You Come Before You

You Come Before You is the third full-length album by American metalcore band Poison the Well. It was released on July 1, 2003. It is the band's only release on a major label (Atlantic Records). More than 115,500 copies of the album have been sold in the U.S. to date.^[4] The Japanese version was released through Warner Music Japan on October 29, 2003 and featured an exclusive bonus track, "Sticks and Stones Never Made Sense (Demo)" which had been recorded in early October 2000.

You Come Before You
Studio album by Poison the Well
Released	July 1, 2003
Recorded	January–April 2003[1]
Studio	Sound City (Van Nuys) Studio 13 (Deerfield Beach) Tonteknik Recording (Umeå)
Genre	Post-hardcore, metalcore, melodic hardcore[2]
Length	42:59
Label	Atlantic Warner (Japan)
Producer	Eskil Lövström Pelle Henricsson Jeremy Staska
Poison the Well chronology
Tear from the Red (2002) You Come Before You (2003) Versions (2007)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Ox-Fanzine	[3]

Metal Hammer and Loudwire have both named the album as one of the greatest metal albums of the 21st century.^[5][6] In 2019, Rock Sound ranked the album at number 122 on its list of the "250 Greatest Albums of Our Lifetime", who said that it was "arguably [Poison The Well's] most innovative [release], boasting a fiery melange of hardcore, punk and post-rock".^[7]

On November 17, 2017, Poison the Well spoke out against a vinyl re-press of You Come Before You done through German record label Backbite Records, stating that the band had not been consulted for the release.^[8] The band criticized the subpar audio quality, the poor layout and noted numerous misspelling of words, song titles and the album's title on the artwork. The record label, however, claimed that they had received permission from the album's master rights owner Warner Music Group and had paid "thousands of Euros" for a reproduction license.^[9] Backbite Records made no explanation as to the poor quality of the audio nor of the misspellings on the artwork. Poison the Well maintained that Backbite Records' tactics were unethical and that the band should still have been contacted as mere professional courtesy.^[10][11]

Track listing

1. "Ghostchant" – 3:33
2. "Loved Ones (Excerpts from Speeches of How Great You Were, and Will Never Be Again)" – 3:53
3. "For a Bandaged Iris" – 4:27
4. "Meeting Again for the First Time" – 4:18
5. "A) The View from Here Is... B) A Brick Wall" – 3:12
6. "The Realist" – 3:49
7. "Zombies Are Good for Your Health" – 2:24
8. "The Opinionated Are So Opinionated" – 1:34
9. "Apathy Is a Cold Body" – 5:00
10. "Sounds Like the End of the World" – 4:24
11. "Pleasant Bullet" – 3:35
12. "Crystal Lake" – 2:50

Japanese bonus tracks

13. "Sticks and Stones Never Made Sense" (Demo) – 3:15

Personnel

Poison the Well

• Jeffrey Moreira – vocals
• Derek Miller – guitar
• Ryan Primack – guitar
• Geoffrey Bergman – bass (songs 1–12)
• Michael Gordillo – bass (song 13)
• Christopher Hornbrook – drums

Others

• Don Clark – art direction, design for Asterik Studio, Seattle
• Pelle Henricsson – recording, mixing, mastering (songs 1–12)
• Eskil Lovstrom – recording, mixing, mastering (songs 1–12)
• Jeremy Staska – recording, producer (song 13)

Nominations, awards and accolades

Kerrang! 2003 Nomination for "Best International Newcomer".

References

1. Anon. (May 13, 2003). "Poison The Well Set to Strike July 1st with 'YOU COME BEFORE YOU'". Atlantic Records. Archived from the original on November 25, 2006. Retrieved July 9, 2024.
2. Loftus, Johnny. "Poison the Well – You Come Before You". AllMusic. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
3. Deutschland, Ox Fanzine, Solingen. "Review". www.ox-fanzine.de (in German). Retrieved April 30, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
4. Poison The Well Are Back — And Fusing Metal With ... Country?
5. Metal Hammer (October 12, 2018). "The 100 greatest metal albums of the 21st century". Metal Hammer (loudersound). p. 8. Archived from the original on January 4, 2023. Retrieved January 17, 2024.
6. Staff, Loudwire Staff (March 25, 2016). "The 100 Best Rock + Metal Albums of the 21st Century". Loudwire. Archived from the original on September 30, 2018. Retrieved May 15, 2024.
7. "The 250 Greatest Albums of Our Lifetime". Rock Sound. No. 250. Rock Sound Ltd. April 2019. p. 46.
8. "This is not an official Poison the Well release". Facebook. November 17, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
9. "This is not a bootleg". Facebook. November 22, 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
10. "Poison The Well Warn Of Unofficial "You Come Before You" Vinyl Pressing". Theprp.com. November 22, 2017. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
11. "bierschinken.net Review: Poison The Well - You Come Before You (Rerelease)". bierschinken.net (in German). Retrieved March 8, 2021.