Band:	Poisonblack
Album:	Escapexstacy
Style:	Suomi metal
Release date:	2003

01. The Glow Of The Flames
02. Love Infernal
03. The State
04. All Else Is Hollow
05. In Lust
06. The Exciter
07. Lay Your Heart To Rest
08. With Her I Die
09. Illusion/Delusion
10. The Kiss Of Death

Poisonblack's first album, Escapexstacy, is one of the staples of the (now unfortunately, but timely, fading) Suomi metal genre. It brings us a very professional but emotive approach, nice performing and a handful of great songs - let's dig in a little deeper into it.

Songs are very dark in mood and none of them could be labelled as a fast track; there are ten of them, all pretty short (some even under three minutes long) and simplistic in structure. Songwriting is pretty advanced and experienced; though at first listen I didn't like the first three tracks, everything fell into place later. The lyrics are very lust-driven and stereotypical, sometimes even cheeky (i.e. "Burn my fingers one by one, guide me down into the sun / Let me show you how I crave to make you come"), but Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto pulls them off perfectly well with his very deep, expressive and alluring voice. The ex-Charon frontman is hands down one of Finland's better vocalists, and it shows in songs such as "In Lust" and "Illusion/Delusion".

The music is centred around Juha-Pekka's voice and gloomy, simple and beefy guitar riffs. Drums are pretty loud in the mix, which I appreciate in Suomi metal. Sometimes the riffs bear a slight similarity to Sentenced, but only for moments, which is expected, since Ville Laihiala wrote most of the songs. Sometimes the keyboards kick in with pretty dramatic melodies ("Exciter" and "With Her I Die" come to mind almost instantly), which is also pleasant. The man behind them is the very versatile Marco Sneck of Kalmah fame, so you can expect he knows what he's doing. Overall, the performance is very tight and enjoyable - no flaws in it whatsoever.

The production is slightly crispy and not very advanced but there are no annoying noises or mistakes and it fits the sound of the album very well. Actually, This album could well deserve a 9 point rating if it weren't for the package - there's not a single Poisonblack album cover that I like, but the lady on this one just looks? weird.

I believe this is the band's best album - maybe it's just this sound that I like most, or the quality of the songs is simply better compared to their later releases (not that the later ones are bad, though). So, if you're starting with the band, this is the place to do so.