A Metal Classic: "The Poison" (2005) by Bullet For My Valentine

The Poison is a good example of how a band can spread out their name with just an album. BFMV were basically 4 kids working in “shitty” jobs, as Tuck recalls, and they left their hometown to make an album that’ll take their career to another level.

At the time, bands like Killswitch Engage and Trivium were on their successful career path, meanwhile, BFMV decided to debut an album, while risking what they already had, their jobs, their homes. They went to Canada, to work with Colin Richardson, Padget speaks about these times like: “It was exciting times, because I’d never been to America or Canada in my life. But when we got there, we were all super-shy, just little young boys out of our comfort zone.”

They were burning their midnight oil to come up with something worthy, they were having hard times because of lack of money and food, but let's say their motivation and hope fed them. But their work with Richardson didn’t go well, which made these hard times even less bearable. They went home with great disappointment, but after a short while, they decided to finish what they started. They were in a race against time, which made this completion part exciting but we can say they were under great pressure.

Generally, the album has many elements, many features that are used before many times, but it feels unpredictable and fresh at the same time. We can say the boys knew how to combine used stuff to come up with something new and interesting, which thus became a great success. Usage of clean and shout vocals mixed in “4 Words (To Choke Upon)”, acoustic verse of “All These Thing I Hate (Revolve Around Me)”, double lead work of guitar in “Tears Don’t Fall”, make this album a remarkable one. Tuck says he wrote the lyrics for “The End” right after his breakup from a 4-year relationship, which makes it more heart-touching.

The band knew they were onto something good. They were at number 128 on the Billboard 200, also number 2 on Heatseekers Chart, which is a great success for a new metalcore band at the time. This album was a great demonstration of metalcore, which makes it worth the effort the band gave.