Converge - Axe To Fall

This time they are built for war

Being active since the 1990s but gaining prominence not just from the hardcore scenes but the metal scenes all around the world during the new millennium with 2001's mathcore monster Jane Doe, Converge knows what they want in a new record and we all love it every time. The only thing we can do about it when we wait is just never expect anything and enjoy everything during initial listen. It's been the case when Converge signed on to Epitaph Records where mostly constructed of punk. With You Fail Me (2004) and No Heroes (2006), they treaded different grounds with left turns including the AmRep/NeurIsis induced You Fail Me title track and the doom and thrashtastic "To The Lions" from No Heroes.

Seven albums later and almost two decades long of intensity and traveling the world, Converge has something new out for us to drool over. A recent case just weeks before the release (or the full stream at the band's own MySpace) the review watermarked copy of Axe To Fall was leaked onto the internet for a lot of people to keelhaul over. Even if downloaded by the masses, Converge finally made something that not only make the owning of the album well worth it but made the most engaging record I have heard this year.

Official music video, probably NSFW

I can safely say that if you have listened to past Converge albums, you can say it's an amalgamation of them and then some. Combining the technicality and unpredictability of Jane Doe, the ferocity of You Fail Me, and the extreme metal tendencies of No Heroes (along with nuances of 1998's When Forever Come Crashing), they wisely balanced their use of what they have learned in the past to make an effective product while still following their of tradition of following experimental paths. Odd that some of these songs sound similar to songs on their previous two albums. The benefit of this is that these songs feel more developed than their older pieces. It includes the out-slayered Slayer-esque "Cutter" ("Vengeance","No Heroes" and "Black Cloud"), the grooved up "Slave Driver" ("Lonewolves"), and the fast "Losing Battle" ("Heartless").

Besides some great familiarities, the album continues to take different directions outside the main sound spectrum. If you have listened to the stronger bands on singer Jacob Bannon's Deathwish Inc. label, you can hear some pure influences of Disfear and label alumni Trap Them on "Wishing Well;" death' n' roll more bastardized. Apparently enough the differed songs consists of the more slower tempoed epic tracks than usual to balance out the overall heaviness to create a more varied and open album. "Cruel Bloom" brings a folkpocalypse sound with seemingly distanced brooding/depressing piano and acoustic guitar while providing an almost ethreal like feeling with the guest vocals including Neurosis' Steve Von Till. The finale "Wretched World" tries to set the listener on a ethreal (it even sound like a credits song to an epic RPG that was cut for not being overcompressed J-Pop or some obvious reason) journey of layers upon layers of drums, vocals, and guitar helped by members of Genghis Tron, The Red Chord, and Cave In.

The most intriguing thing about Axe To Fall is the high amount of guests that contributed to the album. They range from just doing backing vocals for one line (Himsa's John Pettibone on "Cutter") to almost full contribution to writing the song (ex. 3/4 of Cave In on "Effigy"). Besides people of metal/hardcore bands such as Tim Cohen of 108 and Blacklisted's George Hirsch, Converge brings in members of indie rock groups including Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor and lone female anagramed musician "The Rodeo" which even if unexpected is exciting that Converge will try someone else that doesn't shout for once.

With each Converge album, production gets better and better. Maybe No Heroes is a bit less just with the weird inaudibility of guitars and bass in places but it's good that Converge learned their lesson with this new outing. Being produced, engineered, and mixed by guitarist Kurt Ballou at his own studio, he makes the album powerful and as well as dirty. Guitars are now audible with cutting riffs and shiny leads, bass can give hope to conventional metal production that the instrument still matters and the drums have a very loud scooped feel while steps back in terms of giving the other instruments a chance. Vocals are just harsh as usual with Jacob's incomprehensible barks of destruction which says to any new listener that it's not about trying to understand what he is saying but to understand the feeling of his performance. Mastered by Alan Douches give a good amount of loudness to the intense album but at occasion passes the distortion mark which makes me question his skills.

Although with a minor fault, it's very small when compared to the larger than life sound that fills this album. I can say indeed that Converge's Axe To Fall is one of the albums to listen to of 2009. Fun for everybody because it's plain awesome. Don't waste your time downloading it from a blogspot, go freaking buy it!

10/10

Axe To Fall is available now!

Official Converge Website
Official Converge MySpace

Baroness - Blue Record

Color Me Blue

The Georgian sludge metal scene has gained some prominence within extreme metal. Built up from the NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) influences of Eyehategod, England's doomy Black Sabbath and even New York's Swans, the Georgian scene has turned into a characteristic entity while still praising the evil yet Southern rock grooves. Throughout the second half of the decade, there were lauded releases from bands like Atlanta's Withered (Foile Circulare, 2008), Savannah's Kylesa (Static Tensions, 2009), and most notably Atlanta's Mastodon (Crack the Skye, 2009). It's though not all perfect in the world of downtuned drugged bastard music. Some including me thought Mastodon's over-ambition for an almost pure progressive sound has caused them to stray away from their roots too obviously (which I felt made the record good yet very underwhelming). Is it because of their rise to major labels (Relapse Records to Reprise Records) to appeal to less metal nurtured audiences or just want to separate from being pidgeonholed in a scene? Who knows?

One band who recently had some press in magazines such as Spin and most commonly being the cover story on US extreme metal mag Decibel (November 2009) is Savannah's Baroness. Rising to prominence with their First (2004) and Second (2005) EPs and as well as a split album with Unpersons (2007) and being praised with the debut LP Red Album (2007). Their mix of progressive rock and sludge metal can make a first time listener question Mastodon clone but by multiple listens of their previous work and their latest LP Blue Record, Baroness makes excellent strides in creating what they are.

Jake Leg

With a gaze of the beautiful cover art by guitarist/vocalist John Dyer Baizley, you can expect a great and wondrous journey. Starting from the beginning of "Bullhead's Psalm" to the end of "Bullhead's Lament," they deliver their A game to the best of their ability with every song. For fans of the group, Blue can be considered simply a very well refined Red Album; although not a reiteration of their 2007 debut. The most obvious difference from the previous work is how Baroness keeps momentum on making hook after hook after hook throughout the 45 minutes without droning out on being boring. They provide a sound that can be appreciated to a larger audience but they do it so well and effectively that the "sold out" issue is nonexistent.

Guitarist/vocalist Pete Adams replaced former guitarist Brian Bickle a couple of months back and I questioned if Baroness can still do it without it's former lead guitarist. By listen of Blue Album, I had my question answered with a yes. Pete contributes so much harmony vocals especially in "The Sweetest Curse" and the folk acoustic "Steel That Sleeps The Eye" where it's better to have both John and Pete sing/shout at the same time instead of just having one doing the responsibilities. Besides his voice, he can make very good clashes with John on twin leads with very noticeable support by bassist Summer Welch and drummer of Brian Bickle, Allen. When the album is best as is when all the elements are crunched up into one five or so minute song. The spectacular results are well established in the "The Birthing"-esque "Jake Leg" and the mid-paced galloping rhythms of "A Horse Name Golgotha."

A Horse Called Golgotha

Even with an outro, the penultimate song (The Gnashing) truly ends the album with great build up to the climax with elegant melodies, rhythm shifts, and well thought out patterns. Everything felt engaging and well made and nothing felt like filler. Is it best metal album ever? Probably not but I can say Baroness' Blue Record is one of the best metal (if not general) records of 2009.

10/10

Blue Record out now on Relapse Records!

Official Baroness MySpace (features Blue Record stream)
Official John Baizley MySpace

Coalesce - "Wild Ox Moan" Dissected

Lasting for more than a week even if I have discovered this recently, Coalesce has issued a contest where anybody can win prizes for having the best remix and/or rearrangement of their OX song "Wild Ox Moan." Although great to win crap including a special LP version of OX, I feel that people including me who are trying to get into music production, specifically extreme metal, can understand how can we make a good sounding track with this song as good reference.

It's great that engineer Ed Rose dissected the main elements of the song (guitars, vocals, effects, etc.) for us to understand in a technical manner. Notable elements include the panned bass guitar, the room and close drum mics, and the use of vocals with how having either just the main vocals or the backing vocals can affect the performance especially in the 02:38-02:58 section.

I am trying to understand extreme metal production and trying to make my own sound. Thank goodness someone would break down a song or else most of us would be overproducing/underproducing which can respectively lead to constant clipping or inaudibility. Most of us recording music in a DIY fashion might not sound good as OX but at least it's a stepping stone for success in the future.

Official Rules

Indaba: Remix Page

Doomriders - Darkness Come Alive

Doom, Gloom, and Rock & Roll?

Aside from the very metallic hardcore tendencies, Converge's Nate Newton has a primary side project when Converge is not playing a show. Doomriders contains the bassman on guitars as well as Cave In drummer J.R. Connors playing very fun and catchy death 'n' roll and punk influenced stoner rock ever since their 2005 debut Black Thunder on Jacob Bannon's Deathwish Inc. Four years later with occasional live performances and splits with Coliseum and Swedish d-beat kings Disfear, Nate and the riders finally have time to record new attractive material before their holds on their main bands and their own new pieces.

Darkness Come Alive in terms of how it's recorded differs from Black Thunder as the latter was recorded live with all instruments present and playing simultaneously while Darkness followed conventional tracking. Although it feels like the fun and jam factor disappeared, it resulted with songs having more detail and attention resulting with a good amount of focus. The first half of the seventeen songs have good hooks especially in the harmony chorus in "Come Alive" but the second half is where the riders step up in their riffing game. "Jealous God" stays doomed up yet has a melody that can encourage the crowd to flood the group sing along and "Mercy" as well as "Bloodsucker" adds the Black Flag esque hardcore element to the stoner fuzzed grooves. Thank goodness those grooves are audible as I thank Kurt Ballou for having clarity and dynamics instead of density and intensity.

Good thing Nate actually pursued Doomriders as he deserves some prominence when doing his work on Converge and even in Old Man Gloom. Show your glory!

8/10

the_Network - Bishop Kent Manning

No LAN support in this network

It's intriguing to listen to bands that I never heard before especially with cool sounding names (except for badly vaguely named metalcore bands). The_Network has a cool sounding and looking name albeit they are a metalcore band. Good thing that they sound pretty good for following a Botch/Converge attack with a essence of individuality. Already established in Blackmarket Activities with 2007's This Is Your Pig's Portrait and the split EP with UK band Throats, the_Network comes back with a Kurt Ballou production of a conce... excuse me a narrative journey.

Starring a man on a destructive path from his manipulative lead of an evangelical church to his goal for self realization and redemption, t_N provides an facsinating lyrical story where it flows through with anger and rage from vocalist Mike McGee. He does what he has to do while knows he cannot flood the rest of the sounds surrounding the album. Following the aformentioned influences, t_N takes some left turns with influences of post-hardcore and post-metal; most notably evident on "Corpse Paint" where it contains an Isis like buildup and goes to a almost poppy melodic like chorus to immediate doomy verses. Most of the time, it's constant math influenced chaos. To differentiate from their older peers, very metal riffing is added to the hardcore sensibilities in songs like "Easter Just Stopped Showing" where it almost sounds like a death metal song with the notion of how deathcore should sound like instead of what Suicide Silence deafens.

They do what they want to do and it seems to be working. Is it sophomore album of the year? Hell no! It doesn't break any modern mold in the musically department yet it's awesome though to listen to something imaginative lyrically such as Bishop Kent Manning. In the name of Jesus and Satan, do listen!

8/10

Gnaw Their Tongues - All The Dread Magnificence Of Perversity

Jesu For Strange Cats

One of the intriguing things about uncomfortable music is that it can get the listener (if open-minded) to get sucked in and try to digest the universe that is composed in a song. Can range from just simplistic ambient noise to the recent soothing yet cacophonous hits of Tilt and The Drift by Scott Walker. People who doesn't listen to extreme music would commonly call the the various genres in the umbrella term as unpleasant; likely because the closest thing that they would consider extreme would be something out of Disturbed. More known in Europe, the amalgamation of the sounds are presented in such bands like The Axis Of Perdition and recently Gnaw Their Tongues with its latest full length monster of a machine.

Consisting of Dutch lone wolf Mories who takes extreme to another level with his arsenal of everything hard and destructive, he wants the listener to visualize the enviroments and what can create the dynamic wall of noise. "Broken Fingers Point Up In Vain" imagines a doomy symphonic end of the world scenario where everything built by man is collapsing down to the ground. The first song when popping the disc in creates a strong and hollow Silent Hill like mood if the very bloody and dreary environments filled with surrounding industrial scream existed. Although some spoken word it doesn't have lyrics but for this case, it's beneficial as it's about listening to every little detail from the agonizing cries to the subtle drum patterns.

If there is a flaw then it has to be the songs simply put. Dread is great and terrifying, it wants to be really cacophonous albeit it's so likeable that it drains the "I am fucking freaking out and going fucking insane" scary factor. It's more like being the cameraman to a well thought out horror movie as opposed to waking up in what could be hell on earth (minus the Cyberdemon). Also the song names sounding cool also feels silly and vague ("Gazing At Me Through The Tears Of Urine, WTF?!). Nonetheless if you wanna love shitting bricks on music, All The Dread Magnificence Of Perversity is still extreme beyond extreme and evil beyond evil.

8/10

Weekend Nachos - Unforgivable

UURRGH MAN!

Once low key yet strong fanbase in the Eastern hardcore scene but recently had wider appreciation with Relapse Records' Scott Hull modern powerviolence/grind collection known as This Comp. Kills Facists, Weekend Nachos I hope is enjoying the larger reception. Even with finishing songs for the compilation, it didn't stop their 2009 Spazz-y attack as they begun making a "full length" of traditional yet still intense grind and powerviolence known as Unforgivable.

As I said, this album is traditional filling up the usual guidelines influenced by the early U.S. grind bands both musically and artistically. So expect a grotesque black & white Vietnam photo to start off. When initially listening to it you can expect the fast, slow, and blast tempos to fill up almost every song when the creamy smooth guitars and bass flow with the still goofy vocals. Every other band does the same thing but why should you or me care about this band Besides powerviolence being less common than grindcore obviously, they have some chops to deliver excting stuff which is highlighted in standouts like "Pain Over Acceptance" and the 2 minute epic "Nights".

Nothing special or bad, the Nachos made a nonetheless enjoyable Relapse debut album which by small doses can be kept in grind enthusiasts' LP player, CD player, or iPod. Give it a go you might like it.

7/10

Trash Talk - East Of Eden

Insta-fucking-gratification

Hardcore punk is fast and devastating just like all extreme genres but instead of having dominant thrash riffs or super progressive double bass drum patterns, it's all about a purely unified attack of d-beats, heavily distorted chords, and in your face shouts where it can match with the most kvlt of music. Sacramento's Trash Talk has been a down-low band while being infamous for aggressive hardcore/powerviolence/grind releaseswith drugged up terror of sludge lasting less than an full EPs worth (S/T only last less than 15 minutes). Releasing a single song into the public is a bit expected but the extremeties present in East of Eden's "East Of Eden/Son Of A Bitch" is well worth listening because it feels sort of reminiscent of the first two releases Walking Disease and Plagues while having the DIY cloudy tones of the S/T; think of Napalm Death's Scum but slightly refined yet still fucking dirty. Blast beats, doom sounds, and traditional necessities feel cohesive and powerful even if it lasts 2 minutes.

8/10