Review by Rachel Jablonski
It is impossible for me to refuse a band with cool song titles. So, when I received You Come Before You by Poison the Well I was immediately intrigued. “Zombies are Good for Your Health,” “The Opinionated are so Opinionated,” “Apathy is a Cold Body.” How could I not become curious? After an amused laugh, I set out to determine any sort of method behind such suggested randomness. The first thing I was to discover was the solidity of lyrical form.
BAD MEMORIES AND GOOD TIMES!
The intensity of the phrase embedded in the song “Meeting Again for the First Time” sharply contrasts the calming intro creating a surge of adrenaline. My eyes squint in quizzical contemplation, registering the various implications; I stiffen with association. A family gathering. A fantastically regretful evening. Childhood. The phrase may be relatively insignificant in the overall scheme of things, but it is an example of a common lyrical theme displayed throughout the album.
The most memorable moments on the album seem to be constructed through roughly vocalized hooks heard in irregular places within a given song. The track called “Loved Ones…” is a great example of this. SIT ACROSS FROM YOU WHY ARE WE EVEN HERE? The blood pumping line that begins the track becomes the dominant force demanding listener attention each time it is utilized. Poison the Well knows how to catch the listener off guard while at the same time connecting with the audience through commanding hooks, colorful lyrics tending to describe dark situations, and illustrative instrumentation. Well-balanced melody and hardcore vocals as well as intriguing pace and volume changes in orchestration make for an unpredictable album. With measures often ending in minor chords and hooks not always found in the melody as one might typically expect, the listener is pushed slightly off balance with rather agreeable results.
Though You Come Before You is unique in many ways, various portions of the album seem to be vocally suggestive of a few other acts. The melody of “Ghostchant” for instance faintly resembles the sound of the Deftones at times. “For a Bandaged Iris” could possibly be compared to the band Refused on occasion, particularly during the portion of the song where the lyrics are almost more spoken than sung. This association caused me to pull out the Refused album The Shape of Punk to Come actually so that I could reminisce while noting whether my mental recognition was merited. You can imagine my surprise when I later found out that You Come Before You was produced by Eskil Lovstrom & Pelle Henricsson (Refused, Hell Is For Heroes). But, despite occasional resemblance, Poison the Well has ultimately proven to be an entity in and of itself. You Come Before You is a mixture of various musical styling attractively tied together through intriguing vocals and entertaining fluctuations in arrangement.