And So Dear Friends, You Just Have to Carry On: An Interview with Karl Agell (Legions of Doom, ex-Corrosion of Conformity)

When then-hardcore band Corrosion of Conformity was looking for a new lead singer in 1989, they placed an ad in the classified section of The Village Voice.  It said the band wanted a vocalist who was a cross between Ian Gillan of Deep Purple, H.R. from Bad Brains, and James Hetfield.  The man who responded to the ad, and ultimately won the job, was Karl Agell.

As Karl tells it, the band sent him three songs to work on prior to his audition.  He came up with the vocal melody to “Buried” when he woke up one morning, nailed it in rehearsals, and the rest is history.  Corrosion of Conformity would go on to record 1991’s Blind with him on the mic, and create a truly transitional and unique record that blended their hardcore roots with the Deep Purple and Black Sabbath influences all its members share.

On the back cover of that album, the band members are posed for a usual promotional photo.  Drummer Reed Mullin, who tragically passed in 2020, is front and center, wearing a t-shirt from the genre-founding doom metal band Trouble. Nearly 30 years later, Karl Agell would find himself replacing and singing songs written by Eric Wagner, their iconic frontman, in a supergroup filled with important members of the early doom metal scene.

Legions of Doom, the aforementioned supergroup, traces its lineage back to the incarnation of Trouble in the 1980s.  Their first two records, Psalm 9 and The Skull, are revered as watershed records for doom metal.  While they continued to put out records through the 1990s, ultimately, Trouble ceased to exist and morphed into The Skull in 2012.  Wagner, bassist Ron Holzner, and drummer Jeff Olson remained from the original band.  The Skull released two records and were working on a third when Wagner tragically passed away in 2021.

With the third The Skull record nearly 80% complete, the members of the group decided to complete the album with Wagner’s family’s blessing.  This is when Agell, Scott Reagers and Henry Vasquez (both ex-Saint Vitus) joined the fold – forming the new group under the name Legions of Doom, who will release The Skull 3 on September 13th through Tee Pee Records.

Ahead of the album’s release, I was able to speak with Karl about the formation of Legions of Doom and the process of taking Wagner’s work and bringing it to life after his death.  We also talked about his time in Corrosion of Conformity, the inspiration behind the lyrics on Blind, and where the demo tapes of him singing the tracks to Deliverance are.   Karl touches on what it was like to tour with Iron Maiden, Testament, and Henry Rollins Band as well, amongst a number of other topics.

You can view the entire interview HERE:

The first single from The Skull 3 is called “All Good Things,” which was written by Wagner and features Agell on lead vocals, contains the prophetic lyrics: “And so dear friends, you just have to carry on.”  The members of Legions of Doom are doing just that – and honoring his legacy as a founding father of doom in the process.  The B-side of the single, available here, fittingly features a cover of Deep Purple’s “Into the Fire,” a song that Agell recorded previously with Reed Mullin, his former bandmate, and Ron Holzner, his current bandmate, years ago before producing this updated version with Legions of Doom.

Legions of Doom have a number of tour dates coming up to support The Skull 3, including an appearance at Desertfest NYC’s pre-party at The Meadows on September 12th.  Their sets consist of classic Trouble, The Skull, and Blind-era Corrosion of Conformity, plus the eight songs from the new album.  You can find ticket information about their upcoming Desertfest appearance here.

Karl is also involved in a number of other projects, including Lie Heavy and Patriarchs in Black.  He says he is open to a reunion with his former bandmates from Corrosion of Conformity to commemorate Blind, and has no ill will from those days despite being unceremoniously and undeservingly asked to leave the band.  Though we may never see that reunion, Legions of Doom plan to tour behind The Skull 3 and record new music as a band, pushing the Trouble family tree into a third generation, while also paying tribute to those who came before them – listening to the eerily predictive words of their departed former frontman.