Agony District - Bossfight

In true Bossfight fashion, "Agony District" is facemelting in all the right ways.

It wasn't always like this—Bossfight started out as a chiptune group, but transitioned into bass music when the group split up and the alias was left as a solo project—but I'm not complaining either way. To say brostep is a big shift from chiptune would be an understatement, but it's undeniably well produced in both circumstances, because if it wasn't, well, the solo Bossfight project probably wouldn't have been picked up as Monstercat mainstay, would it? Beloved for his loud growls and unabashedly aggressive production, Bossfight transfers his brostep skills into their debut Monstercat EP "Agony District", a violent encapsulation of everything the Bossfight project has to offer in the realm of bass music. And there's plenty to offer within "Agony District"'s meaty 7-track-long tracklist, plenty of slamming basses and massive growls and unrelenting energy, but also plenty of experimentation—the step into metal that "Endgame" takes, the brash hardstyle switchup of "Fake", or even the introspective garage tune of "On U"—and for an outfit like Bossfight, who consistently makes quite similar tracks, experimentation is vital. Don't get it twisted, though: the majority of the EP is still very much rampant dubstep, but the added diversity is appreciated and is arguably imperative to the success of "Agony District".

My main issue with this EP is how the experimentation is executed. Whilst "Agony District" contains some of Bossfight's best tracks, period, it feels a little rough around the edges. Some of the switchups carry with them a bit of tonal whiplash, and some of the typical bass-heavy stuff can feel a tad unnecessary—and besides, I'd love to see something more connecting these tracks together, because there's a hint of that, but not quite enough. That isn't to say that "Agony District" is bad though; it's quite the contrary.