CONVERGE: YOU FAIL ME (REVIEW)
November 7th 2006 01:00
CONVERGE
YOU FAIL ME
(2004; EPITAPH)
RATING:
TRACK LISTING: 1) First Light / 2) Last Light / 3) Black Cloud / 4) Drop Out / 5) Hope Street / 6) Heartless / 7) You Fail Me / 8) In Her Shadow / 9) Eagles Become Vultures / 10) Death King / 11) In her Blood / 12) Hanging Moon
Now I’m not an angry man by nature, in fact I’m an absolute sweetheart and a fluffy bundle of kittens. But my fuzzy, kitteny goodness has at least something to do with listening to albums like You Fail Me (2004) by Massachusetts hardcore band Converge. Whenever I’m pissed off about something, I can always put this growling little mongrel of a record on. My own anger is sucked up into the band's spiraling, bottomless circle-pit of hate, and by the time it’s finished, I’m as serene as a fucking monk. Call it Zen and the Art of Blistering Spazzcore.
Converge take the jazz leanings of Black Flag and the polyrhythms of the Bad Brains and turn them into one hell of a technical hardcore/metal stew. This stuff is just unbelievably fast and complicated, and its mathematical precision belies the unhinged, feral nature of the band’s aggression.
But for all the single-minded ferocity of its approach, You Fail Me is full of surprises. From the expansive, delay-heavy guitar intro “First Light”, you know this is going to be different. Almost every other tune is a searing attack of ferocious, off-time beats from Ben Koller; bludgeoning bass from Nate Newton; serpentine guitar lines that swallow their own tails from Kurt Ballou; and impassioned (bordering on psychotic) vocals from Jacob Bannon. Fuck that.They aren’t bordering; they ARE psychotic—and barked, growled and puked with so much venom you'll probably need, I dunno, ANTI-venom or something. The songs shift through several complex phases, only letting go of your jugular long enough to bite into it again, and whether it’s the Slayer-like breakdown in “Heartless” or the gnawing, high-pitched guitar harmonics that close "Hope Street", these guys cram two hour's worth of ideas into this album's thirty-five minutes, without sacrificing their bloody-minded vision.
The title track is a definite highlight and one doomy bastard to behold, slowing the pace down for some truly tense, Black Flag-via-Melvins sludge-riffing. The layered, barked vocals make you feel sorry for any person who dares cross these guys—they're so demonic they even scare me. Then it’s an absolute about-face with the warped, acoustic space rock of “In Her Shadow”: a gorgeous song that sounds like David Bowie or early Pink Floyd played on rusty, out-of-tune guitars by drunken sailors. The swirling feedback, theremin, and keyboard effects add a sense of psychedelic trippiness that makes this an intruigingly beautiful centrepiece to such a manic album. But then the monstrous drum roll that opens “Eagles Becomes Vultures” transforms this soaring beauty into guttural spazz punk, as the remaining tunes pick your bones clean, but not before pecking out your fat juicy eyeballs.
While its playing, this is an intense experience that is only made more oppressive by the scuzzy production. But it’s somehow soothing and purgative in the moments after it stops spinning. It’s amazing how Converge can sound so completely out-of-their-gourds with blinding hate, yet still have the control to perform such technically challenging music. It’s like the songs have been ordered around some impossible chaotic equation.
The only reason You Fail Me doesn’t get the Hellvis five star treatment is because I haven’t heard any of their other stuff, so I have no basis for comparison against their other records. If there’s any Converge fans out there who can recommend where I should go from here, I’d appreciate it.
***
IMAGES
You Fail Me*
* images on this page were taken from the following Wikipedia page:
You Fail Me
YOU FAIL ME
(2004; EPITAPH)
RATING:
TRACK LISTING: 1) First Light / 2) Last Light / 3) Black Cloud / 4) Drop Out / 5) Hope Street / 6) Heartless / 7) You Fail Me / 8) In Her Shadow / 9) Eagles Become Vultures / 10) Death King / 11) In her Blood / 12) Hanging Moon
You Fail Me (2004)
Converge take the jazz leanings of Black Flag and the polyrhythms of the Bad Brains and turn them into one hell of a technical hardcore/metal stew. This stuff is just unbelievably fast and complicated, and its mathematical precision belies the unhinged, feral nature of the band’s aggression.
But for all the single-minded ferocity of its approach, You Fail Me is full of surprises. From the expansive, delay-heavy guitar intro “First Light”, you know this is going to be different. Almost every other tune is a searing attack of ferocious, off-time beats from Ben Koller; bludgeoning bass from Nate Newton; serpentine guitar lines that swallow their own tails from Kurt Ballou; and impassioned (bordering on psychotic) vocals from Jacob Bannon. Fuck that.They aren’t bordering; they ARE psychotic—and barked, growled and puked with so much venom you'll probably need, I dunno, ANTI-venom or something. The songs shift through several complex phases, only letting go of your jugular long enough to bite into it again, and whether it’s the Slayer-like breakdown in “Heartless” or the gnawing, high-pitched guitar harmonics that close "Hope Street", these guys cram two hour's worth of ideas into this album's thirty-five minutes, without sacrificing their bloody-minded vision.
The title track is a definite highlight and one doomy bastard to behold, slowing the pace down for some truly tense, Black Flag-via-Melvins sludge-riffing. The layered, barked vocals make you feel sorry for any person who dares cross these guys—they're so demonic they even scare me. Then it’s an absolute about-face with the warped, acoustic space rock of “In Her Shadow”: a gorgeous song that sounds like David Bowie or early Pink Floyd played on rusty, out-of-tune guitars by drunken sailors. The swirling feedback, theremin, and keyboard effects add a sense of psychedelic trippiness that makes this an intruigingly beautiful centrepiece to such a manic album. But then the monstrous drum roll that opens “Eagles Becomes Vultures” transforms this soaring beauty into guttural spazz punk, as the remaining tunes pick your bones clean, but not before pecking out your fat juicy eyeballs.
While its playing, this is an intense experience that is only made more oppressive by the scuzzy production. But it’s somehow soothing and purgative in the moments after it stops spinning. It’s amazing how Converge can sound so completely out-of-their-gourds with blinding hate, yet still have the control to perform such technically challenging music. It’s like the songs have been ordered around some impossible chaotic equation.
The only reason You Fail Me doesn’t get the Hellvis five star treatment is because I haven’t heard any of their other stuff, so I have no basis for comparison against their other records. If there’s any Converge fans out there who can recommend where I should go from here, I’d appreciate it.
***
IMAGES
You Fail Me*
* images on this page were taken from the following Wikipedia page:
You Fail Me
| 44 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
