Customer Reviews

Axe to Fall

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I don't think that Axe to Fall needs an eon-length review to prove that it is Converge's best work since Jane Doe. There are plenty of other professional reviewers out there that can write a song by song analysis of this album, but I am going to keep this straightforward: Converge haven't sounded this pissed-off in a long long time. Converge have found new ways of being extremely heavy and abrasive while still maintaining their signature frantic sound, as shown in Kurt's blisteringly technical leads and Ben's jawdropping drumming on this album. But even amidst the breakneck speed of most of the tracks on this album, they still manage to collaborate with several of their peers in the hardcore/metal scene (Steve Von Till from Neurosis, Mookie Singerman from Genghis Tron, to name a few) and sound unmistakably like Converge.

Axe to Fall is Converge's most accessible album yet, and I mean this in the best way possible; everything about this album is flawless, the musicianship, the art, the lyrics, and the production. If you don't listen to this band, now is the time to start listening to them. If you do, you already know that anything Converge puts out is guaranteed to be quality, and this is no exception. There is nothing more to say other than it is easily the best album I have heard in a long time. What are you waiting for? Support this hard-working band and buy this masterpiece already.

With "Axe to Fall," Massachusetts metallic hardcore stalwarts Converge wrap up a truly extraordinary decade. 2001 saw "Jane Doe," then a career, nay, genre-defining highlight, a release so good you could be forgiven for expecting a letdown in the near future. Instead Converge returned 3 years later with the even better "You Fail Me" (though I know I'm in the minority in this respect) and then with "No Heroes," another punishingly good slice of mayhem which, if not quite as good as its predecessors, nevertheless laid the competition to waste. It's 2009 now and, unsurprisingly, Converge has done it again with their most recent full length. While "Axe to Fall" doesn't display an enormous leap forward in style, Converge's finely tuned songwriting abilities and nearly unparalleled intensity remain in tact, and the sound is as fresh as ever. While the imitators grow more and more generic, Converge just become more extraordinary and distinct.

The most superficially noteworthy aspect of "Axe to Fall" is the extensive use of guest musicians from bands like Cave In, Neurosis, Genghis Tron and others. Most tracks contain at least one guest, but, apart from during the closers, none make too huge of an impact on the sound. At their best, these guests help Converge extend their palette slightly, adding in a few distinct guitar lines and some more shading to the atmospheric tracks. This remains a Converge album through and through, and Bannon, Ballou, Newton and Koller display their distinct talents fully. Moreover, they continue to be impressively multi-talented, with Bannon again providing artwork and Ballou returning as producer and engineer. As with all of their recent material, "Axe to Fall" has a truly ferocious sound. The guitar and bass are not quite as explosive on "No Heroes," but Koller's drums come through even better in his most manic performance yet, and the overall production has that necessary mix of rawness and clarity.

Like Converge's other recent works, "Axe to Fall" consists primarily of short, vicious tracks mixed in with a few longer, slower oddballs. The opener "Dark Horse" is the strongest track. This is classic Converge, moving from a frenetic, odd-timed-riff-plus-drum-fills-on-every-bar combo in the verses to a brutally straightforward chorus, all culminating in a monstrous breakdown. This is hardly a new pattern, but they do it better than anyone. The next few are similarly devastating and further emphasize the intricate, squalling guitarwork, while the later short tracks are a bit less brutally metallic and better display Converge's noise and punk stylings. "Dead Beat" is probably the best of the latter examples, mixing noisy washes of guitar sound with some slightly melodic vox and a pounding chorus. I think these under three minute tracks are a bit front heavy (the first three are the best), but the overall quality is high.

Though the shorter tracks remain as fierce as ever, Converge continue to experiment with slower and moodier material. Best is the enjoyably dirge-like "Worms Will Feed/Rats Will Feast" which recalls "Plagues," while "Damages" is more mechanistic and midpaced. Most atypical are the atmospheric closers "Cruel Bloom" and "Wretched World," two atmospheric, guest-vox intensive comps. They differ a bit (Cruel Bloom is acoustic guitar and piano driven, while Wretched World has a more electronic vibe courtesy of Genghis Tron), and are both enjoyable, but ought not to have been placed next to one another. As it stands they function as a rather bizarre coda to the album, one that doesn't entirely fit. Again, I'm not opposed to the material, but how they place it. (For some reason, I'm usually not in love with how Converge orders and paces their albums. Needless to say, this is a pretty minor complaint.)

Taken all together, "Axe to Fall" is another first rate addition to Converge's catalog. As always, it's impossible to say now if it will have as much lasting power as their last few, but it surely impresses early on. Check it out.

Wow, that's the only word to describe this phenomenal album. Axe to Fall is unlike any other Converge to date. First, lets start with the music aspect. Kurt Ballou is (and always has been) a unique and accomplished guitarist. But his talents TRULY shine on Axe to Fall, an absolute roller coaster ride of odd wammy bars and jumbled time signatures, especially on the shorter, more brutal songs. Ballou is without a doubt unparalled. Also, drummer Ben Koller somehow keeps up with Ballou, and even surpassing him in his own way, especially with his incredible stamina. And don't worry, Nate holds his own on bass. Now to Jacob Bannon. Nothing brand new in this department, but he still has his patented, disgusting growls and his strange punk yelling.

This album is truly a masterpiece, surpassing every other converge album. You won;t skip a single track. I can hardly describe this music. At times I would look at my cd player, scratch my head until it bled, and stutterd ????. To the untrained ear, this will sound like plain noise, but to us fans, its audio heaven. Defintely pick this album up, if you are a new or old fan, Axe to Fall will not dissapoint.

P.S. - Bannons artwork is truly stunning. From his use of spray paint, to his unique drawings, Bannon creates an oddly beautiful and almost industrial look to accompany this fine music.

LONG LIVE CONVERGE

The professional critics don't seem to keen on all the guests, but I don't think any of the guest stand out. This just sounds like another brutal adventure through the hellish wasteland that Converge paint for us every time. For my money I would say they peaked with You Fail Me, and the way it's rawness exposed some of their inner workings, but by all means these last two albums are nothing to shake a stick at. These guys are still firing on all pistons, and Axe To Fall comes down hard like Jane Doe for most of the album, with just a couple of the experimental slower stuff that marked the last few albums. I doubt most fans will be dissapointed at all with this.

After the merely excellent "No Heroes," this reviewer feared that the once-mighty Converge may have been heading into the diminishing-returns phase of their career. Fortunately, those fears turned out to be completely unfounded, as Converge have returned with a rampaging slab of almost frightening quality in the form of "Axe to Fall." Even well over a decade into their career, these guys have lost none of their edge or potency, and once again they have plenty of new tricks up their sleeves. There are plenty of bands out there that can rage convincingly, but few if any that do so with the sheer all-encompassing FORCE that Converge conjure up so easily in their best moments, and this album can easily match any of their prior releases from this decade in terms of raw power. At the same time, while the the intensity of the sonic mayhem on display here is certainly impressive, as usual Converge isn't just engaging in destruction for its own sake--the band's assault is measured, precise, and above all unpredictable. They alternate tempos, vocal styles, and moods as effortlessly as you'd flip a light switch, and they have sense enough to pause occasionally (however briefly) before leaping back into the fray.

The monstrous opener "Dark Horse" has been praised in many corners as one of Converge's best tracks, and rightfully so, as it plows relentlessly forward from its opening notes and repeatedly changes tempos on a dime without sacrifing its manic intensity. Jacob Bannon has a scream that could peel paint off walls, and this song sees him nicely alternating it with his drier hardcore shout, while Kurt Ballou pushes his guitar playing to new heights of fretboard abuse. In a somewhat surprising development, the band also incorporates some piercing, almost Slayer-esque guitar leads on tracks like "Reap What You Sow" and "Effigy," but this added element is more than welcome as it only adds to the insanity already on display. In contrast, "Worms Will Feed/Rats Will Feast" and "Damages" are slow-paced, tortuous sonic slag heaps, with Ballou's guitar adding layers of bracing distortion to his usual assault of dense metallic riffage and Neurosis's Steve von Till providing some gut-wrenching guest vox. "Losing Battle" and "Cutter" are short, sharp tracks propelled by their absolutely thunderous grooves, while the brilliant "Dead Beat" is highlighted by a drum performance from Ben Koller that's dizzyingly frenetic and complex even by his lofty standards.

With no confrontational screaming or jarring tempo changes to be found, the last two tracks could practically be coming from a different band, but committed fans should still be able to find plenty to enjoy about them. "Cruel Bloom" is a slow, lilting mood piece that incorporates some decidedly non-metal instrumentation and guest vocals that practically qualify as smoky, and things only get stranger with the closer, "Wretched World." This seven-minute final track is led by guest vocals that are eerily detached and alien, seeming to float above an electronically accented instrumental background that slowly builds in intensity until it explodes into an all-out maelstrom towards the end. It takes the band about as far outside their comfort zone as they could go without experimenting with jazz fusion or something like that, but when the results are this haunting and compelling it's hard to complain. It's easily the band's best album closer since at least "Jane Doe," (the song) and a fitting conclusion to their best and most complete album since "Jane Doe" (the album).

Converge is getting better in every record. They could have more than 1 way to comunicate things, every record has their own personality, it's not like you listen no heroes or Jane doe or this and say: it's the same thing with new cover for the album. NO. They really get some remarcable stuff it every record. If you are interested in some new ways of expression, Converge is the perfect soundtrack.

If you're a Converge fan, buy this record. Weather you hopped on back in the day with Petitioning the Empty Sky or you're a little late to the party with No Heroes, if you enjoyed Converge's other albums, you'll enjoy this one. For everyone else, listen up. Converge is not an easy band to get into. Play Converge to the average listener and you're likely to get something along the lines of "Jesus Christ? This must be what death sounds like..." While this is true for the band over all, if you're wanting to get into Converge, this is easily they're most accessible album. Converge takes the band in more progressive territory on this record. As a result the record trades off "Aggressive" for "Progressive" but still holds the emotional aspects of the music. Also the majority tracks on the album have guests musicians including Steve Von Till from Neurosis, Mookie Singerman from Genghis Tron, and Steve Brodsky from Cave in. Bottom line? Converge puts out some of the best Metalcore out there, and this is no exception.

tl;dr: If you're a fan, or looking to get into the band. Pick it up.

After some substandard releases by established metal bands over the past few years (esp. Enslaved's Vertebrae and, to a lesser extent, Opeth's Watershed) it is refreshing to hear a band progress (which I'm all for, by the way) without feeling like they have either completely changed or are on the verge of completely changing.

From opener Dark Horse to closer Wreteched World this is a solid album worthy of being played from beginning to end and places a perfect punctuation mark for what I would easily call THE band of the previous decade. Highly recommended, especially if you are a fan, but then again you probably already have it so I'm preaching to choir. Curious? You can't go wrong here, or with any of their other releases.

In short, best Converge album since Jane Doe, and that's saying something given how good You Fail Me and No Heroes were.

i got into converge very late my first converge album was NO HEROES and it just shocked me how out of control and awesome music can be with that much passion and purity. After i got all the older records and i was always worried how a band like this wont repeat themselves but still have that same intensity and AXE TO FALL achieved all that and more a great addition to previous fans and a gracious beginning to new fans. MASS HxCx ALIVE AND WELL

Surprisingly Converge could bump there game up again for "Axe to Fall", hard hitting hardcore music with the accessible touch to hopefully bring in a new respecting crowd. Bursting at the seams with energy, and of course musicianship, this is one album I can't really turn down for those who enjoy metallic fringed hardcore music.

The musicianship is just tight as can be, the feedback on songs even feels so well controlled. Manic shots of drums, fretboard work on the guitar that seems to move about so easy as if someone was typing on a keyboard. Vintage heavy metal chord progressions, noisy hardcore tinges, and even a delicately placed outing track that drones instead of fades.

"Axe to Fall" is an album that is heavily energetic , an album with great variety for such an easily played out genre, and an exception to much of the modern hardcore bashing. All thirteen tracks are capable of capturing ones interest, the production isn't swamped with trying to make the group sound like something they are not, and managing to follow up to past work Converge are bold. Converge really seem to have something genuine in there direction, and musically it shows.