For the first time in over 16 years, this week saw the return of a headline show in Leeds for the iconic Poison the Well. Performing their genre defining album ‘The Opposite of December… A Season of Separation’ in full, for its 25th year anniversary at Leeds Stylus. Playing a number of dates across the UK for the first time since 2009, and after a 2024 tease; when they played Outbreak Festival and a show at New Cross Inn, South London. Least to say I am still gutted to have missed out on this.

Poisen The Well brought Leeds based support acts in Bodyweb and Killing Me Softly on tour with them this September. It was a show and a tour that was highly anticipated throughout the UK. With a mixture of younger hardcore kids and old heads coming together to celebrate twenty-five years of one of the greatest albums hardcore has ever produced in my opinion.

Opening the night were Leeds based metallic hardcore band Killing Me Softly. Stylus was probably around half full however, this did not stop the band from creating a captivating energy which saw a select few die hards moshing continuously throughout the set. Following the recent release of ‘To Forever Fall Through Gods Safety Net‘ and seeing it live, it becomes easy to see why Killing Me Softly are seen as one of the UK’s most promising hardcore bands right now. Some fans were still coming round to the newer stuff and figuring out how to move to it but every song sounded amazing.

Killing Me Softly have an ability to produce a brutal delivery with a professional elegance to hold a crowd. Whilst they still carry an arrogance infront of an audience that shound have potentially shown more appreciation.

Following Killing Me Softly were Leeds hardcore ‘supergroup’ Bodyweb.

Bodyweb joined this tour also having released they’re recent EP ‘deadwired’. A more electronic and industrial lead hardcore EP, that I would definitely recommend. With lead single ‘deadwire’ and other songs like ‘shadowboxing’ sounding absolutely massive live. The crowd was larger at this point in the night; nearly full. There was a good level of interaction from the crowd, with the highlight being a fan who could only be described as if ”David Luiz’s favourite shop was Rough Trade” even getting a special mention from frontman Louis Hardy.

On Louis Hardy, seeing his jump from Higher Power and Big Cheese guitarist to Bodyweb frontman is a credit to himself; incredible stage presence. It took a while for the sound to sort itself out but after a small technical adjustment, we were back to it and what a fun set it was.

Then came Poison The Well. With no introduction needed in front of, at this point a nearly sold-out Stylus, you could just instantly tell that we were on for a top tier show. Opening with ‘12/23/93’, that first drum hit by Chris Hornbrook was like nectar to the ears. The album wasn’t played in order. When only the third song in did the hardcore veterans pull out of a run of ‘Ghostchant’ into ‘Botchla’ into ‘Mid Air Love Message’. At first, I didn’t know how to feel about this, however it was pretty cool not knowing what was coming next, with the crowd waiting with full anticipation on what song will be coming next. With Jeffrey Moreiras ability to cut instantly between savage cries to angelic cleans perfectly sum up why ‘The Opposites of December‘ is held so personal to its listeners. Halfway through the set, Jeffreys announcement that a new album is on its way was met by cheers and then followed it up with first single ‘Trembling Level’, which sounded far heavier live than on record. The room then erupted when this was followed by ‘Slice Paper Wrists’, every hook and singalong was matched by the front of the crowd, as expected.

The back end of the set had a lot of material from ‘You Come Before You‘, with songs like ‘Meeting Again for the First Time’ and ‘Apathy is a Cold Body’. This was much appreciated as it just shows the quality of back catalogue that Poison The Well has.

The back end of the set was probably my favourite part, it was just pure bangers.  No encore was needed as the set finished with the mammoth ‘Nerdy’. The savage delivery of “Why do your eyes paralyze me?” giving everyone in the building pure goosebumps, as there is a collective understanding that we are all witnessing a pure classic being performed in front of our eyes. This show wasn’t just an example of a former world class band returning for a nostalgia tour. It was a showcase of a band that is ready to return with a second prime. An excellent show, by a truly excellent band and with the new album coming, we can only expect exciting things to come from Poison The Well.

Written by Harry Fuller

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