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Rating: The portrait of the deepest and darkest sides of the human soul. That's what this album is. Pain, anger, despair. But also sweetness and poetry. It's impossible not to be fascinated by it. Poison The Well is a metalcore band from Florida, presenting their debut album after an excellent EP. An album that leaves you literally breathless, brilliant. Yes, because brilliant is the word that seems most fitting to describe it.
Listening to an album like this is not an everyday occurrence, and perhaps none so intense and moving have been heard in who knows how long. An album entirely founded on emotional intensity, it seems to seek how far music can push in the inner quest for the purest and deepest human emotions. Dark and sharp riffs strike the listener, with singer Jeffrey Moreira, in his cry of despair, accompanying you in the search for your deepest emotions. The guitars attack and trap you, while the relentless drums aid them before shining rarefied flashes of light come to save you.
Here's Moreira's scream in the opener "12-23-93" while the guitars follow, pounding in perfect hardcore style, and anger surrounds you before reaching the point where everything relaxes, and peace returns... only to return again to the starting point, but just for a moment: here comes a spine-chilling finale, where the voice and all the instruments seem to be in agreement to make their emotions tangible and thus capture your soul. Just the first song and there's already applause due. But better to save it for later because the journey has just begun... and continues like this through 9 tracks, with "Nerdy", which after an obsessive and despair-laden hardcore attack surprises you with a tear-jerking melody, a tiny glimpse of light, the standard-bearer of exquisite and delicate desolation, before speeding up again to an almost death-like finale; with "Mirror No Reflection" being the perfect picture of spiritual resignation; with "Slice Paper Wrists", which enlists the help of a depressed and unbelievably intense emo to make you feel even more before a splendid ending, not to mention "To Mandate Heaven", a concentration of emotions in just 2.50 minutes... Only a few moments of melody. Sure, when they are there, they last a short time, but every single note would suffice to bring a tear. And so you have to enjoy those moments to the fullest.
Every song, therefore, plays on mood change, on the light that glimpses through the darkness, further accentuating that emotional hardcore spirit already introduced by others such as Shai Hulud, who along with Poison The Well, are among the best in the more emotional hardcore scene. In short, a gust of anger, extremely intense and filled with hatred, with melodies that timidly emerge like small glimpses of light. Their main characteristic is creating songs that marry the rawest hardcore violence with melodies full of desolation and pain so perfectly as to create music that is almost 'alive', that feels emotions by itself, a perfect portrait of spiritual and psychological negativity.
In short, brilliant maybe even without knowing it, thinking of being a simple metal-core band. But why am I writing this? This is an album you have to buy and discover for yourself to uncover the brilliance, the absolute, incredible, uncontrollable, and tangible brilliance of this great, tremendously great group, although I'm sure it will be difficult for many to understand (P.S. the artwork is gorgeous too!).
Absolute masterpiece.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 12-23-93 (03:07)
Gouge out my eyes / pestilence lack of love binds / propagate / the strife you desire keep me from forced self depiction / abhorate self assured I am no more take this away from me once more thirsted for something that never existed Complacent / I am abomination / I replace absence of malice / sew my mouth shut the silent sound of the end / I drown in tears Sinking in dreams / Of what I once owned I avoid the setting of the sun (x2) Memories fade as you did once before Stole hope from right under my eyes Accomplice of my death
03 Artist's Rendering of Me (03:20)
With all my said unsaids
I could never swallow
The idea of a happy ending
As another days memory dies
As I'm made to smile
These lifeless days
have left me with an empty heart
another wounded memory dies
I could never swallow your false ideals
of a lifeless happy ending
how could words slit my wrist and doors close
present day heartfelt moments killed by a slap
to the hand another wounded memory dies
poisonous screams with messages
not thought of when released
present day heartfelt moments killed by a slap
to the hand another wounded memory dries
poisonous screams with messages
not thought of when released
another day here another memory dies
04 Slice Paper Wrists (03:56)
When you read this
I will not be the same
I have let my true form show
and it is my last time
lost in all my guilt for letting you fall
understand it wasn't me
where were you now i can see through your eyes
I remember the day the sun went out
it halted all progression with all its beauty
it just sacrificed we fell apart
As I ask
Why ask these questions?
Sincerely yours I've disowned you
Sincerely yours I've disowned us
05 Nerdy (02:44)
Why do your eyes paralyze me
What makes me feel this way
Just carry me away with silence and
Heartbeats as rapid
Thinking about your embrace
And how it makes me feel
I just want to feel this way forever
Sleep on portraits painted as perfect as you
Why have I been given the chance to fly
When I'm not with you I feel lesser alone
Why have I been given the chance to fly away
I remember your face imprinted on angels
Your voice as beautiful as the sound of waves
Crashing against my heart
Time stands still when you look at me
I'm infatuated with this
Infatuated with you
I remember your face imprinted on angels
It's so hard for me to understand
Why I hadn't found you before
Don't dull away
Hold my hand
06 To Mandate Heaven (02:40)
I know very well the rain falls in drops
Winds call me
As rain falls in drops I drop my head
I'm ashamed and tempted to say
My heart has caught up to me
but still these words hold my hand
Please stay a while longer
I don't want to be alone
To see in your eyes is to stare in clear skies.
Clouds don't trail me anymore
07 Not Within Arms Length (02:27)
Not within arms length
I'd sever the stars from the sky and place them in your hands if I
thought another wish they'd see the light of day.
But you stand beyond the sun.
Beyond the reach of just a friend
maybe if I grew wings, maybe if you lost yours.
These words would flow like water if you would let them scrape your heart
Not within arms length.
Embedded in comfort
A silent cry
I recive no comfort and as I colapse
we remain nothing more than friends.
As I hold my breath
a throat full of cement.
I am disgusted by repititon.
I accept this curse of friendship....
your friend....
friendship
09 My Mirror No Longer Reflects (03:19)
Choke on your forked tongue as you lie to me again
Say it's too early to show how we feel
just shove me away but what can be said
to someone who can't hear
or comprehend your actions
I've lost faith in what I've been told it's all a lie
I show true feelings always feeling the pain
Smash me to the ground a thousand times as before
But I can't rationalize anymore carry me away
on concrete pillows incinerate me once more
Love means nothing to you anymore
blood stains on the wall with disfigured forms end me
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