Converge "You Fail Me" (Epitaph)
By Dave Schutz
Thursday. Nov 11, 11:43 AM
Wins by a nose. What’s the prize again?

It’s a very fine line that divides good and bad in the metalcore realm. Converge usually end up on the good side, but sometimes it’s difficult to pinpoint the reasons why. Maybe it’s that they eschew metal clichés just often enough to avoid being nauseating and that they dress their mathier moments with enough significance to sound interesting without falling into pointless noodling. Primarily, I think their stuff is usually viscerally compelling enough to warrant the existence of the genre. That’s why 2001’s Jane Doe was a winner in my book, especially with “Concubine” and “Fault and Fracture” busting out of the gates like some kind of hell-steed to start the record.

Converge’s new one, You Fail Me, fails to come out with the same possessed spirit, but they still hit the nail on the head here and there. Mostly, it’s later – it’s not until the second to last track (“In Her Blood”) that I really get the urge to throw myself through a window. It carries through into the closer, “Hanging Moon,” which throws some well-placed synth-chimes into the mix. In the meantime, they plow through a lot of heavy, galloping drum beats and screaming, even throwing in a twisted and dissonant variation on a very standard pop-punk progression on “Drop Out.” Generally though, it’s on the same track as Jane Doe, with the monophonic title track – another Unsane-dragged-through-the-mud number of the same ilk of Jane Doe’s “Hell To Pay” – and the same overdramatic album art that’s just cool enough to be forgivable. Converge still outdo their peers, but they haven’t toed far from the line on You Fail Me.
www.convergecult.com
www.epitaph.com

Dave Schutz

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