I first heard of this band via their video for "August Winterman" on the show Extreme Rock on MTV2 one night. I was flipping channels, came across this, thought "Wow, that was a good song, nice screaming."

Fast forward a few days. Download a few songs off their mp3.com site. Thought "Wow, all those songs are good."

Fast forward a few more days. I get the Dead Poetic album "Four Wall Blackmail". I listen and realize that all the songs are good, this is a really talented band, and they have a knack for writing some good, catchy, emotional hardcore.

To describe Dead Poetic's sound, I'd say their emotional hardcore...meaning that there is a good bit of actual singing, and the lyrics are pretty emo. They use singing enough for me, using for good reasons such as background vocals or a scream to carry the chorus, not just screaming everywhere so they can be called hardcore. I'm more drawn to this type of hardcore, not the constant hardcore yell/scream type hardcore, so for fans hardcore like me, buy this, NOW.

They're not groundbreakingly original, but I can't think of a band that they sound like at the moment. The music is not particularly fast, they usually opt for a slower sound, with a build up to chorus or a breakdown, etc. I've heard comments on the lyrics, that they're really good and read like poetry. I'm going to have to disagree on that, the lyrics aren't New Found Glory, but they're not just mind blowing magnificent. I like the songs, and the lyrics are catchy, and well written enough for me.

I really recommend this to any fan of hardcore or more emotional punk bands. I don't really think you would mosh to most of this, but it still keeps a hardcore essence, I love it.

Video - August Winterman

mp3.com page - Dead Poetic