Band:	Poison the Well
Album:	The Tropic Rot

“The Tropic Rot” is the latest album from melodic metal mavens Poison the Well. For those of you left cold by the Morricone antics (read western, twangy music), then fear not. The boys from Florida are back on top of their game or, at the very least, rebounding really well from the unfocused madness that was “Versions”.

PTW are one of the few bands that can write a metal-core album without a breakdown and still make you feel like you’re listening to an absolutely vicious record. Songs like the opener “Exist Underground” set the tone; both ridiculously heavy and genre-transcendingly tender. I tend to go on and on about bands like this, but the praise is due as PTW are truly masters at forcing you into a corner with their musical mastery. “Antarctica Inside Me” is another “I-can’t-believe-this-is-as-slow-as-it-is-and-still-has-the-ability-to-crush-my-skull” songs; vocalist Jeff Moreira is both scarily abrasive and sing-song sweet, a skill that’s he developed perfectly over the years.

Though the band has made some major improvements on “The Tropic Rot”, there are still some leftovers from “Versions”. It makes one think about how their writing process has changed over the years; strange lyrical content (She’s a ballerina/she dances circles around me/ she tells me what I want to hear/but I’m just never satisfied), southern fried guitar on “When You Lose I Lose as Well”, and, for some fans, a much more mellow pace than on their debut and sophomore albums. I’m a fan of this “new” sound and think that “Rot” is the perfect middle ground between the slow burn of “Versions” and the outright metal awesomeness of “Tear from the Red”. PTW have found a near perfect balance of slow and intense, having perfected the brand over the years.

Though not as epic and game-changing as “You Come Before You”, (required listening by the way folks, one of my top ten records ever) “Rot” nonetheless shows a band that has matured and honed their craft. There is something for fans of every PTW record on this album and very few will be disappointed by what they hear.

Poison the Well on MySpace
Poison the Well - “The Tropic Rot” on Amazon

Release Date: July 7th, 2009

“The Tropic Rot” - Tracklist
(* recommended tracks)

1. Exist Underground
2. Sparks it Will Rain
3. Cinema
4. Pamplemousse*
5. Who Doesn’t Love a Good Dismemberment*
6. Antarctica Inside Me*
7. When You Lose I Lose as Well
8. Celebrate the Pyre
9. Are You Anywhere
10. Makeshift Clay You
11. Without You and One Other I Am Nothing

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