It's now time for our 187th monthly CD review at The Sault Metal Scene, and our first one of 2025! With no known new local metal, hard rock, or punk albums to speak of, let's dip into the archives for a second straight month, and this time, let's take a belated look at online page-less local folk punk/emo solo project Agnosticism's debut album "Happy Pills"! Independently released to major streaming services on October 6th, 2022 (I don't believe it had physical CD pressings), this is the only full-length album to date from Agnosticism, though they have released a handful of EPs since. This acoustic project is led by Hails/Vanity First guitarist, Apocalypse Afterparty bassist, and local concert promoter Mikhal Muto, with "Vanity Official" being their given label imprint where stated on streaming sites. For the record, this album was picked to review this month as a tie-in with Mikhal's concert with Ha!ls at The Distraction earlier this month.
You can find "Happy Pills" on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, and various smaller streaming services, but curiously, not on Amazon Music. If you want to actually buy the album in mp3 format, you can buy it on iTunes for $9.99, so consider doing just that to support Mikhal's music! Also, while I'll capitalize the song names here, note that Mikhal spelled them all in just lowercase. With 11 songs + a bonus demo version of one of them running for about 35 minutes, let's begin another year of local album reviews!
Song #1 on offer is "I'm Sorry", which has a slower and more intricate opening before Mikhal speeds up his playing, if at a bit of a repetitive clip at first. This regretful number picks up moreso after the first verse when he sings at full voice, unleashing his distinctive pop punk/emo tone of voice, but the use of layering two vocal tracks together on one verse really doesn't work for an acoustic singer/songwriter composition. The song doesn't subscribe to a "verse chorus verse" structure, so there's a lot to take in, and it's well written, but maybe a little scattershot as a composition. Good and effective opener despite the dual vocal part! Next is "Something About Anarchism", which is bookended with background noise with birds chirping. Mikhal alternates moods well between soft singing and intense screaming, and given that it is definitely very driven by its title, the passion and message is clear as day.
He is really straining his voice to hit higher notes on the sung verses, and it ends kinda abruptly after the last chorus (birds in the outro acknowledged), but it is a better and more intense song that punk-leaning fans will take to more than the opener! Third on the album is "It Gets Better", whose title doesn't necessarily reflect on the album's progression. A simpler and relatively shorter song, it probably has Mikhal's best guitar work on the album so far, and his emotive pleas fit well, especially late, but his usage of a backing vocal track again doesn't really feel all that necessary. Good song for folk punk fans though! Then we have "Boys Will Be Boys", a pro-feminism number that is the most reserved and laid back song on the first third of "Happy Pills", and the least "punk" of them, shouted "gang vocal" outro aside. Again, I'm not huge on the layering of doubled up backing vocals, but it's a fine folk number while it lasts, and has a good message!
Fifth is the album's longest song "I'd Probably Kill Myself If I Had The Motivation", which brings the punk influence back with more of a structure that you'd hear from a plugged-in band (imagine if one of Mikhal's bands tackled this), and he uses his well controlled punk snarl to good effect! More strong lyrics here, accentuating solid guitar playing and some good aggressive vocal work, so if you're into the "punk" side of "folk punk" like me, this will be a clear highlight on side one of the album! Next is "40oz Of Fuck You" (he titled it, not me), which is a brisk and lively number that I can seen being a sing-along track live if fans learn the words! Definitely the angriest vocals that he has deployed so far, and the song ends with a full-on hardcore punk verse (if still unplugged), which helps make this another highlight, though I do wish that he laid out more of his issues in the song!
Seventh on "Happy Pills" is "Out Of My Mind", which is the shortest song here, at just 1:45 in length. Another intense number, this is well paced and has a good folk punk vibe, though it doesn't really break out with a really intense or angry stretch, and given how short it is, it does feel somewhat unfinished. Solid for fans, but in an album with 12 songs, it doesn't really stand out. Afterwards, you'll hear "Unholy Matrihomie", which has lighter and more carefree guitar strumming that feels more "coffee shop-esque", if that's fair, but the vocals still have that nasal pop punk twang and a direct, matter of fact delivery. The layered backing vocals return in the closing verse, which still don't really work for me, but this is an effective enough lighter folk punk song with some fun lyrics, and while I like the more in-your-face songs from Agnosticism, this does what it sets out to do!
The album continues with "Null", which has some good personal lyrics about the future and a nice extended acoustic punk verse that lets him really let loose, almost at bluegrass levels by the end, but it gets a little messy by the end, and the vocal track layering doesn't help. Really, I liked the first half of this song for its lyrics and intensity, but it kinda lost its way as it went along. Song #10 is "Beggars", which is possibly the most "standard" song on the album, in that it really doesn't feel like a punk song aside from some of his screaming at the end. It just feels like a mid-tempo acoustic rock number, and it's not badly written and feels kinda grandiose at points. Good change of pace, and it builds well, but if you prefer his normal folk punk attack, this may not be the song for you. The final unique song here is the title track "Happy Pills", which is largely a delicate guitar composition.
This really shows off what Mikhal can do as a pure guitarist, and I thought it was going to be an instrumental until the last 45 seconds, when he plays off what a doctor is prescribing him in a way that is very reminiscent of the last verse of Suicidal Tendencies' "Institutionalized", but without the chorus to let loose with. There's good ideas here but it feels like two promising but incomplete song ideas smushed together. The album closes with a demo version of "I'd Probably Kill Myself If I Had The Motivation", which is largely the same song, but with lower recording quality and a spoken word introduction and (self-deprecating) interlude. Overall, it is a rawer version, but it has more of an honest underground feel, so I kinda like it better than the original, especially for leaning into the folk punk side of things! I wonder if he has similar demo versions of the other songs?
So, what are my final thoughts on Agnosticism's full-length album? I do prefer it to his 2024 EP "A Letter Of Resignation" for the most part, and folk punk fans will get a kick out of it! Like on his newest release, he suits intense, freewheeling acoustic punk better than on laid back ballad material, especially thanks to his tone of voice, and you tend to get more of that here while still stretching his legs to do some different styles. Production wise, I can definitely tell that he put more work into making "Happy Pills" sound like a proper studio album, as it sounds cleaner as a rule than "A Letter Of Resignation", but my big qualm with the full-length is Mikhal's usage of layered backing vocals on some songs. They really don't fit for a solo acoustic album and I am glad with hindsight that he didn't use them on last year's EP. On songs like "I'd Probably Kill Myself If I Had The Motivation" and "Unholy Matrihomie", you'll get a solid balance of his influences and styles!
I prefer my punk to be plugged in with a full band, and Mikhal definitely has that in spades right now, but if you like a raw, personal, and anarchic brand of unplugged emo-influenced punk, Agnosticism delivered that, and this album would be a good starting point before exploring their EPs! Give "Happy Pills" a listen at the above links, and I hope you guys liked this month's album review! As for what our album for next month will be, I really don't know at this juncture. Our new album backlog is clear, so if nothing brand new comes out, we'll likely dip into the archives again, with preference being with local musicians who play live at some point in February 2025. In the event that they have a quick turn-around for new albums, next month's review will not be of an Agnosticism or Sykotyk Rampage release due to our 6 month anti-bias buffer period, though Agnosticism is eligible again as early as July.
In any event, stay tuned for our next album review in February, and for this weekend's hard rock concert previews next! Thanks everyone!
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