Poison The Well - Tear From The Red
Rating
RIYL
Eighteen VisionsChristiansen
Manntis
Label
TrustkillTracklist
*1. Botchla*2. Lazzaro
3. Turn Down Elliot
4. Rings from Corona
5. Moments Over Exaggerate
*6. Horns and Tails
7. Sticks and Stones Never Made Sense
8. Pieces of You in Me
9. Karsey Street
10. Parks and What You Meant to Me
* = choice cuts
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Poison the Well was under tremendous pressure as a band to come up with an even better piece of work than their landmark albumThe Opposite of December, a record that stopped the hardcore community in its tracks and made people realize that you could have melody, juxtapositions, and non-beefy breakdowns in hardcore and still have it be as powerful as, say, brute-force hardcore bands like Hoods and Madball. People took to December so quickly that it took Poison the Well and its small, but loyal, South Florida fanbase a long time to recover from all the excitement. But three years later, the band finally buckled down and recorded one of the most anticipated second albums since Earth Crisis delivered Gomorrah's Season Ends back in 1996. Did Poison the Well meet all the expectations with the end result, Tear From the Red?
Well, unfortunately, the answer is no. Tear From the Red is ultimately boring and breaks no new ground for the band. It basically sounds like a flatter, more produced, and less focused version of December with almost no memorable songs whatsoever. But, yes, most likely people will end up liking it anyway because the majority of people have no idea what constitutes a good record. Poison the Well totally botched their chances to make a second perfect record and follow-up one of the most widely accepted hardcore releases of all time .. but who figured they wouldn't? It'd be impossible to make another album with the same intensity, the same passion, and the same heartache -- especially since they didn't necessarily have those feelings as people anymore. You can't fake that kind of emotion, especially under pressure. And under pressure, what this band did was release a record that was below them musically and an insult to their characters and talent as musicians.
--Timothy Golden
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