Got Monsters(?)

Metal, while still being known as the province of tight jeans, wispy facial hair and ripped denim vests, will often surprise you.


Metal, while still being known as the province of tight jeans, wispy facial hair and ripped denim vests, will often surprise you. I was pretty flabbergasted to read that Kaith Caputo, the Life of Agony vocalist, has (or is about to, I’m not sure) undergone gender reassignment surgery, and now goes by Mina Caputo.

I listened to LOA in my teens, but haven’t really gone back to it, and it was really only due to random chance (and Spotify) that I came across Caputo’s solo album, Died Laughing, aka Roadrunner record’s Heaven’s Gate. The leap from Life of Agony’s River Runs Red to the glorious, life-affirming pop of Just be on Died Laughing could hardly be greater.

Interestingly, the metal community, usually (and not entirely without reason) accused of chauvinism, seems overwhelmingly supportive of Caputo, one fan noting that “sex change is a pretty weak excuse to break up the band”. Anyway, this is the video for Got Monsters from Caputo’s fourth (I think?) solo effort, A fondness for hometown scars, and it’s both beautiful and heartbreaking.