Poisonblack
Lust Stained Despair

September 2006
Released: 2006, Century Media/EMI
Rating: 5.0/5
Reviewer: Anders Sandvall

This is the fomer Sentenced singer Ville Laihiala’s band. This is the first release with Laihiala behind the mic; he took over when former singer JP Leppäluoto left. He also changed the line-up a bit, and the only two remaining members from the previous album are the drummer and the keyboard player.



This second drop of venomous poison released by Poisonblack is - as usual - filled with metal-influenced goth. You can almost hear that the band is from Finland because of the sadness and despair in the music; a sound that has carried Finnish acts into worldwide success. The music hasn’t changed much since the debut; it’s still the same sad, dark, and black goth metal with well-structured arrangements. This album is much more varied in tempo, though. A few songs that rise above the rest are the faster “Nothing Else Remains”, “Rush”, and “Nail”; the melancholic “The Darkest Lie” and “Soul in Flames”; the guitar-based “Never Enough” and “Raivotar”; and the very beautiful ballads “Pain Becomes Me” and “The Living Dead”. All of these songs stand out and makes the album a little special.



LUSTSTAINEDDESPAIR was recorded in Finland’s Tonebox Studio and it was mixed and mastered in Denmark’s AntFarm Studio with Tue Madsen. The production came out great, with every element in the right place to paint the dark and sad musical landscape Laihiala wanted.



This album is even better than the debut and deserves the highest rating possible. All of the 11 tracks are outstanding, and Poisonblack is now in a league of their own. This is probably the strongest album in this genre so far this year.



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