March 4th will see the return of Reverend Agony to their hometown stage at Hard Times in Rockford. The band will be performing with Lockjaw. If you haven't heard of Reverend Agony and are a fan of such groups as Marilyn Manson, Ministry and Skinny Puppy it's time to take notice.

The group was formed in 1999 by Dementia (vocals, synth and programming). The outfit was originally assembled as an outlet to promote his EP entitled "Lies." It wouldn't be until 2001 that a full-fledged band by the name of Reverend Agony would come into existence.  That was the same year that they released their first full album "Tales of a Fallen Beauty Queen." The following year they played On The Waterfront on the "Best of Rockford" stage.  They also were building a respectable international following, getting airplay in Europe and Australia.

Their second album "Staring Into The Abyss" was just released last year, and is a very strong showing. The album shows that this band deserves to be in the same league with the aforementioned Manson, although perhaps with a little less of the negative controversy that surrounds that artist. These guys can pull it off with the best of them, and are (if there is any justice in the world) going to be big on the music scene sometime soon.

The remaining lineup of this unit is Androgyny (guitar and synth), Filth (percussion and synthetic drums) and Perversion (sampling, effect and backing vocals). I'm not sure, but I'd guess that those aren't the names their parents gave them. All members of the group (except Perversion) were involved in other acts over the years. For Dementia the precursors were Disintegrator and Psyvana. Androgyny was also in Disintegrator and Filth was in Misanthropy.

If you want to know more about this group check out their website http://www.revagony.com. There you will find videos, music samples, pics and a whole lot more. If you just want to be surprised, though, head on over to Hard Times on March 4th. The show is only five bucks and sure to rock! It starts at 9 PM. These guys are probably going to be hitting the bigger and better music scenes, so catch them in a small venue while you still can.