1. Poison The Well - You Come Before You 2003
If ever a bad needs to come back to life, it is these Floridians, and fast! Modern hardcore has become a worthless genre, much more about style than substance, and all about false emotions. Poison the Well did what they did and, oh boy, did they mean it. Debut, 'The Opposite of December' is seen as one of the most important albums in the evolution of heavy music, not to mention the evolution of Hardcore and Metalcore. Always innovators, never followers, much like Thrice, Dillinger Escape Plan, Thursday, Refused, Champion and Eighteen Visions, who all each spawned their own micro-genre's within Hardcore. Sad that only a couple of those still remain active, and just one still releasing new music. More bands than not, nowadays, are not commentating on the world we live in, but are looking inward, but so much of it comes off as insincere and trite. Frontman and vocal-monster, Jeff Moreira was so good at addressing personal issues without any hint of bullshit posturing. Here, is where he went from really good, to a master. The band also changed tack a little bit from their previous approach, embracing more influences and expanding their pallet, without straying too far from what had made them so initially revered.
The only one of the band's five full length releases to appear on a major record label, many feared the worst and prepared for a dumbed down, more accessible record. Not only did the band do the exact opposite, they produced a career best at the same time. Bringing in the Swedish production duo that had helped birth the Refused masterpiece, 'The Shape of Punk to Come' , they channeled into their, for-the-throat metallic-Hardcore approach, some Post-Metal influences from the likes of Cult Of Luna, Neurosis and Isis, which was really what made the difference. Moreira still switches effortlessly between bear-like screams and his commanding, convincing singing, in perfect sync with the music underneath. Never a band with simple arrangements before, here they mix things up even more, with different time signatures and tempo's, but not once does anything sound disjointed, or, bolted on for the sake of it. The guitar tones are warmer and less scooped, having a more mid range but no less brutal result. Chris Hornbrook's exceptional drumming is pushed up in the albums overall mix, to really power the songs along. Picking out highlights is extremely difficult as the quality doesn't dip at any point over the piece. Some obvious examples of the difference to what had come before would be - 'Meeting Again for the First Time', 'Apathy is a Cold Body' and 'Sounds Like the End of the World'. There is lots of, almost uncontrolled rage, plenty of melody, even hooks which they'd always had in spades. This album, perhaps not as influential of the debut and, even the hugely underrated, 'Tear From the Red', is a fine example of stepping up to the challenge the third album poses and surprising everyone, whilst raising your profile and cementing your legacy as trail-blazers.