. Powered by Caputo's unrestrained melodic vocals, the lock step drumming of former Type O Negative drummer Sal Abruscato and the darkly melodic and heavy Sabbath meets slow hardcore breakdown riffs of Roberts and energetic guitarist Joey Z., the music world didn't have a chance of remaining unchanged. Back in the day people spoke in awe of their live shows and it just grew over time even as the band matured into a more hard rock leaning than metal beast.

After 20 years and counting, LOA are more relevant than ever and people are so thankful for what they have done. This band is about survival and catharsis and turning scars into good energy. I can even personally say that their music probably saved my life at one point, and I do NOT mean that as a cliché.

"When Life Of Agony came onto the scene, they were so unlike anything going on in heavy rock or metal because of Keith’s vocal delivery that you couldn’t help but take notice," says Carl Carlew, bassist of Poughkeepsie, New York's hardcore heavyweights Painmask, a huge fan of the band. "The heavy riffing and detuned guitars played a part in the music of my band Painmask, but the way the band presented itself in its lyrical content and its energetic live shows was also a huge influence. Even the name Painmask was inspired by the artwork from an LOA release, Ugly. So they are an incredibly important band to us and of course thousands of others."

I talked with drummer Sal Abruscato about twenty years, performing in Belgium, and the philosophy behind what they do. It was great to get to interview Sal because I am also such a huge Type O Negative fan and as their original drummer, this was almost like twice as awesome an experience for me as a fan of both bands. Read on to celebrate LOA with us here at CRUSHER MAGAZINE! The words and music keep us living and breathing, kids!!!

MORGAN Y. EVANS: So, congrats so much on 20 years! You guys are true heroes to the underground. Tell me about the “20 Years Strong tour” and how you decided on Belgium as the location for filming and recording the performance for I Scream Records? I was just listening to a great sludge band from Belgium called Ultraphallus! I guess I Scream Records was founded in Brussels?

SAL ABRUSCATO: Turned out to be the perfect marriage between LOA, I Scream, and Brussels Belgium. We decided to work with I Scream and it seems to be a good situation. We always had amazing fans in Belgium and the venue was perfect for the filming of the Live DVD.

MYE: Do you guys still check out Brooklyn bands these days? There is still a lot of good stuff going on, like of course your friend Johnny Kelly’s band Seventh Void, bands like Spylacopa and the stoner rock band Bezoar and other cool stuff, but do you think there will ever be as vital a HARDCORE scene in New York as there used to be? It seems like Boston takes the cake these days, much as I hate to admit it.

SA: No & No.

MYE: When the band was first staking its claim on the scene and particularly coming out of the hardcore scene at first then blowing up, what do you recall most vividly of those early bigger shows or that time in your life when everything started to move faster and faster? Any bands you recall having particularly awesome shows with?

SA: Well, we were stoked when we had gotten the Ozzy tour back in 1996, opened for David Bowie in 2005, and Metallica back in 2004 Download fest. Those are highlights for me, along with opening for Iron Maiden, Judas Preist, Heaven & Hell.

MYE: Awesome. Keith’s vocals growing up were so empowering at a crucial time in my own life. I have sung in bands for 15+ years and my old band DIVEST worked with Dr. Know of Bad Brains at one point, and I can tell you, Keith is one of the singers the most responsible for giving me more confidence to explore my real voice, not just scream or talk monotone and to try to add depth to songs. I have always been amazed at LOA’s ability to have such heavy yet engaging tunes and it allows for the songs to still matter year after year with far more emotional impact than many bands (not that some only screaming bands can’t also deliver, but you know what I mean). Where did your musical confidence come from as artists to pursue your own sound? Bands are often really timid these days to stand apart.

SA: My own sound started when I was a teen and then in Type O Negative. But as a band I believe it was right from the beginning and that was the difference.

MYE: Absolutely. You can hear it from the first note of "This Time". One thing about Life Of Agony that is so amazing is the consistency and also musical growth over the years. I am just as blown away by the bridge of “Strung Out” as with parts of older songs like “Weeds” or the incomparable “Bad Seed”. There is always the cathartic release. What was one thing in writing over all the years that you wanted to stay constant even as the band had certain stylistic shifts?

SA: Having interesting time signatures and melodic resolution.

MYE: How can you describe what it is like to have the bonds of having worked together for so long and sharing not only friendship but also the special connection of the musical and creative bonds between the band members over twenty years?

SA: It’s a marriage. Sometimes you want to make love and other times you want a divorce. It can be love and hate, laughter and intensity.

MYE: River Runs Red was somewhat controversial because of the suicide themes of the album, but I think it is much more about examining depression and real emotions. This is rather personal, but almost ten years ago (in a VERY different time of my life) I was suicidal and was in a psyche ward and actually found the River Runs Red tape in my stuff while in the hospital. It hadn't been confiscated! So yeah, I am gonna sue you guys (just kidding!). But no, really, it was such a comfort at that time and a reminder that creativity can get you through hard times and so that album has always had such a truly special place in my heart, plus maybe I am the only person who ever listened to “The Stain Remains” in a mental hospital common room lounge on a stereo, haha!

SA: I don't think there is any wrong in writing about suicide. It's the expression of an extreme human emotion.

MYE: What keeps music exciting for you these days? I saw you a few years ago in New Jersey at the Starland and the energy was near religious in the room!

SA: We are pros. We are seasoned and love what we do. That's really it.

MYE: Please tell us there is another full-length on the horizon?! I am from Woodstock, New York and I guess you guys did the Broken Valley pre-production there but I found out too late and so never got a chance to try to stalk your band and make you party with me! But seriously, we need at least one more album, brothers! Whip these young pup bands into shape!

SA: Who knows... just keep throwing nickels in the wishing well and maybe your wish will come true. People change over the course of 20 years and we are all very, very different from each other but maybe one day we will slam out some new stuff.