When this reissue came into my hands, my neck was terrified! Probably it reminded me of the ultra headbanging I have done when this album was originally out and the tons of sweat that was spilled on the floor!!! AGATHOCLES is a cult band in the real meaning of the word. Being around from 1985 with thousands of releases (demos, albums and numerous 7 singles), they were famous for three reasons: their music, their whole philosophy behind the lyrics and all their discography filling a trailer!
Now, what you'll hear in this CD is grind. Grind as it was back at the start of 90s. A music close to death, thrash and punk with - at most times - social lyrics. You know, blasts, then moshing parts with drums like 'gappa gappa gappa' ... and then blast!!!
Why is this album a classic? Well, most grind bands had songs with their length being one minute or two and all their structure was simple. The fact was that the songs were cool, you really enjoyed them while you heard them but in the end nothing was stuck in your head. AGATHOCLES, and other bands of course, in this album were a bit different from the others. The structure of the songs was more complicated, there were a lot of tempo changes and a lot of riffs. There were real songs but they were also grind and furious. If you hear their first recordings you'll understand what I mean. The change is obvious!
Beyond this, they had wonderful lyrics, a whole ideology lurking above them. Check their CDs for details. This band plays real music which is something unknown in today's scene. AGATHOCLES reflects the whole underground ideology and it's the only band I can find a reason for their many releases.
Theatric Symbolisation Of Life is a perfect album. All songs are good ( I have a little preference to Kill Your Fucking Idols) and I could say this is one of the Top-5 grind albums ever saw the light of the sun. Also, I have to mention that this version is different than the original one (back in 1992). The old version (Cyber) had a lot of songs from their first 7 split with RIEK BOOIS till their following split release with PSYCHO in 1991. The new version has a live gig from 1990 in Aalst(Belgium).