Poisonblack

Poisonblack

A new (formed 2000) gothic-metal band hailing from finland led by Sentenced's frontman, Ville Laihala on lead & rhythm guitar, J.P. Leppäluoto from Charon on vocals, and Janne Kukkonen on bass. Tamo Kanerva is on drums and Marco Sneck is on keyboard for their first album, but neither are part of the line up.

Their music is very slow and dark, with deep haunting vocals completeing their very gothic sound. While the sound of the music is very dark, the lyrics however are quite erotic and Ville Laihala admits that their album, "Escapextacy" main themes are "lust & addiction - for life, sex, fire, death... ". Their sound is quite similar to Tiamat's newer albums, and shares a lot of its characteristics with similar gothic-metal bands, their sound is quite original, which is pretty rare in the gothic-metal scene at the moment.

Song highlights of Poisonblack's first album, "Escapextacy" include "The State", which is my personal favourite, which has a very smooth transition from the keyboard start through to the slow, grinding chorus, also, "The Glow of the Flames" is another nice song with its catchy almost pop-like chorus. All in all their first album is a good effort on their part and all Sentenced fans will wait and see how this "non sideproject" band of Ville Laihala's will develop in time.

Escapextacy (2003)