DIE 1A Wipers Moll Post Punk Band im Amebix Sound aus Philadelphia! Hot Shit, beste, weil interessanteste Post Punk Veröffentlichung im Frühjahr 23! Schön kalt, düster und schepprig. Und eigen! Das beste aus den Welten UK82 Punk, Wipersche Mollakkorde und verkürzte Rhythmen und dazu dann noch dieses Mittelalterthema in der Gestaltung. Besser wird es nicht in dem Bereich.
Aus dem Bandinfo:
We live in a fantasy, but not one of our own choosing. It is a dark and frigid world, animated by power, thrills, and the undying spirit of those who have nothing but each other left in the struggle to get by. This is the world of Poison Ruin’s Harvest; the only way out is through. Evoking a rich tapestry of ice-caked forests, peasant revolts, and silent knights, Poison Ruin stab at the pulsing heart of what it means to live under the permanent midnight of contemporary life.Harvest gazes at the world with a sense of grave seriousness, its stare softened only by the alluring seduction of a dream world’s open-ended possibility. These songs move with a type of uncanny confidence, assembling an array of references to past styles and sensibilities that collapse in on one another, congealing into a truly unique sonic landscape. One gets the liberatory conviction of UK82 punk without the on-the-nose moralism, the rude impact of early hard rock without the frivolousness, the suffocating cynicism of Over the Edge-era Wipers without the softened edges. Certain riffs and theatrics provide a deeply seductive excitement, like the glint of tomorrow’s horizon passing along the edge of a metal stud, but this excitement is only a cipher for drawing the listener deeper into the thicket of Harvest’s malaise and eternal conviction. With Harvest, Poison Ruin have constructed a fantasy world of a better future. They do not flinch in the face of darkness or peddle in empty utopian gestures, but rather harness the energies of revenge and comradery to stoke the desire for a better world made material.
Harvest was recorded by vocalist/guitarist Mac Kennedy over the Fall of 2021 and Winter of 2022, largely in the confines of the band’s shared practice space. When it came time to record vocals for the record in late January, Kennedy retreated to the solitude of a snowy cabin on the West Virginia-Ohio border. “It felt important to mark the vocals with a certain time and place and state of mind,” Kennedy reflects, “recording at the cabin felt like a good way to imbue things with a certain cold, forest-surrounded flavor.” Both sides of the record are constructed as miniature, mirroring suites, baroquely haunted interludes and anthemic thrushes of distortion guiding the listener through an almost novel-esque web of peaks and valleys. Rather than simply tossing together the most energetically immediate collection of songs at their disposal, Poison Ruin have meticulously sculpted a total aesthetic experience, crafting a record that strictly adheres to a fully realized internal emotional logic. The band, which is rounded out by guitarist Nao Demand, drummer Allen Chapman, and bassist Will McAndrew, marches on with a sense of unshakable confidence – their performances project a deep sense of awareness and faith in the quality of the work itself. Harvest does not pander to the listener. Rather, it demands you to engage with it on its own terms.
Poison Ruin first emerged in April of 2020 with their eponymous EP, which was followed shortly by a second eponymous EP the following February, both self-released. While they share a certain affinity for rough-around-the-edges, lo-fidelity stones with their Philadelphian compatriots Devil Master and Sheer Mag, Poison Ruin wants things bleaker. The up-tempo guitar heroics of their first two EP’s (which were collectively released as a self-titled LP in February of 2021) have been dragged through the trenches, emerging as a heavy morass of breathless gloom. With Harvest, Poison Ruin have perfectly aligned their sonic palette to their godless, medieval-inflected aesthetic symbolism, creating a record which strikes with an assured sense of blackened harmony.
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