Last year Poison The Well announced a few shows marking their return. Today they announced they are playing shows on the west coast during the summer. This news put me in a Poison The Well kind of mood. So here is a ranking of their albums from not their best to the best.
Distance Makes The Heart Grow Fonder:
The Opposite Of December:
Versions:
The Tropic Rot:
Tear From The Red:
You Come Before You:
There comes a time in every bands career when the thought of evolving crosses their mind. It’s never to take away what they’ve done in the past but as a sign of the times of maturity and growth. Poison The Well did just that when they were together. Starting out as a hardcore/metalcore band when they released their album The Opposite Of December, the band eventually started experimenting with melody and different song structures on their great follow up Tear From The Red. This album gave the band the push they needed to continue to evolve their sound and not get stuck in a stagnant spot of regurgitating the same thing. For their next album You Come Before You, the band reached out to Swedish producers Pelle Henricsson and Eskil Lövström, who worked on the classic album The Shape Of Punk To Come by the Refused. You Come Before You was also their first and only record to be released by a major label, Atlantic Records. Having experienced some level of success with You Come Before You, a long and hard touring cycle left certain members of the band disenchanted. Guitarist Derek Miller quit the band and would later go on to form the alternative band Sleigh Bells (yuck). After months of working and writing material, the band set off in early 2005 to work and record with Pelle Henricsson and Eskil Lövström again in Sweden. Versions was their next step in their evolution. After the touring cycle finished for Versions, the band wasted little time in getting back to writing for what would be their final album The Tropic Rot. This album was sonically large and very focused. All their experimentation, was leading up to this. Sadly it all came apart after the end of touring for The Tropic Rot. The members of Poison The Well announced they were moving on and exploring other musical interests.
It also seems as though what Poison The Well were up to, might have been a little ahead of the times. To constantly be able to be challenged and inspired to create genuinely good pieces of work is not easy and does take a toll. I can only imagine what new material would sound like from them now. So with that in mind, Poison The Well needs to return!
Nerdy: The Opposite Of December
Botchla: Tear From The Red
Apathy Is A Cold Body: You Come Before You
Letter Thing: Versions
Exist Underground: The Tropic Rot
By: Brian Lacy
AUDIOECLECTICA 