''Broken Valley'' is the fourth studio album by American

alternative metal Alternative metal (also known as alt-metal) is a genre of heavy metal music Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With r ...

band

Life of Agony Life of Agony is an American alternative metal band from Brooklyn, New York City, formed in 1989 by singer Mina Caputo (then known as Keith Caputo), bassist Alan Robert and guitarist Joey Z. The band has released six studio albums to date, most ...

, released on June 14, 2005 by Epic Records. It is the band's first album in eight years, following 1997's ''

Soul Searching Sun ''Soul Searching Sun'' is the third album released by Life of Agony in 1997 through Roadrunner Records. The album was co-produced and co-mixed by Life of Agony and Phil Nicolo of the Butcher Brothers at Studio 4 Recording in Conshohocken, Pennsyl ...

'', and first with the band's classic, original line-up since '' Ugly'' in 1995. Epic Records elected not to issue ''Broken Valley'' in the United Kingdom upon release. However, the album was eventually released in the UK on October 17, 2005 through

Sony BMG Music Entertainment Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...

under exclusive UK license to

Hassle Records Hassle Records is an independent record label that was created by Chris Baker in 2005. Artists ;Current * Petrol Girls * Under the Influence * Lonely the Brave * August Burns Red * Cancer Bats * The James Cleaver Quintet * The Get Up Kids * ...

. The Hassle Records' limited edition included a special, bonus DVD along with a previously unreleased, bonus track from the ''Broken Valley'' recording sessions.

Commercial performance

''Broken Valley'' debuted at number 147 on the ''Billboard'' 200, selling 7,689 copies in its first week. However, the album quickly fell off the charts, and by December 2005 it had only sold 28,000 copies in the US. The album's sales in the US were also damaged by the

Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal A scandal erupted in 2005 regarding Sony BMG's implementation of copy protection measures on about 22 million CDs. When inserted into a computer, the CDs installed one of two pieces of software that provided a form of digital rights management ...

, and was one of the affected albums selected for recall from retailers in November 2005."Are You Affected By Sony-BMG's Rootkit?"

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ci ...

web site. Retrieved September 6, 2010.

Track listing

Bonus DVD

Several versions of the album were accompanied by a DVD, in which the band discussed their break-up and why they got back together. The DVD includes several

easter egg Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian feast of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The oldest tr ...

s such as a studio rehearsal of "Junk Sick" and backstage footage.

Personnel

;Life of Agony *

Mina Caputo Mina Caputo (born Keith Caputo; December 4, 1973) is an American singer best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of New York City alternative metal band Life of Agony. Caputo came out as transgender in 2011 and transitioned to fem ...

– lead vocals * Joey Z. – guitar, backing vocals *

Alan Robert Alan Robert (born 1971) is an American musician and comic book creator, known as the bassist for the alternative metal band Life of Agony, his work on his graphic novels ''Wire Hangers'', '' Crawl to Me'' and ''Killogy'', as well as his horror-t ...

– bass, backing vocals, cover design *

Sal Abruscato Sal Abruscato (born July 18, 1970) is an American drummer, guitarist and singer, best known as the original drummer for Brooklyn metal bands Type O Negative and Life of Agony.Hart, Josh (2011)Interview: Sal Abruscato and Matt Brown of A Pale Hor ...

– drums ;Additional *

Greg Fidelman Greg Fidelman (born September 4, 1965) is an American record mixer, engineer and record producer. He is a frequent collaborator of producer Rick Rubin, and has worked with many bands in various genres, including Metallica, Slayer, High on Fire, B ...

– producer * Tony Zeller – engineer * Johnny Fairfax – engineer * Kevin Dean – engineer * Ted Jensen – mastering * Myriam Santos-Kayda – photography

Footnotes

{{Authority control Life of Agony albums 2005 albums Epic Records albums Albums produced by Greg Fidelman