Poison the Well bring the noise from their base of Miami, Florida to the world on their sixth full-length titled Versions. "Breathings For The Birds" is a most melodic track, a wash of sound and fury. "Nagaina" has a killer guitar sound at its center, a kind of broken-down, blues, post-punk trip.

Ryan Primack on guitar, Chirs Hornbrook on drums and Jeffrey Moreira make a huge noise for the core three-piece: they are assisted on the album by additional musicians. The set was produced by Pelle Henricsson and Eskil Lovstro, the team also responsible for 2003's You Come Before You. Debuting in 1999 with The Opposite of December the band rapidly grew into an underground hardcore phenomenon (perhaps a good comparison would be Fugazi). Versions was recorded in the icy and gray terrain of Sweden without many diversions and what they saw is what you hear.

"The Notches That Create Your Headboard" jumps out of the gate and goes for two minutes of non-stop pummeling. "Naïve Monarch" plows ahead in a similar vein. There is no shortage of head banging material here. "Prematurio El Baby" is as disturbing sounding as you might guess it would be. "Slow Good Morning" sounds like it's going to be a major key pop song till it drops down to a minor-keyed, moody ode along the lines of something you might hear from an arty emo band or some metal balladeers -- fresh stuff coming from a hardcore band. "Composer Meet Corpse" is an absolute grindfest.

"You Will Not Be Welcomed" is an example of some of the new subtlety reflected in the band's more diverse work on this album. Poison the Well employs an arsenal of very non-metallic instruments like mandolin, banjo and slide guitar, thanks to their resident multi-insturmentalist Primick.

"Riverside" is a prime example of some of those organic instruments at work. The album closes with the slowcore grind of "The First Day of My Second Life" which builds and builds until it breaks back down again.

There is no doubt that Poison the Well are prepared to expand beyond the restricting confines of basic hardcore -- if ever they want to. These Versions are all the proof they need of that.

By Daisy Duarte