Artist Poney
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Website
Poney
Wausau hardcore band Poney took four years to make its new album Seamyth—70 minutes in length—but the band did tempt the fates by deciding to make a record based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's epic poem “The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner.” Drummer-vocalist Benjamin Brooks didn't slay any innocent birds (that we know of) or watch his bandmates drop dead around him in the process, but like the title character, he's certainly found himself bound to wander the earth and exhaustively re-tell the story. Rather than strictly follow Coleridge's narrative, Brooks tried to respond to it through characters who don't really get to speak for themselves in the original work. (The liner notes, available through Poney's Bandcamp page, come with annotations that emulate Coleridge's original side notes.) The band's style expands as the record goes on, from the math-mutant batterings of “Witch's Oils” and “Stormblast” to increasingly slow-building, complex pieces like “Sea Serpents” and “The Nephew (An Aside).” As the album's poetic heft (and the band's evolving songwriting) pulls it in a more progressive direction, it stays grounded in Brad Beilke's grimy guitar tone and Brooks' spicy interplay with second percussionist Pat Kohlbeck.
Updated 09/01/2010
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The Room
March 26, 2009
