![]() ![]() They are too many to list, but the bottom line is, they work. A huge array of guests help out, representing acts like Disfear, 108, Genghis Tron, and Neurosis. They're elegiac and haunting, an inversion of the napalm death that preceded them. Near the end, piano and glockenspiel make like Tom Waits and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The slow numbers likely won't get live airing- kids prefer speed- but they're amazing constructions of texture and friction. It starts with three seamless barnburners, then settles into smooth toggling between slow and fast. It's also anvils and stone pillows and beds of fallen leaves. It's fast, greasy, and loud as a motherfucker.Īxe to Fall isn't all axes, though. The title track rotates through thrash beats, blastbeats, and d-beats like a race car driver shifting gears. Ballou isn't really playing metal- his band is too short-haired and quirky for that- but he's out-metalling 99% of metal bands today. The frenzied pull-offs in "Dark Horse" are pure Kirk Hammett the supercharged chug of "Reap What You Sow" recalls the fire of early Megadeth. Ballou mines the upper register more than ever before, turning leads into leitmotifs. It gallops, shoots electric arcs, dives down to subterranean depths. Ballou's guitar dials up the crackle of Metallica's Kill 'Em All. His lyrics aren't hard to parse: "I need to learn to love me" "No longer feel anyone/ No longer fear anything." Basic stuff, but it reaches deep and pulls no punches. The album is, to quote The Exorcist and Pantera, a vulgar display of power. Their landmark album My War was equal parts lightning and Black Sabbath. Black Flag went through a similar transformation. Over You Fail Me and 2006's No Heroes, it expanded to include slower, abstract sludge. Jane Doe was Converge's watershed, honing their sound to a lean, abrasive essence. It took a few albums to work through a wiry hybrid of mathcore and metal. The face on the cover of 2001's Jane Doe, the hand on the cover of 2004's You Fail Me- they are the Black Flag bars of today. (The band's Twitter handle is "convergecult.") No other current punk band's imagery is as iconic. As a result, kids in droves wear Converge on their sleeves. They play hard and wear their hearts on their sleeves. Together, they whip up a catharsis matched by few. Bassist Nate Newton and drummer Ben Koller have made waves with other bands like Doomriders and Cave In. Guitarist Kurt Ballou runs a recording studio and has become this generation's Steve Albini. ![]() label and does artwork for Converge and other bands. Singer Jacob Bannon runs the Deathwish, Inc. They work as a team and have taken DIY to new levels. It was destined to end.Ĭonverge have learned from Black Flag's mistakes. The band was both explosive and implosive. Black Flag made it okay to fight cops, to fight fans, and to do what punk always promised but rarely did: be oneself. But they can do so because of Black Flag's groundwork. They differ from Black Flag in that aspect: They build things up, not tear them down. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |