poison the well Archives

Hailing from Tampa, Florida, Contention is part of a new wave of straight edge hardcore reshaping the genre with a sharper, more personal edge. Fresh off sharing stages with Poison the Well, the band reflects on influence, identity, and staying grounded as their momentum grows. In this interview, vocalist Cosmo reflects on that experience, alongside the band’s influences, their approach to identity in a resurging scene, and how they navigate the realities of balancing music with everyday life.

Having a legendary band like PTW hand-pick Contention and Domain is a massive endorsement. Do you feel a certain responsibility to represent the “new breed” of Florida Straight Edge on this specific stage?

We all grew up as PTW fans so it’s surreal getting to play shows with them. When you meet a band you admire there’s always that risk that they’re going to be pricks, or have a rockstar attitude, but everyone was incredibly kind and accommodating to us. Their singer Jeff helped me load in merch the first night, their guitarist Ryan warmed up with the riff from our song Nuclear Peace, I punished Vadim at length about his time in This Day Forward—just all around great dudes in my experience.

Many reviews point out that being from Tampa, Florida, the “Death Metal DNA” naturally seeps into your hardcore sound. How much of that is a conscious tribute to the local legends (like Morrisound-era bands) versus just an inevitable result of your environment?

Very rarely is that a conscious tribute, we just happen to be influenced by bands that are influenced by Florida death metal. Most of us are into obituary/death/morbid angel and occasionally those reference points get mentioned (primarily by Bayly and I) but for the most part the guitarists are pulling from bands like The Swarm, Morning Again, Reprisal, Arkangel, Culture. To my ears, there’s more Slayer in there than there is death metal.

You’ve cited a massive list of influences, McCarthy, Camus, Dostoevsky, and Vonnegut. Which of these authors’ “worldviews” is most prevalent in the current state of Contention?

Vonnegut has a battered and cynical but humanist perspective that I really resonate with, but McCarthy’s bleak view of war and human nature is certainly more an influence on Contention’s writing. It’s a chaotic and fucked up world, it always has been, and my writing is a distillation of that.

There is a major resurgence of 90s-style metallic hardcore (Magnitude, Ecostrike, etc.). How does Contention maintain its own identity without becoming a “throwback” or “tribute” act to that era?

Playing in the year of our lord 2026 we have the fortunate position of drawing from over 40 years of hardcore music. There’s certainly bands that we are directly influenced by but there’s such a massive well to draw from that it keeps things from getting boring. All of us different tastes so while there’s plenty of undiluted metallic hardcore influence (like All Out War) in there, there’s also plenty of modern hardcore elements, death metal parts, and emotive shit (like Unbroken) woven in.

You’ve mentioned that longer tours are difficult due to jobs and family. How do you decide which “sick offers” are worth the sacrifice, and how does this limitation affect the band’s creative energy?

We do things by a code, and the first tenant on the list is whether or not something is going to be a good time. We like playing with bands that we’re fans of, we like playing new places. Whether or not something is a “good opportunity for our career” doesn’t factor in much.

We never set out to be a full time professional band. We’re just 5 fucked up dudes with chaotic lives who happened to stumble into some small measure of success with music we wrote in a farm garage. It’s difficult for us to write music regularly and it’s painful to say no to offers with legendary bands, but the upside of not being a pro band is that we’re not beholden to anyone. We don’t have to sign any contracts and we only work with people we trust.

Text and interviews by Andika Surya
photos by Evan (@emphotos98)

Masih ingatkah kalian pada kover-kover album metalcore ala Derek Hess? Sebuah era dimana kover album dihiasi oleh ilustrasi malaikat, anatomi tubuh manusia sampai layer-layer bercak darah ala style photoshop Jacob Bannon. Akhir ‘90an dan awal 2000an adalah sebuah era keemasan bagi metalcore, genre yang dipopulerkan oleh Botch, Converge, Poison The Well, Dillinger Escape Plan, Every Time I Die, sampai Killswitch Engage, band yang paling mainstream pada saat itu. Metalcore adalah genre fusion yang menggabungkan unsur-unsur extreme metal dengan DNA hardcore punk. Metalcore terkenal karena penggunaan breakdown nya yang masif, yaitu bagian yang lambat dan intens yang sangat kondusif untuk headbang ataupun moshing. Karakteristik instrumentasi penentu lainnya adalah riff gitar chugging + melodi unison yang sering kali mengikuti beat pedal perkusi dan permainan drum double bass. Teknik vokal screaming menutupi lirik-lirik yang emosional. Di beberapa lagu para vokalis menggabungkan teknik scream dengan nyanyian bernada (yang kadang memudarkan genre antara band screamo dan metalcore). Pada akhir 1980-an hingga awal 1990-an, band-band pionir seperti Integrity, Earth Crisis, dan Converge, menginjeksi style musik punk-hardcore nya dengan DNA metal, sehingga terkadang mereka disebut sebagai pionir metallic hardcore tersebut. Walaupun label-label seperti Deathwish, Hydra Head, Roadrunner, Victory dan Relapse memiliki sumbangsih dalam merilis album-album metalcore yang keren, tentunya Trustkill Records dan Ferret Music adalah 2 komponen utama yang harus di highlight di dalam setiap pembahasan metalcore.

Trustkill Records adalah sebuah label rekaman independen yang fokus utamanya pada musik punk dan metalcore. Didirikan pada tahun 1993 oleh Josh Grabelle, Trustkill menjadi terkenal karena menandatangani dan mempromosikan band-band seperti Killswitch Engage, Poison the Well, Eighteen Visions, Bleeding Through, dan It Dies Today. Namun, Trustkill Records menghadapi beberapa kontroversi dan masalah hukum selama bertahun-tahun, termasuk perselisihan dengan band mengenai kontrak dan royalti. Pada tahun 2010, Trustkill menjalani proses rebranding dan restrukturisasi, yang akhirnya diluncurkan kembali sebagai Bullet Tooth Records di bawah kepemimpinan Josh Grabelle. Bullet Tooth Records terus merilis musik dari band-band hardcore dan metalcore, mengusung semangat Trustkill dalam banyak hal. Meskipun Trustkill Records mungkin sudah tidak ada lagi dalam bentuk aslinya, warisannya tetap hidup melalui band-band yang dibantunya untuk dipromosikan dan dampaknya terhadap dunia musik hardcore dan metalcore.

Satu label lagi yang memperkuat warisan metalcore untuk generasi penerusnya mungkin adalah Ferret Music. Ferret adalah label rekaman independen yang sangat berpengaruh di scene hardcore punk dan metalcore. Didirikan oleh Carl Severson (vokalis NORA) dan Paul Conroy pada tahun 1996, Ferret Music menjadi terkenal karena roster nya yang tidak main-main: Misery Signals, Poison the Well, From Autumn to Ashes, dan Every Time I Die. Seperti Trustkill Records, Ferret Music memainkan peran penting dalam membentuk lanskap dan blueprint musik metalcore di akhir 1990an dan awal 2000an. Ferret Music adalah tastemakers di ekosistem metalcore dan hardcore, bahkan terkadang mereka melampaui batasan genre-genre itu. Banyak rilisan Ferret yang masih relevan hingga saat ini.

Ferret Music juga memiliki reputasi karena merilis album-album yang menggabungkan style musik yang agresif dengan lirik yang penuh emosi, sehingga disukai oleh fanbase mereka yang berdedikasi dan cukup militan pada jamannya. Selama bertahun-tahun, Ferret Music menghadapi tantangan yang sama, termasuk masalah hukum dan perubahan kepemilikan. Pada tahun 2015, Ferret Music bergabung dengan Good Fight Entertainment untuk membentuk Good Fight Music, dan mereka melanjutkan tradisinya dalam mempromosikan artis musik berat di bawah bendera baru ini. Warisan Ferret Music bertahan melalui dampaknya terhadap karier banyak band dan kontribusinya terhadap perkembangan musik hardcore punk dan metalcore.

Berikut ini adalah beberapa highlight rilisan metalcore dari Trustkill Records & Ferret Music:

1. Converge – Petitioning the Empty Sky (1996)