hearwax

Converge – Axe To Fall

No Heroes left with fucked up palm muted undulations, stomping on lungs, just fucking stomping all over them. You Fail Me left with a nylon migraine, a moist brain. Jane Doe left with everything turning gold, freezing it inside the larynx. And a year prior to that, Ben Koller and Nate Newton joined Kurt Ballou and Jacob Bannon in a decade’s lineup that began with the “Concubine” bent taps, the “First Light” rust, and the “Heartache” inner ear fluid release. From the surface of “Dark Horse” with a roll of snare racket, pulverizing into terrifying, bizarre, and ancient tracks that leave with a “Wretched World”, and all of Converge’s best friends in tow; Axe To Fall is the definitive expression of the post When Forever Comes Crashing roster. Likely unaware of their lofty future in being the foremost innovators of metallic hardcore after the fall of the Berlin Wall was not enough – Converge’s second era was bent on generating albums that were as viciously standalone as they were influential. The monochromatic face of Jane Doe herself has become a global iconography, a visual representation of just how devastating, emotionally resonant, and artistically pertinent aggressive music could be. That particular 2001 album was deified. If this is still the case, then Axe To Fall is Jane Doe’s demonic foil, a worthy Lucifer that not so much conquers Miss Doe, but bookends.