Poison Idea – Confuse And Conquer LP NEW For Cheap

Poison Idea – Confuse and Conquer LP

NEW. SEALED.

Southern Lord Recordings

Though Northwestern punk rock institution Poison Idea were active in touring and the occasional release of a split 7 , their last album of completely new material before 2015 s furious Confuse and Conquer came nearly ten years earlier with 2006 s Latest Will and Testament. That album was recorded just before the death of long-standing guitarist Tom Pig Champion Roberts, who passed away before it was released. Though constant lineup changes ensued, original bandleader vocalist Jerry A. is joined on Confuse and Conquer by a host of new bandmembers as well as once and future guitarist Eric Vegetable Olson, offering up a set of tunes that feel freshly anguished and uproarious rather than aiming to re-create the energy of the band in their earlier incarnations. The grizzly punk spirit of early- 80s Poison Idea is very much intact, especially on snotty burners like I Never Heard of You, or speed demon hardcore blasts like Cold Black Afternoon and Beautiful Disaster. Psychic Wedlock begins with dark, ceremonious piano before launching into a rugged riff co-opted in part from Black Sabbath s Electric Funeral but sped up to an unhinged degree. Hypnotic is the band s gnarled take on pop music, with a nearly melodic midtempo chord progression and cheerleader-esque backing vocals supporting Jerry A. s nihilistic lyrics. The breakdown finds him offering up a spoken soliloquy about his earlier days of getting high and soaking in the punk rock lifestyle. It s one of the stranger tracks on the album but does much to reinforce just how little Poison Idea is interested in turning in a carbon copy of something they ve already done. All told, Confuse and Conquer is an artistic success as much as it is a solid punk album, with the band comfortable enough in their vision to place dyed-in-the-wool hardcore tunes next to oddball country & western experiments like Dead Cowboy without the least bit of hesitation or apology.