A YouTube upload of a Poison Ruïn live set in Queens describes the band as “sound[ing] like they reside and rehearse in a dark medieval dungeon.” Not quite — the band was born in a Philadelphia warehouse basement rehearsal space — but that sound is very deliberate. Frontman Mac Kennedy, who initially conceived the band as his own recording project, is something of a history and fantasy genre enthusiast. Across their discography, including on their new sophomore album Härvest, the band pairs the imagery of that world with murky, dirty anarcho-punk. It’s not escapism, but the opposite — laying bare the throughline of brutality and oppression from the Dark Ages to our modern life.