Poisonblack

Excapexstacy (Century Media)
by Martin Popoff

Cleaner and grander than Sentenced, Poisonblack – featuring that band’s Ville Laihiala on guitar and NOT vocals – is perhaps closer to the plush, Gothic 4/4 mass of fellow Finns Rapture. Slow, mournful, and perfectly-produced, this really is some sort of commercial version of all those self-same Sentenced characteristics, with vocalist J.P. Leppaluoto (from Charon) being, ahem, a bit more precise and sonorous than Ville – no confidence issues with Laihiala, I guess.

Lyrically, Ville is writing more about sex, lust, fantasy, death, the man being of the opinion that Sentenced’s content is more about real life. Whatever the case, this is sorta like the genre’s hair metal record, or its Black Album: Simple, plodding, very melodic, not much in the arrangement department. I prefer the heady hooks of Rapture, or indeed, the grit and tension within Sentenced.
(2323 W. El Segundo Blvd. Hawthorne, CA 90250)