### Poisonblack: A dead heavy day

#### 20/10/08 || Euthanatos

When Sentenced still existed, vocalist Ville Laihiala, for God knows what reason, decided he needed creative space and made this side-project, Poisonblack. What’s interesting is that Ville only played guitar on the album, having the great idea of calling upon someone who is, to me, probably the best new gothic vocalist out there, Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto (Charon). Yes, his English is absolutely atrocious, but his vocals are godly, so that more than makes up for his language mishaps.

With the end of Sentenced and the departure of Leppäluoto, Ville decided to make Poisonblack his full-time band, and after searching relentlessly for a vocalist, decided to tell everyone to fuck off and take up vocal duties himself. While the sophomore was half-assed, this now third album, “A Dead Heavy Day”, is pretty damn good. It is important to differentiate, however, Poisonblack from Sentenced. Poisonblack started out, probably because of J.P.‘s influence as well, as a much more goth-oriented band. Now, with Laihiala at the vocals as well as the helm, the band does sound a lot closer to Sentenced, not only because of the vocals, but also because of the rocker feeling of the tracks, which have become heavier and a lot faster. While this takes away some of the charm of the earlier material, it does benefit the band greatly, because it makes the album, as a whole, much more entertaining. The Poisonblack of before could become tiring very quickly, pretty much a moan and despair-fest, if you will. Now, with the much more aggressive guitars and the imposing keyboards, their sound is a lot more complete, while, again, dangerously getting close to what Sentenced performed.

Ville’s vocals really haven’t changed much from his latter Sentenced days, or his lyrical content. His riffs, on the other hand, have really matured, and it’s good to see that as a song-writer, he still has a lot of room to grow and isn’t fearful of going headstrong into that challenge. Just listen to tracks like “Bear the Cross”, with its extremely catchy chorus, and “Me, Myself & I”, although it has a ridiculous name, is an excellent song. The title-track is an extremely haunting and beautiful track too.

While not as strong as his previous band, but constantly improving, Ville’s Poisonblack is a pleasant ride into a gothic-inspired rock/metal, definitely recommended for those mourning Sentenced’s demise.

The cover: Some sort of abstract skull. Looks interesting, I’m all for black and white covers.

7 really, really difficult Finnish names out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Century Media
- Website: www.poisonblack.com
- Band
- Ville Laihiala: vocals, guitar
- Tarmo Kanerva: drums
- Marco Sneck: keyboards
- Antti Remes: bass
- Janne Markus: guitar

- Tracklist
- 01. Introuder
- 02. Diane
- 03. Left Behind
- 04. Bear The Cross
- 05. A Dead Heavy Day
- 06. Me, Myself & I
- 07. X
- 08. Human-Compost
- 09. The Days Between
- 10. Hatelove
- 11. Low Life
- 12. Only You Can Tear Me Apart