Confrere by Poison Ruin (Relapse Records)

Poison Ruin
Confrere
Relapse Records

With Poison Ruin, you can smell the British leather coming out of their bulgy punk back alley brawls. You feel the grit inspired by bands like Cocksparrer, Peter and the Test Tube Babies or The Exploited. Yet, Poison Ruin hails from Philadelphia, a surprise based on their sound. From the feel of this album, I would guess more German than East Coast.

With Confrere, the production of this release fuels the emotional drive of their songs and is the charm in their punk ethos. Funneling a deep bass rumble into their three-chord guitar rants, the band builds a sense of mythology into some very real topics: struggle, death, despair, injustice and revenge.

“Execute” is an orgy of pit flailing, spastic dance moves and convulsive ramblings that serve as a toast to friendship. It’s the perfect example of just how impressive traditional punk elements are to power behind the riff. Poison Ruin just know how to do it impeccably so and Confrere is an album I can easily listen to now as I could have back in the 1970s and 1980s when it all very much mattered in my life.