well with logging on this thing and seeing this wonderfully naive entry, which only evokes the phrase "hindsight is 20/20" in my mind - "converge posted a new song. pretty much made 2009 for me, so far. so so so good. they're going in a more metal, thrashy direction, but very much more melodic rather than the dirt and grit of No Heroes(which I loved), and I can already tell this will usurp everything as their best album." ah, to be young. hahah. but, upon reading that I felt obligated to post my thoughts on Converge's 2009 release "Axe To Fall".

Converge - Axe To Fall
metalcore

An album I've been anticipating for 2 years, since after the 100th time I had listened to No Heroes, and had all the riffs, drum patterns and vocals memorized, I needed this CD, I watched the Axe To Fall(the song) teaser on myspace, and I really can't tell you how giddy I was to see them ripping through a brand new song with Jake huddled in the corner with his hood up, looking nigh fucking enigmatic. I played the song "Dark Horse" 24824724 times on repeat on my Ipod, counting down the days for Axe To Fall's release. I scoured the internet for months and months before the time the CD would feasibly leak, and NOW that Axe To Fall is finally here, one word can sum it up; lackluster.

Now, to be fair, after I just detailed exactly how excited I was for this, it is very safe to assume that I HIGHLY overhyped this album, and it was bound to be a letdown if they had Jesus H. himself on strings, and it's all true, but still I say, even from a neutral perspective - lackluster. Converge has been my favorite band for probably about five years from now, and one of the biggest reasons is that over the past 19 years, Converge has broken down so many musical barriers, and carved their niche into the face of aggressive music with a fucking iridium edged dagger. On 2001's Jane Doe, the razor edged dual guitar assault, combined with the insane poly rhythmic percussion, and the vocals of J Bannon so pained, so scorned that the atmosphere he created was almost seraphic, if they as a band had ONLY released this album, they would still be revered as legends, as innovators.

But, yet they released 2004's You Fail Me, and even with dropping one guitar player, they created an atmosphere so haunting, so ethereal, and so dismal, but yet so aggressive and melodic. They had created another record just as influential and original, but yet COMPLETELY different from anything they had ever released.

Then, 17 years into their career as an aggressive band, far beyond the time any band should still be considered relevant who isn't Led Zeppelin, they release "No Heroes", and lo and behold it is an absolute hardcore punk classic. They integrate many newer sounds, having more metal, grind and sludge leanings, but yet still craft songs memorable and completely their own. In a year that I listened to more albums than probably any other, many hundreds, I named this CD my absolute favorite out of the herd, and I would probably still say that today. Not only were they relevant, they were doing something that absolutely spearheaded the entire genre, there were many imitators, but no acceptable substitute.


AND, in 2009, they released Axe To Fall. With all I've typed up to contrast with this album, am I trying to say this album is horrid? No, really it's far from it, it's just not Converge. It IS incredibly forgettable in this day and age, aside from a few fantastic songs, they sound like the bands trying to imitate them more than themselves. They've lost a good amount of the melodicism found on No Heroes, and traded it for fuzzier, chunkier distortion, more thrashing and "rockish" riffs. The dissonant guitar squealing technique(I'm not sure if it's some weird sounding harmonic or what) that sounded so ominous and foreboding on tracks like YFM's "Black Cloud", now almost sound sad to me on tracks like "Losing Battle"(an oddly befitting title), as if the band just absolutely has no more ideas, which is exemplified perfectly by the excessive chromatic riffing -WHICH is a Converge trademark, yes; but here it just sounds stale and overused in the almost "rock" atmosphere they create with this album. The highlights for me on this CD are "Dark Horse", I still absolutely fucking love this track, and it really sucks that they couldn't follow up with the furor and tenacity that this opening song evokes. Also "Cruel Bloom" which is a pretty much direct Tom Waits ripoff, but that's the reason I like it, so.

Do I hate Converge now? No, they'll still always be one of my favorite bands, and will continue to be one of my biggest influences, I just think they've just taken their music as far as they can take it - and really, that's A o fucking K, as their isn't one band in the aggressive music world, not just hardcore, who has done as much for the music as Converge has; period, and they will go down in history as legends.

(by the way for any asshole wanting to nitpick that I didn't include Petitioning the Empty Sky, When Forever Comes Crashing, etc etc, this blog is already sickeningly long, and while those cd's are classic in their own right, I don't feel as if they came into their own fully until Jane Doe, not that those cd's don't each deserve write-ups 3x the size of this, I just want to keep this succinct as possible.)