Poison The Well - The Opposite Of December : A decade of reflection (The Opposite Of December - Poison the Well)

Member Name: azwethinkweizt

Product:	The Opposite Of December - Poison the Well
Date:	02/04/09 (41 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very heavy yet melodic, great lyrics, incredible rhythm section.

Disadvantages: Might not impact so much on newer listeners.

In 1999 Nu-metal was riding high in mainstream rock and metal circles and the over-saturation of bands of that style started to begin. Also at this time Poison The Well created their highly influential full length debut 'The Opposite Of December' which ironically enough; eventually lead to an over-saturation of it's very own years later.
The fresh blend of shimmering metallic-hardcore borrowing equally from both punk and metal mixed with personal, reflective lyrics and was topped off with stunning artwork to boot. The vocals are mostly harsh here... somewhere between a shout and a scream which ocasionally turn into fragile sung vocals reminiscent of mid-90's midwestern emo and offer a welcome relief (plus giving you something to sing along to!). The highlight of the album (and any PTW live show) is the track 'Nerdy' which uses all of their elements of the (now somewhat overused) 'beauty and the beast' style of songwriting...
But I'd say this album was more like Beauty f**king the beast and then ending the relationship messily.
These days you'll find every band and his dog playing metalcore will be using breakdowns and the scream/sing style of song structures that Poison The Well once helped influence, and here is where my point of the whole saturation of a style comes from. But quality always shines through and although Poison The Well moved their sound away from the breakdowns, blastbeats and progressed; it still sounds as powerful and as fresh as when it grabbed listeners by the throat and heart ten years ago now.

Standout tracks: Nerdy, 12-23-93, Slice Paper Wrists, My Mirror No Longer reflects

Summary: A real desert island disc for me and for fans of hardcore and metal.