20-05-2010 Poisonblack

Supports: Silence; Venue: Werkstatt, Cologne (Germany)
By: Sabine van Gameren

After the release of Poisonblack’s latest album “Of Rust And Bones” the Finnish band started to do some shows. A short German tour and even a Japanese date are up. Tempelores went to see and interview the band in Cologne.

Local support comes from the band Silence. The band has been around for quite some years as they started in 1995. The band knows similarities to Poisonblack as well as Sentenced, which was the former band of Poisonblack’s front man. Especially in the vocal side it seems quite copy paste from Sentenced. Also fans of the Finnish band Entwine could find a little twist of that music in here. Nevertheless the band brings catchy songs, very recognizable as I personally recognized the songs while I found out at home I own a cd of them, gathered on a record fair it being on the pile of albums I have listened only once and needs further listening. So no surprise the band could get the audience along quite well. The keyboards are to mention as an important element, it sets the mood well and all other musicians seem to get strengthened by it.

After a couple of songs by this band there is a slight need of some more originality, the songs seem to be based on the same template over and over again, which is a shame because the band surely shows some interesting stuff here and there. If they manage to break away from the confidential feeling of their hero’s their music will stand more on its own and being more unique. This was not the worst support to spend your time with, one to watch and remember. Who knows what they will bring next?

>Poisonblack brought an interesting mix of their albums during their set. We could not miss out on “Love Infernal” of their debut album, but the band mainly brought songs of their latest albums. Those who have heard “Of Rust And Bones” may have noticed that there are some blues influences in this album. In live situations the songs come more as a straight line than you might have expected. The songs are matching better with each other than you would foresee. Whether it is a song like “A Dead Heavy Day” that rocks the whole venue or the more intense and integer song “Invisible” the band knows how to match them. The band comes quite heavy with the guitars upfront in the mix, having dark and hard vocals of Ville Laihiala over them and playing around with these vocals often made the difference between seeing the band live and hearing it on an album. On this way Ville blends the songs together very well. Never forget about the instrumental backing of the band which is quite strong. Although he is a bit hidden on the stage, drummer Tarmo Kanerva makes himself present in the music as well.

The audience responded quite well on their music, seem to have a good time and some singing along. Ville talked to the audience as we are used of them and the band played a long set, with encore. If Poisonblack did not convince you completely with their albums already, it is worth to see the band live. That is when the passion really comes alive.

More photo’s of this event can be found at Sabinevangameren.com

Links:
Silence MySpace
Silence Official
Poisonblack MySpace
Poisonblack Official