Poison The Well

Poison The Well Are Back — And Fusing Metal With ... Country?

16 Apr 2007 06:00:00 EDT

Miami band kicked off first headlining tour April 3; will join Warped Tour in July.
By Chris Harris

Poison the Well
Photo: Ryan Russell

During the 1990s, Poison the Well were among the bands who'd been at the forefront of an evolving sound, and in time, this fresh strain of unadulterated heaviness was tagged "metalcore" — a genre that fused elements of heavy metal with those of hardcore punk rock.

It was a style the Miami-based collective helped to forge, along with the likes of Killswitch Engage and As I Lay Dying. While countless metalcore bands followed, with much commercial success, Poison the Well lagged behind the rest of the pack and was eventually written off as a band that came awfully close, but never truly exploded — at least not in the way everyone expected it might.

Despite the backing of a major label, Poison the Well's Atlantic Records debut, 2003's You Come Before You, was considered a commercial flop, selling 115,500 copies to date. Late last summer, it was announced that Poison the Well had parted ways with Atlantic because of "creative differences." It was a grim time in the band's short history.

"We actually had broken up for a week," explained frontman Jeffrey Moreira. "We broke up for a week, and I was like, 'All right — I'm going to get a job. I'll be that guy who used to be in a band and then ends up working in a shoe store.' We did that for a week, and we just had to deal with the realization that this thing we did every day for five years was done. But then, [guitarist] Ryan [Primack], [drummer] Chris [Hornbrook] and I were like, 'We can't just stop. I still want to play music with my friends and make records.' So we decided to keep going. Most bands don't get the chance to come back, put a record out and have people still remember who you are."

On April 3, Poison the Well returned with a new label (Ferret), and what some are dubbing the band's comeback LP: Versions. And once again, Poison the Well are braving uncharted territory and effectively launching a new sound — one no other band has ever dared toy with. On Versions, which was recorded in Sweden with producers Eskil Lovstrom (Refused, Nocturnal Rights) and Pelle Henricsson (Cult of Luna), the band fuses heavy metal with elements of country, with surprisingly successful results.

"On paper, it doesn't sound like it could work," Moreira admitted. "Some people have been skeptical about it, but it seems to work with our sound. On You Come Before You, we kind of experimented a little bit with that sound, and I think that [guitarist] Ryan just went nuts on this record." The album features horns, slide guitar, mandolins, and banjo over gnarled riffage and punishing percussion.

"We've always tried to push ourselves to do different stuff," Moreira continued. "I think Ryan just wanted to entertain himself and do something different. It's something you don't hear a lot, especially in the music we play. As long as it fits with the song, we went with it. I don't think it's commercially viable, so, I don't know if it's something that will impact as much as [the band's 1999 debut] The Opposite of December... A Season of Separation did. This just shows you can be creative with music. Even though you play heavy music, it doesn't always have to be formulaic."

Well, somebody bought the album: Versions claimed the chart's #147 slot, with sales of 7,700 and then some. Moreira said he was entertaining the idea of shifting his vocal style to emulate the Cuban singers featured in the documentary "Buena Vista Social Club," but the band simply didn't have time to push the envelope that far.

"Next time," he laughed.

On April 3, Poison the Well kicked off their first full U.S. headlining tour in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with support acts Heavy Heavy Low Low, Fear Before the March of Flames, the End and Portugal. the Man. That trek is scheduled to run through May 12 in Nashville. The band's also been tapped for this summer's Warped Tour and will take the stage starting with the July 25 date in Washington, D.C. The Well will remain on Warped through its August 25 finale in Los Angeles.

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Poison The Well

Poison The Well Create Vicious Little Happy Songs For Change

22 Jan 2004 09:59:00 EST

Noisecore band releases You Come Before You, hits club circuit February 6.
By Jon Wiederhorn

Poison the Well (file)
Photo: Jason Campbell

Poison the Well love heavy metal, metalcore and screamo. They grew up listening to Slayer, Metallica and Void and have played with everyone from Cryptopsy and Candiria to Hatebreed and the Deftones. Unlike many nihilistic noise rockers, however, their aggression stems not from misdirected anger but rather from a sincere desire for social and political change.

"The United States' social structure has made it imperative that bands like us say something real and try to make a difference," guitarist Ryan Primack said. "We feel responsible because of the general air of apathy among young people. Someone's gotta say something."

Poison the Well singer Jeff Moreira doesn't just scream when he raises his voice, he regurgitates his demons like George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher from Cannibal Corpse. And when Primack lets loose, he plays turbulent staccato riffs and static-filled chord blankets that push the aggro meter into the red. A melodic quality to the songs provides vivid contrasts.

"We've been as affected by hardcore and punk as we have by metal," Primack said. "The most influential period in music for me, other than classic rock, was the [Washington, D.C.,] Dischord Records scene in the '80s. We love bands like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Nation of Ulysses, Teen Idols, Rites of Spring and Fugazi."

These groups' impact wasn't just musical. The Dischord scene encouraged young, passionate kids to pick up instruments, form bands, write fanzines, start labels and promote shows themselves.

"I'm only 25, so I missed that whole thing when it was happening," Primack said. "But I caught up with it later, and those bands had a huge impact on us, whether it was something as simple as how much you sell your T-shirts for or the fact that you don't have anything if you don't stand for something."

Poison the Well's multidimensional third album, You Come Before You, is filled with harrowing rhythms and resonant personal lyrics. It powerfully juxtaposes melancholic despair and raging anger.

"We can be vicious, but we can also be a happy little band," Primack said. "Are you happy all the time? No. Are you vicious all the time? No. But you do feel both things, sometimes simultaneously. Sometimes you get so happy you cry, and sometimes you get so mad you trash something. That's also a part of life."

The album's title, You Come Before You, represents the importance of being true to yourself. It might sound selfish coming from a band that stresses political awareness and advocates charitable causes, but in Poison the Well's perverse world it makes perfect sense.

"Sometimes people think they're small and what they think doesn't matter," Primack explained. "The title is about taking seriously the things you feel strongly about. The inside you comes before the outside you that you portray to people. The things you really feel are the things you should really say, and you shouldn't hold back."

The band recently filmed a video for "Apathy Is a Cold Body" — just don't call the track the album's first single. "I hate singles," Primack said. "No one should feel close to a record because of one song. Around 30 years ago, bands put out albums as statements, and it should still be that way. You can't just listen to one song on our album; it's a collective work. You can't get the whole idea unless you hear all of it."

Poison the Well will headline clubs beginning February 6 in Pomona, California. They'll join Thrice, My Chemical Romance and Moments in Grace for shows in larger venues starting March 17.

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Poison The Well

Metal File: Hard & Heavy News On Cannibal Corpse, Poison The Well, Flotsam And Jetsam, Skinlab, Unearth & More

6 Nov 2003 07:04:00 EST

Cannibal Corpse
Photo: Alex McKnight

Hey all. The big news this week might be that your usual Metal File guy, Iann Robinson, is out on the road with his band, Puny Human. If you're in Baltimore or Philly, check them out this weekend, and in the meantime, enjoy this week's metal offerings:

Cannibal Corpse have made the cut and settled on the songs that will appear on their upcoming album, The Wretched Spawn. The disc, due in February, will include "Severed Head Stoning," "Psychotic Precision," "Decency Defied," "Frantic Disembowelment," "Rotted Body Landslide," "Cyanide Assassin," "Festering in the Crypt," "Nothing Left to Mutilate," "Blunt Force Castration," "The Wretched Spawn," "Slain," "Bent Backwards and Broken" and "They Deserve to Die." ... After their tour with the Deftones wraps later this month, Poison the Well will kick off their own headlining tour on November 23 in East Meadow, New York. Tickets for the trek — in support of July's You Come Before You — are set at just $8. The tour will keep the band on the road through mid-December. ...

After a three-year break from the music business, Scott Sergeant is once again filling the guitar slot in the San Francisco Bay Area band Skinlab. ... Skinlab, Flotsam and Jetsam, Macabre, Vehemence, My Ruin, 40 Grit, Insolence and Acid King are among the bands lined up for this weekend's Dwell in Darkness Festival in Tempe, Arizona. ... Everything old is new again: The Black Dahlia Murder announced a new lineup this week, one that sees original members Trevor Strnad and Dave Lock return to the fold. "This lineup is a family, and the band cannot exist any other way," Strnad said in a statement. ... Massachusetts' Unearth are plugging away on a new album, the band's first under a new deal with Metal Blade Records. The group will resume work on the album after wrapping its stint on the Headbangers Ball tour with Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage and Shadows Fall. ...

Zao have selected Burn Beautiful as the title for their next album — their first since reuniting earlier this year — which they intend to record in March and release next summer. Next month the band will cross the pond for Belgium's Riot Fest, which also includes Dillinger Escape Plan, Blood Has Been Shed, Martyr AD, Nora and several other bands on the bill. ... Most Precious Blood will support the release of Our Lady of Annihilation — the band's first album with former One King Down singer Rob Fusco — on the road with Sick of it All, following a string of shows this month with Bleeding Through. ... Hypocrisy have announced that The Arrival will be the title of their next album. ... Lacuna Coil recently shot a video for the song "Heaven's a Lie" in Gothenburg, Sweden, and the Italian band is gearing up for its first headlining tour of the United States, beginning November 12 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dates run through December 7 in Denver. ...

The hardcore all-star band Ragmen will unleash their self-titled debut next year. The band features singer Jorge Rosado (Merauder), drummer Cliff "Rigg" Ross (Madball, ex-Hatebreed), bassist Ian "Bulldog" Edwards (Freya, Earth Crisis) and guitarist Mitts (Madball, Skarhead). ... Isis plan to release a series of limited 12-inch remix singles next year featuring new takes on songs from their sophomore album, Oceanic, done by a number of artists including former Faith No More frontman Mike Patton, the Melvins' Buzz Osborne and more. The Bostonian band, which includes Hydra Head Records honcho Aaron Turner on guitar and vocals, will see the singles released through Robotic Empire. ... In related news, Robotic Empire will also issue vinyl from the band Creation Is Crucifixion next year that will compile material from the band's ill-fated split releases. ...

Coal Chamber guitarist Miguel "Meegs" Rascon has resurfaced in the new Los Angeles outfit Piñata. The band has posted its latest track, "The Game" online at www.pinatamusic.com. Pinata also features singer Odyssey, guitarist Matt, drummer Brian, bassist Stitch and keyboardist Wingnut. ... Deep Purple wrote a song for their new record, Bananas, about the Space Shuttle Columbia, which exploded on February 1. "Contact Loss," an instrumental penned by guitarist Steve Morse, is dedicated to the crewmembers who lost their lives. Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla, a fan, had exchanged e-mails with the bandmembers while in space and took three of their CDs aboard the craft. ... WWE superstar Chris Jericho will play New York with his band Fozzy on December 11 and 12. At year's end the band will enter studios in Atlanta and Tampa, Florida, to work on its third album, due next spring. Unlike Fozzy's previous two discs, which were mostly covers, the album will contain all original material. ...

Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson has come down with severe laryngitis as a result of the flu, causing the band to postpone Wednesday night's show in Rotterdam, Holland. The gig will be made up December 13. Friday's show in Wroclaw, Poland, has been canceled. ... Swedish metal monsters Entombed had to cancel a Toronto show on November 4 after drummer Peter Stjärnvind became sick and was rushed to the hospital. No further details are available. ... Twisted Sister will perform three New York shows without makeup or costumes as Bent Brother. The dates are November 29 in Farmingdale, December 13 in Poughkeepsie, and December 19 in Brooklyn. ... The End, a cerebral death metal group from Mississauga, Ontario, will release their U.S. debut, Within Dividia,on January 13. The follow-up to the 2001 Canada-only release Transfer Trachea Reverberations From Point: False Omniscient was produced by Pierre Remillard. ...

German thrash band Primal Fear will release Devil's Ground on February 23. The disc was produced by Mat Sinner and co-produced by the band. Tracks include "Metal Is Forever," "Visions of Fate" and "Sacred Illusion." ... Manowar will release the double DVD "Hell on Earth III" on December 8. The package will feature more than 90 minutes of live footage, interviews and pre-show rituals, as well as all of the band's music videos. ... Former Malevolent Creation drummer David Culross has returned to the band. Culross first played on 1996's Eternal and left after 2000's Envenomed. The band's still-untitled ninth album will be recorded in February with producer Jean-Francois Dagenais. ... Anthrax recently shot a video for "What Doesn't Die." Brian Posehn, who acts in the TV sitcom "Just Shoot Me," directed. The horror clip features zombies and other creepy crawlies. ...

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Thursday, Avenged Sevenfold, Poison The Well Take Action Against Suicide

9 Sep 2003 04:34:00 EDT

Take Action Tour, launching September 11, also features Dillinger Escape Plan, Further Seems Forever, others.
By Jon Wiederhorn

Poison the Well
Photo: Atlantic

In a 2001 interview with the Web 'zine "Into Obscurity," Avenged Sevenfold frontman Matt Shadows was asked what he and his bandmates would be doing if they weren't playing aggressive emo-metal music. The singer flippantly replied that he would be in the NBA and bassist Justin Sane would "overdose on something."

His words would return to haunt him. Before the band started working on its sophomore album, Waking the Fallen (which came out August 26), Sane tried to kill himself by drinking an excessive amount of cough syrup. He survived, but was so severely impaired he had to leave the group.

"He perma-fried his brain and was in a mental institution for a long time," Shadows said. "When you have someone in your band who does that, it ruins everything that's going on all around you, and it makes you want to do something to prevent it from happening to other people."

That's why Avenged Sevenfold and other screamo, metal, hardcore and punk artists are taking part in this year's Take Action Tour, which will benefit the suicide awareness and prevention program the National Hopeline Network 1-800-SUICIDE. The first of 28 dates will be September 11 in Minneapolis, and will feature Poison the Well, Dillinger Escape Plan, Further Seems Forever, Eighteen Visions, Shai Hulud and Since by Man. Avenged Sevenfold will join the tour September 17. Other acts that will play select dates include Shadows Fall, This Day Forward, Throwdown, Himsa and These Arms Are Snakes. The tour runs through October 12.

To coincide with the tour, Hopeless Records has just released the benefit record Take Action! Volume 3, a double-CD compilation that features 45 songs by such acts as Avenged Sevenfold, Thrice, Poison the Well, Thursday, Good Riddance, the Ataris, Further Seems Forever, Division of Laura Lee, Yellowcard, Boy Sets Fire and Cursive. Last year's Take Action! disc has sold more than 240,000 copies.

"Take Action is raising money for something that affects absolutely everyone that's human," said Poison the Well guitarist Ryan Primack, who delivers a PSA that starts the record, and whose band is playing the tour for the second year in a row. "Everyone knows someone or is someone that has felt depressed enough to kill themselves. With an issue as basic and humanitarian as this, people who need help should get help."

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, young people account for approximately 5,000 out of 30,000 total suicides in the U.S. each year. Another 650,000 people are hospitalized annually after attempting to kill themselves. In addition, suicide is the leading cause of death for college students.

"Of course, not everyone who comes to a punk rock show is suicidal or depressed, but punk fans are a young group of people who are dealing with very difficult issues at school and at home," said concert organizer and Hopeless Records founder Louis Posen. "So we realized that here was a group of people who could identify with the message, and also the bands seemed to have a lot of connection with dealing with depression and suicide."

One emotionally aware band that feels a real connection with the cause is Thursday, who contributed "For the Workforce, Drowning" to Take Action! Volume 3. In the mid-'90s, one of frontman Geoff Rickly's best friends killed himself.

"His name was Kevin, and he's the one who got me into hardcore and punk," the singer recalled. "He was schizophrenic and he moved to San Francisco, and ended up shooting himself. I talked to his mom afterwards, and she said he had a suicide hotline number for New York, and he had used it before, but he couldn't use it in San Francisco because he didn't have a long-distance plan. If there had been a toll free number like 1-800-SUICIDE, he could have called them, and I might still have my friend around."

Take Action Tour dates, according the the event publicist: