ALBUM REVIEW: PEACE IN PLACE BY POISON THE WELL
Reviewed by Cecilia Pattison-Levi
Release date 20 March 2026
The Florida based band Poison The Well metal hardcore icons return with their impressive sixth album ‘Peace In Place’. It is their first album in almost 17 years. It is a tight album tethered in melodic guitar riffs, clean vocals and great lyricism that allows the scream singing with its cutting fury and driving rhythm section to bring the heavy: harshness paired with delicate moments.
“Change my colours and show myself out” leads in the huge metal attack of ‘Wax Mask’, the opening track off ‘Peace In Place’. Poison The Well ask us to “look inside” and “confess” to the evils within the person. It is a blast of rage with huge drums and a punishing bassline as the guitar riffs dance over the top of the rhythm and the vocals cut through. Then, ‘Primal Bloom’ follows with its delicate clean vocal with a guitar riff ruminating on loss in between the hardcore vocals and huge rhythm driving the song. ‘Thoroughbreds’ has an intensity that is underscored by a guitar riff that seems to unravel in anxiety over galloping drum beats and a swell of vocal urgency where “your voice kills mine” and “happy always” and “never speak” distortion highlight the lyrical resolve. The chugging guitar fuels the final breakdown in the vocals and lyrical spiral.
The haunting and beautiful clean vocals lead in ‘Everything Hurts’ as a rumbling bassline underpins the track. The dual clean and scream vocal fry melt into the gentle drum beats during the verses. This track is an absolute highlight as it shows every aspect of the band through the guitar riffs echoing in reverb and matching the clean vocals. The lyrics are great as well with lines like: “Though I shouldered all your pain, you weren’t the only one. We’re the same. I had my moments too. Would you believe it’s true?”. Then, in a complete change, ‘Weeping Tones’ blows the listen away with a huge guitar attack. Then, the sonic assault gives way to a tenderly mournful bridge punctuated by an elegiac mantra: “It’s a light around the rose, but it’s gone, so gone”.
The drums, guitar riffs and clean vocals bring in the fabulous track ‘A Wake Of Vultures’. The track has it all: driving basslines, great guitar riffs, heavy drums with a great lyrical narrative around wanting change. “I want a different me and a different you” that lifts the “curse” of personal foible in the question posed: “Are you selfless or self-destructing?” that has a wonderful guitar outro. ‘Bad Bodies’ brings the heavy as the sound “crawls beneath your skin”. The dual vocal styles are used really well in this song. Then, with light synths and distinctive drums bring in the haunting vocals that “embrace” the song ‘Drifting Without End’. This track is a real highlight with its wailing guitar riffs and fragile vocal sound. Following this melancholic track is ‘Melted’ with its distorted guitar and clean vocal melody. The track has a hard vocal fry cutting over the top of its melodic core.
The 10-track album closes out with ‘Plague Them The Most’ secured to a kind of controlled instrumental chaos with the lyrics promise of “never again grind my teeth in the name of kindness, never again to bite my tongue in the name of mercy”. It’s a great closing track. Poison The Well (Jeffrey Moreira, Ryan Primack, Christopher Hornbrook joined by Vadim Taver and Noah Harmon) have created an album ‘Peace In Place’ that needs to be heard. Fans will rejoice in the band’s fully formed return and this album’s statement of musical intent. Fine!
