Review Summary: The best metalcore record ever? You decide.
Poison The Well’s
The Opposite Of December... A Season of Separation is considered to be the magnum opus of their long hard career. It’s mixture of melody and brutality was a stuttering concept to behold upon its release. Considering this was put out in 1999 and was the groups first full length LP, it was miles ahead of the times. Even now, bands imitate the style and butcher it at the same time. Thousands of them try and make metalcore this way. Few reach the heights set by this, and even fewer supercede it. Come along as we dissect the cacauphonous symphony of emotion that is the debut from one of the highest quality metalcore outfits the Earth has ever seen.
Jeffrey Moreira – Vocals
Derek Miller – Guitar
Ryan Primack – Guitar
Alan Landsman – Bass
Chris A Hornbrook – Drums
Upon the opening crashes and throaty yells of
12/23/93, the heavy wall of sound that quickly transitions into gorgeous melodic assault is remarkable. Slow dissected, dissonant chords are coupled with open chugging riffs are beyond anything that was released in 1999 or before. Jeff Moreira’s strained gasps provide an excellent window into the desperate nature of the music that comes with broken hearts and anger. High lead riffs keep the listener intrigued by adding icing on the cake. The first few bars of
Nerdy sent shivers up my spine with how catchy, yet intense these lead riffs can be. Throughout the first three songs, emotional ups and downs make you feel almost exhausted, as though you were the one who had expirerenced these situations.
”Why do your eyes paralyze me?/ What makes me feel this way?”
From the intro of
Slice Paper Wrists to the outro of
My Mirror No Longer Reflects, quite possibly the most solid five metalcore cuts ever recorded bombard the listener with all of the above mentioned aspects.
Slice Paper Wrists has a beautiful interlude that made me sit back in my chair and just listen when I first heard it. How such incredibly crafted melodies can be fit together with such bone breaking riffs so harmoniously is complelty beyond me.
Not Within Arms Length keeps the Hardcore influence alive wholly, with speed and high tremelo breaks. What seperates this abum from it’s peers, is how finely the line is walked, between Melodic Hardcore and Metal. One listen to
Nerdy and all of its greatness with easily win you over. Allthough they may run rampant, breakdowns provide foot tappable pieces, and make the album just sound flat out
mean.
”Sleep on portraits painted as perfect as you/ Why have I been given the chance to fly?”
The instrumentation on this album is quite concise. These guys defiantly know how to play their instruments; but probably the best part of the album lies in this:
Poison The Well are amazing song writers. Every single song has its place and is necessary to the flow of the album. None of them sounds as if they were thrown in to make the album longer, or to make it heavier or less-heavy. The jazz interlude of
Mid Air Love Message is the Omega to the Alpha of the intense verses of the track.
My Mirror No Longer Reflects, the ender closes the album on one of the highest points of the entire listen. Again, the line between melody and brutality is walked as though it wasn’t even there. The pinch harmonics and palm muted strumming mixed with gentle crooning from Jeff Moreira testify to that case. The outro of slow pretty harmonies and layered throat grinding screaming complete the song, and end the album. 9 songs of pure bliss.
“It's so hard for me to understand why/ I hadn't found you before/ Don't dull away/ Hold my hand”
To sum up
The Opposite Of December... A Season Of Separation, all I have to say is that the album is flawless. It lacks nothing and has everything. If you’re a fan of Hardcore, it has the speed and intensity needed to fulfill your greatest wish for a Hardcore album. If you’re a fan of Melodic or even older styled Emo, it has the amazing melodies and harmonizations to put you to rest at night when you go to sleep. And last but not least, if you’re a fan of Metal, for God’s sake, this album has everything you could ever need in a Metal album.
Pro’s[+]
Every single song is amazing
Many different sounds flow together in harmony
Never loses its replay ability
Is catchy, but has the heavy parts to make a seamless album
Con’s[-]
Being incredibly nit picky,
To Mandate Heaven isn’t as phenomenal as every other track.
Recommended Tracks
Nerdy
My Mirror No Longer reflects
Mid Air Love Message
Slice Paper Wrists
“Time slows down when you look at me/ I'm infatuated with this / infatuated with you”
