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Poison Idea - Feel The Darkness (American Leather/Vinyl Solution pressing) 

Pound for pound, track for track, I fully believe Poison Idea’s finest hour is Feel The Darkness. This is the common opinion of many folks, but there are those that think it’s overblown and weighed down by its bombast. It’s certainly not the same band that made Pick Your King an early hardcore classic, but it’s in my eyes, a perfect mix of Punk, Metal, and Hard Rock. In their ‘88-’92 phase, Poision Idea had this vibe dialed. They were crossing boundaries and making records that people of all interests could appreciate. Their execution was powerful and their songwriting is to this day matched by few and surpassed by none.

Feel The Darkness opens with the signature P.I. track, arguably what you could even call THE Poison Idea song, Plastic Bomb. The song itself begins with a furious piano intro which is hardly how you would expect a classic hardcore punk album to begin, but after the ivory sets the dramatic tone, the guitars and drums crash in for an intro roughly the size of Mechagodzilla. It sounds a bit like the beginning to an Iron Maiden song, but soon the familiar PI riffing takes over with pronounced debts to the likes of Discharge and the Germs. The lyrics are dark and they start with little more of a spoken delivery, but as the song wears on Jerry A’s anger starts to mount and the tension starts coming to a head. When the cavernous ‘whoaaas’ of the chorus take effect and are then answered by Pig Champion’s ripshit axe shredding, there’s no doubt you’ll never forget this track. This is one of the greatest most perfectly crafted rock songs of the last 30 years. It’s an epic that plays like a pop song right down to being on that magic 3 minute mark, and it’s just track 1.

When Deep Sleep starts, it’s clear that things are going places. Jerry growls his way through a number about chronically sleeping in order to cope with his low spirits and misery. It rocks like Motorhead but it’s more combustible than Flag. It’s as simple as this — it’s a perfectly crafted hardcore song. I can’t break it down to a science, it just has the right stuff. The Badge is next working another sleazed up Motorhead type groove, this time with a bit less speed, but maybe even more anger. Yea, it’s a “hate the police” song, but it’s no pose. Poison Idea really do hate the police and the way they infringe on their lives. They hate the abuse and the corruption, and they hate the badge and what it really stands for. Like Jerry belows in the chorus, “some still call him pig”.

Just to Get Away is next, another alltime classic of a PI track. A true shitkicker for every fed up, let down, end of the rope person out there. It starts with a great set of drum breaks. It’s a song about being in love with your car, and leaving behind a mundane life in hopes that you can feel alive again. It’s also a song with one of the meanest main riffs in history ever. Ideally you should be smoking a cigarette or drinking a beer, starting a fight, or at least blasting this song out of a Camaro when listening to it.

Quit my job, told my boss to stand aside
Grabbed a gun, a fifth of booze, jumped in my ride
I got my girl, she’s sixteen and she’s really special
I can’t slow down, I’ve got a date with the devil
Two tons of steel, one hundred miles an hour
No looking back, grooving on the power
Responsibility made me quit
I’m sick of this motherfucking goddamn shit
There’s a road, beyond it lies, I don’t know
I just gotta run, I just gotta go

This is real punk rock and roll. This is real anger and bile and desperation. I mean this is basically the greatest song ever that’s not sung by Lemmy, Ozzy, Bon Scott, or a young Mick Jagger.

Gone For Good and Death Of An Idiot Blues give you a little room to breathe after 4 stone cold classics. It’s not that they’re not good, or even great, but they only get A’s instead of A+’s. Taken By Surprise closes out the A-side though and it has the kind of pop perfection that a breakup song needs, and the anger that Poison Idea doesn’t show up without. I firmly believe this is one of the 10 best breakup songs of any genre, any era ever. You will never write a song this good. Simple as that, this deserved to top the charts.

 I think I’m going to stop here at the end of side A today, which is a shame because some of the best tracks are on side B. You should already know this. This is one of the great American guitar albums. Feel The Darkness.