Life Of Agony - Broken Valley (12 tracks) +Album Reviews

CD contains DRM software that opens your system to viruses

Phillip Roncoroni | Manhattan, New York | 11/12/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"As many people may know by now, Sony was recently caught with egg on their face when a security specialist found out that a recently purchased CD (Van Zant: Get Right With The Man) from Sony music not only installed DRM software (digital rights management, to limit and outright prevent copying music to certain devices), but it did so in such a sneaky way that it hid itself entirely from Windows, and opened the system up to security issues such as viruses.

This CD has the same copyright protection, called XCP. When installed, Sony hijacks your computer and installs custom software which:

1) Hides itself entirely from Windows by installing as a rootkit

2) Hides itself in such a manner that any files begining with $sys$ are also hidden. For example, if you install the XCP copy protection software on your machine, and rename "document.doc" to "$sys$document.doc" it then becomes invivisble to you forever.

3) Installs its own custom CD-Rom drivers to hijack your system. It also sneakily names these drivers "Plug and Play Device Manager" to seem as if it's a part of Windows. Trying to delete these drivers manually will disable your CD-Rom drive entirely.

4) Offers no uninstall option until you manually contact Sony

As of my writing this review, Sony has "apologized" for this incident, and claims they will "re-evaluate" this copyright protection software on their CDs in the future.

In the meantime, a virus is currently running wild, which names itself begining with $sys$ in an attempt to hide from the user and virus scanners.

Several class action lawsuits are also pending against Sony right now.

In summary, as you can tell from above, Sony's actions here are absolutely horrible. This is your music. You purchased it, and they should not have any right to dictate how you can use it, let alone install software which compromises your system security.

This is one of the CDs with Sony's XCP copyright protection software on it, and as a result, you should not buy it to send a message to Sony that this will NOT be tolerated in the future."

Contains Sony DRM Rootkit -- Do not buy

David T | 11/04/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This CD contains a compromising DRM rootkit which can greatly affect the Windows operating system. Do not buy."

Beware! Spyware included!

good2bking | Ulm, Germany | 11/09/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Customers beware! This CD ontains malware that will damage your Windows OS!"

4 stars for music 0 stars for CD

S. Frank | knoxville, TN United States | 06/17/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is yet another CD with the silly copy protection that prevents you from making direct copies with Nero or Adaptec. The software on the CD installs automatically when you insert the CD and prevents listening to the CD quality audio on your computer. You are forced to listen to lossy WMA versions. Just make sure you have "autorun" disabled on your computer so the software doesn't install on your computer automatically."

Don't be put off by the change in sound, this is a great alb

Ethan S. Tabor | San Francisco, CA United States | 08/01/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Life of Agony were once a heavy industrial sounding band, and now they are a heavy alternative-metal sound. Sort of like a cross between LOA, Velvet Revolver and STP. Amazing stuff. A lot of the reviews here are from people who love LOA's older albums, particularly River Runs Red - a GREAT album. You should definitely pick that up for the heavy industrial/melodic guitar-driven sound. THIS album is more vocal-driven, great in its own right. Most of Broken Valleys songs are amazingly written and the vocals are more mature and show greater range than previous LOA releases. Think of Broken Valley as Life of Agony: Version 2.

1. Love to let you down. ***** Tempo changes and aggro guitars highlight amazing melodic vocals. One of the best LOA songs, no wonder they open their sets with this song. A great breakdown gets the pit going...

2. Last Cigarette. ***** Any STP/Velvet Revolver fan should purchase this album for this song alone, which is better than any VR song and any song from STP's last 3 albums. Yet its still LOA somehow! The solos over the driving riff with the pounding snare and rythm that ends the song is the best.

3. Wicked Ways. *** "Should have known what those wounds have wanted..." Great lyrics and vocals the highlight.

4. Don't Bother. **** Another STP sounding song. The verses work well as the vocals follow the stop/start of the guitar riffs. And we have a great scale for the chorus. As usual, driving breakdowns from LOA. Song never lets up!

5. Strung Out. *** Gotta love it when LOA goes aggro during their breakdowns. The rest of the song is heartfelt, anthem driven chorus.

6. Junk Sick. ** Most people don't like the opening riff that repeats for the whole song. I agree. Sounds like an AIC/Dirt-like sound about drugs.

7. The Calm That Disturbs You. ***** Best song on the album. Awesome fast-paced riffs with alternating vocals. An aggro chorus keeps the pace up until the music stops and Keith wails the song title.

8. No One Survives. ** Fast song followed by the slowest. A stop gap for the rest of the album with pianos and stuff. Not good on its own but sounds nice after The Calm That Disturbs You.

9. Justified. *** Medium paced and atmosphere rich. Not a very memorable track but at this point in the album we go into a more relaxing tone.

10. The Day He Died. **** Bluesy wailing about the song title. Best vocals on the album in the chorus, in my opinion of course!

11. Broken Valley. ** Interesting choice for a title track, in that its probably the least stand-out song.

12. Room 244. ** An interlude without vocals.

Keep in mind this album is not classic LOA but is a great album on its own. Best heavier release so far this year."

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	Life Of Agony Broken Valley Genres: Alternative Rock, Pop, Rock, Metal Track Listings (12) - Disc #1 Love to Let You Down Last Cigarette Wicked Ways Don't Bother Strung Out Junk Sick The Calm That Disturbs You No One Survives Justified The Day He Died Broken Valley Room 244
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