Last week Keith Caputo — now going by the name Keith Mina Caputo — announced his… her? I guess her… status as a transexual who has already begun the process of gender reassignment. Now fan filmed footage of Life of Agony performing with Keith Mina in all her glory has surfaced. Check it out below.

It’s hard not to notice just how not-weird the performance seems, even with Caputo’s new look; I mean, it’s not as though half the singers in metal don’t kinda look like women anyway, and Caputo’s voice and stage presence do not seem to have changed one bit. If I didn’t know what was going on and was just watching this, I’d probably just think “Oh, Keith Caputo has long hair now.”

In any case, I would like to second Vince’s endowment of props to Caputo — the way she’s been handling this situation is incredibly brave.

 -AR

[via Sebastian Bach's favorite website]

Life of Agony frontman Keith Caputo posted pictures of himself dressed and made up as a woman on his Facebook page months ago. At that time, while fascinated, I chose not to report on it because I didn’t think Caputo would want his name tossed about in public.

But I was wrong to make that assumption; these days he — excuse me, she — has become increasingly more vocal about her status as a transsexual, as reported by Metal Insider and Metal Injection. From Keith Caputo’s Twitter on July 7:

LOA has already gone in2 isolation & it’s got nothin 2 do w me transitioning. my boys love me regardless of my life choices!

and in case there was any doubt about the meaning of “transitioning:”

M2F transexuals like mê are the women who give up male privilege for femininity! Threaten the patriarchy! #TransLib#WhippingGirl

That clears it up, no? It’s important to note, though, that Caputo has not undergone a sex change operation (yet, anyway). HornsUpRocks intercepted this Tweet by Caputo a few days after the above:

Dying to make love to my lady. Haven’t seen her in 2 months. Dying to hold her & be held. Never letting her go. Just a few more days. The Art Of Love!

I can’t say I entirely understand what this all means for Keith’s sexual orientation, but does it really matter? Transexual, gender reassignment, gay, straight, tall, short, skinny, fat… we’re just happy to see Keith expressing his true self. It takes a tremendous amount of bravery, especially as a public figure, and double especially as a public figure in a genre as everything-phobic as metal, to challenge widely held standards of sexuality and gender. Congrats, Keith.

-VN

And Hell Will Follow Me is a sad, sad, sad album. One can only speculate on the source of the album’s lyrical themes of death, despair, drug use and depression given A Pale Horse Named Death mastermind Sal Abruscato’s (also of Life of Agony) affiliation with Type O Negative… but again, one can only speculate. The music is certainly reminiscent of Type O — dark and moody — although it’s decidedly less gothy and more rocky. In more ways than one I’d liken it to Type O meets Alice in Chains; the music has that same sort of depressing, yet churning AIC plod, and Abruscato’s voice certainly calls Staley’s to mind at times.

Sal’s partner in crime on And Hell Will Follow Me is Matt Brown, sound engineer extraordinaire and guitarist of fellow NY band Seventh Void. Matt knocked it out of the park here; this album sounds excellent. Type O drummer / Seventh Void bandmate Johnny Kelly plays drums.

Listen to album track “Serial Killer” below; it’s about as upbeat and rocky a track as this album has to offer. Stream “Heroin Train” over at SkullsNBones for another taste of the album.

MS photographic whiz Jacqueline Cheng’s latest conquest was Biohazard’s year-ending headline show at New York City’s Best Buy Theater (formerly Nokia) on December 16th with Life of Agony. Jackie specifically requested this one way in advance, and as always she did a bang-up job with her photos. Check ‘em out after the jump.

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I’ve been so caught up in the Unsigned and Unholy thing lately that I’ve left a few signed bands on the table that are well-deserving of the ears of MetalSucks readers. So, without further ado:

• Chickenhawk: I wasn’t expecting much from a band named Chickenhawk, but these guys completely rip. They’ve got the post-hardcore-meets-metal vibe of bands like Converge, Cancer Bats or Kvelertak, so if those names mean anything to do you ought to check them out right quick.
• Primitive Weapons: These Brooklynites just signed to Shinebox Recordings, and they’d actually make a good touring match with Chickenhawk; they’re a little bit noisier and a little less rock/metal-y, but no less talented.
• A Pale Horse Named Death: New band featuring ex-Type O Negative / Life of Agony drummer Sal Abruscato, another Brooklyn boy, collaborating with producer, engineer and musician Matt Brown. The result is a band that has sonic elements of the aforementioned (more so Type O than Life of Agony) but has its own brand of dark melancholy too.

That’s not a hypothetical question: this show is actually fucking happening!. Biohazard, Life of Agony, and the recently reunited Vision of Disorder, three of the finest heavy acts to come out of New York in the 1990s, have just announced a hometown show on December 16 at the Best Buy Theater in Times Square. Tickets go on sale next Friday (October 22), and I wont be surprised if this sells-the-fuck-out shortly thereafter.

A few months back, I Scream Records dropped a solid CD/DVD set of Life Of Agony performing the classic River Runs Red album live in its entirety. No word yet on whether or not the December gig will feature a similar River Runs Red performance, but it’s pretty safe to say that the record will at least feature heavily. Peep the trailer above and get psyched for the gig!

-GS

To celebrate the release of Madball’s latest aggro masterpiece, Empire, we asked vocalist Freddy “Madball” Cricien to compile a list of his favorite non-hardcore (but still heavy!) bands. Luckily for us and all of you, he agreed! So we’ll be running two entries a day from Freddy’s list every day for the next five days, leading up to Empire‘s October 12 release. To follow, pelase find the first installment. We hope you enjoy…

10) LED ZEPPELIN

I wasn’t sure at first if I should put them on this list. They could be considered more rock than anything, and that would open up a whole other door of bands I love. But you know what? They’re heavy, so I’m going to throw them on my list. I grew up listening to my older brother Rudy’s Led Zeppelin records… along with a bunch of other eclectic stuff. I always loved Zeppelin. Great songs, unique sounding band, and the heavy-ness and groove of John Bonham’s drums was just amazing.

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So. I love Stereomud. I’ve written about them several times on this here webernet site. For those with short memories: Stereomud was an early-2000s supergroup of sorts, featuring members of Life of Agony, Stuck Mojo, and Pro-Pain. I know, I know, they were bottom of the barrel, C-rate post-nu-metal… but I can’t help it! “Pain” and “Steppin’ Away” were just so good! No, I’m not being ironic. And their second record Any Given Moment, which resulted in the band being dropped from Columbia, was a damn fine effort too.

With that in mind, question not why I’ve been following the drama that recently unfolded when Stereomud vocalist Erik Rogers attempted to form what amounts to a new band under the “Stereomud’ moniker. When actual members of Stereomud put up a stink, he was forced to change the name of the new band to Dangerous New Machine and issued a protracted public apology.

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I’ve always been a sucker for the minor hit song “Pain” by Stereomud, an early ’00s nu-metal supergroup of sorts that featured members of Life of Agony and Stuck Mojo. At a benefit show in Atlanta this past weekend, bassist Corey Lowery (now of Dark New Day) reunited with his former Stereomud bandmates who are now in the band Love Said No to play that song. Erik Rogers sounds pretty decent, no? Stereomud may never have amounted to too much but I still think this is a kick-ass song, haters be damned. Bring it on.

-VN

Big ups to MetalSucks commenter Porkspam for pointing out the striking resemblance of Life of Agony’s singer Keith Caputo to a Troll, that creepiest of vintage children’s toys.

I’m actually a big fan of Life of Agony and especially Keith as a performer… but come on, this is funny.

(See also our recent posts about Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom’s resemblance to Avril Lavigne and Matt Heafy of Trivium’s resemblance to actress Summer Glau)

-VN