Expectations are a bitch. Release to release, fans and distributers want the goods. It’s hard enough as it is to please everyone, and it’s even harder when your debut album sparked a generation of imitators. With rabid fans biting at your throat and deadlines to meet, where the hell are you supposed to go? It seems a band can go one of two ways: You can repeat said formula of successful debut and dish out album after album to please the “fanboys,” but then you’re likely to fade away into monotony while the posers leeching your sound get younger and discover Pro-Tools. You could also branch into more experimental territory, but then you run the risk of pissing everyone off and being worse off than you were in the first place. The music world is serious business and if you don’t have the confidence to do things your way, you’re going to be left behind.
Everyone remembers The Opposite of December. I don’t give a fuck if you haven’t heard it, or even if you like it. You’ve heard its influence on the hundreds of flimsy metalcore Hot Topic darlings that have come and gone during the last decade. It took the more metallic side of Earth Crisis, infused the emotional honesty of Shai Hulud, added a shit load of breakdowns and sped it the fuck up. And while you thought Josh Scogin was the fucking messiah of the apocalyptic verbose, this little band from Miami were sweating bullets (and losing band members) while concocting the transitional Tear From the Red in 2002.
Fast-forward seven years to Poison The Well, circa 2009. At this point in the band’s career, they’ve shed a few pounds by way of ever-disappearing guitarists and bassists, they’ve dropped the breakdown altogether, and they’ve been through the major-label wringer. 2007′s Versions saw the band dabbling with even more accentuated experimentation than previous outings, signifying a braver, if slightly loftier, future for the metalcore legends. The here and now brings us The Tropic Rot, and if you can get around the fact that it has more in common with Cream than with From Autumn to Ashes, you’re in for a solid and exciting listen.
Unlike the aforementioned Versions, Poison the Well’s latest offering feels comfortable in its skin. From abrasive opener “Exist Underground” to the ghostly croons of closer “Without You and One Other I Am Nothing,” the album wanders through a number of unexpected genres, but does so with enough focus and strong songwriting to keep the offerings fresh from beginning to end. Longtime vocalist Jeffrey Moreira demonstrated early that he alternates the sing/scream dynamic well, but never has it sounded so assured than it does here. Rather than coming off as a whiny, man-child (admit it, a lot of metalcore acts replace sing/scream with cry/agonize), vocals actually work with and elevate the driving post-hardcore behind it. And yeah, those guitar leads do sound like they belong to Johnny Cash‘s band, but fuck if it doesn’t work well.
With The Tropic Rot, Poison the Well have successfully merged the darker, pissed off You Come Before You with their moody post-Atlantic material to form what won’t be the greatest release of 2009, but definitely one of the most enjoyable. A key concern is that the album never seems to pick up past the midrange tempo, and buildups usually end in a clipped or completely axed climax (check out the awesome “Antarctica Inside Me” for some intense buildup with no payoff). That in mind, there are still enough changes on this album to make it worthwhile. It’s good to see Poison the Well both find their niche and continue to evolve beyond the expectations set by everyone around them.
(8.2/10)
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