Poison The Well
Tear From the Red
Trustkill
I thank my lucky stars for bands like Poison The Well! I can always count on them to rock my pants off, no matter what time of the day or year, regardless of my mood. Tear From the Red is completely incredible in all facets; so where should we begin?
First off, the artwork for the record is excellent. The cover itself is printed on a wax paper-like material, transparent, which reveals the following page, making for a gorgeous picture of birds flying over a sea of red. The entire liner book is make in this formula, regular sheet, wax paper like sheet, and it’s completely awesome! This is by far the best artwork I’ve seen all year.
The music itself, need I really tell you, is simply fantastic and tough as knee to the groin. Poison The Well take the chugga chugga guitars of metalcore/screamo bands like Grade, cross them with half-screamed/half-sung vocals (a la Living Sacrifice), and throw in the math rock song structures of Coalesce to create an intense explosion of violence and aggression.
Tear From the Red is a step forward in maturity, in terms of anger and how to express it, from their hugely popular The Opposite of December. Where …December destroyed listeners with unbridled ferocity, Tear… features a much more controlled attack by the band, and the results are frightening. Current day Poison The Well is a better and more powerful band than Coalesce or Snapcase in their primes, no joke (see “Sticks and Stones Never Made Sense;” there will be no debate).
The most incredible song here has to be the amazing “Moments Over Exaggerate.” The drums pound along at mid pace, the guitars play a monstrous wall of a riff, and the vocalist sounds as if he swallowed a box full of tacks. Simply awesome.
It will be hard for bands of this genre to top Tear From the Red. This is easily one of the best 10 records I’ve heard this year, and one of the heaviest hardcore records I’ve ever heard. If you like your music hard and insane, this is one to get!
Trustkill Records: http://www.trustkill.com
