Poisonblack is a new band hailing from Finland. The main man is Ville Laihiala from Sentenced handling the guitars. I don't know what it is about Finland, but they are producing great Gothic bands. Maybe it is the weather or maybe it is all the Finlandia vodka?

Poisonblack is another great gothic band in the same league as Finland's pride HIM. The musical style and the sound is similar to HIM. However, Poisonblack is a bit rawer, focusing on the guitars as main instrument with especially keyboards adding atmosphere.

The music of Poisonblack has a dark feeling with focus on the melody. The songs are atmospheric with heavy guitars adding power. Guitarist Ville Laihiala is creating a tight thick sound collage with his playing. Furthermore he is not afraid to spice his playing with great riffs and some artificial harmonics. Vocalist J. P. Leppäluto is sounding real good with his dark deep voice.

The gloomy music is creating a perfect emotion to the record. The record is very true to the style and halfway through the record you get the feeling that the record could tend to float together. The gothic style is sometimes a bit monotone with only few variations in tempo. Most songs on "Escapexstacy" are mid-tempo, but songs like Lay Your Heart To Rest shows that the band is not afraid to crank it up.

The last part of the record is showing some variation with the up-tempo chorus in Lay Your Heart To Rest. The song has a "clean" guitar playing a riff in the verse and a distorted guitar to crank it up for the chorus plus the excellent solo. This style is continued on Illusion/Delusion, which is driven by a heavy bass and Ville's groovy guitar playing.

With Her I Die is another track, who deserves to be highlighted. The deep lead vocal is sung really slow creating lots of atmosphere, which is supported by the piano.

The record oozes atmosphere and melancholy. The song writing is consistent always focusing on the melody, but still true to the gothic style. Ville's guitar playing makes this album very interesting and the raw guitars should also appeal to other than Gothic fans. The album has a great sound with lots of depth. The free download on Poisonblack's website of Love infernal is exemplifying that.

Poisonblack is a very welcomed addition to the scene.

Written by Michael
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
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Ratings

Michael: 7/10

Members: 8.5/10 - Average of 1 ratings.



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Comment by WardyS3 (Anonymous) - Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Good review but 7/10? Well I kinda like the songs on offer here more than 7/10. I think Michael's review is accurate but there's so much more going on here that it takes a number of listens before you can really grasp the sheer brilliance of this album. JP does major justice to that 'monotone' atmoshpere mentioned, by creating an emotion throughout, probably of pain and loss if I can offer an example. If you are into good quality gothic 'rock' than this would do you no harm. I rate it a 9/10. Obviously for those who don't know JP is vocalist for Charon and if you are looking for similarities that's the direction to go for an example of how this sounds, but throw in those Sentenced and what have you bands and you're about there. Confused? Hope not, hope this helps! Great album!