Getting it done.
Converge just get it. There’s no need to try and articulate it in any greater acclaim. The Salem heavy-hitters simply make innovation look effortless and take the listener along for the ride at every opportunity. While most bands are at the starting line, Converge have passed the finishing post and are already plotting their next move.
Putting our historian hats on, it’s remarkable that ‘Jane Doe’ is 11 years old and still sounds ten steps ahead of everything else. Is it an indictment on other bands or perhaps speaks larger volumes on Converge’s ability as musicians? Whack a Converge album on the stereo and the latter appears more apt.
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There’s precision in the chaos. Consistency in the brutality. And, development in the sound – always has and seemingly always will be.
For all the considered, deserved and hardly excessive praise, a strength of Converge is their ability to continually add subtle changes to the musical framework. Eighth studio album ‘All We Love We Leave Behind’ is intriguing, is anticipated, but is simply exciting.
Opener, ‘Aimless Arrow’ is a surprise. The vocals are cleaner and not layered with guttural venom. It’s different and perhaps an odd choice for the album’s introduction. Strange but not unwelcome. But, in typical Converge style this is merely a slight change of pace and perhaps a bluff, ‘Trespasses’ and ‘Tender Abuse’ are just devastating, intense tracks that alleviate any concerns that Converge have mellowed out. The tempo is unwavering.
‘Sadness Comes Home’ goes to into sludge territory, before returning to the riffs that made predecessor ‘Axe to Fall’ so prominent. In contrast ‘Vicious Muse’ has a more decisive punk feel to it.
The album get a bit denser as it plays out. The title track is symptomatic of many previous Converge tracks that get slightly slower and extended. ‘Predatory Glow’ is probably not the knockout blow to end the album, but it’s humble and bookends the release in suitable fashion. It’s the guts of 'All We Love We Leave Behind' where the damage is done and the entertainment created.
Converge don’t ever change.
You almost feel guilty for heaping the endless acclaim on this band, but it’s simply impossible to ignore. ‘All We Love We Leave Behind’ is undeniable, it’s assertive…it is simply Converge.
1. Aimless Arrow
2. Trespasses
3. Tender Abuse
4. Sadness Comes Home
5. Empty on the Inside
6. Sparrow's Fall
7. Glacial Pace
8. No Light Escapes
9. Vicious Muse
10. Veins and Vails
11. Coral Blue
12. Shame in the Way
13. On My Shield
14. Precipice
15. All We Love We Leave Behind
16. Runaway
17. Predatory Glow