HARDWARES

This is the second Converge album that has immediately overwhelmed even these veteran extreme expectations and if you don't check into this because Converge isn't on the bill with White Wizzard (or whoever) then you are missing how far great art can go when it's set to music as the medium. Converge's 2006 watershed No Heroes was that year's most over-the-top release despite not being from Norway (indeed Jacob Bannon and crew call Boston home) and Axe To Fall follows suit in No Heroes' take-absolutely-no-prisoners approach. Though both Axe To Fall and No Heroes are, stylistically, Converge's most straight-forward records (the Botch and old Dillinger Escape Plan descriptions no longer seem appropriate at this juncture), Converge has created a fury all its own and, man, when the initial trio of 'Dark Horse', 'Reap What You Sow' and the title track immediately explode like the best thrash you've ever heard at 100 times the speed, you have been goddamn initiated. Because Converge has opted not to drown its riffs in an overly technical exercise, the group has created the most visceral storm of its career and that is saying something if you know the vengeance and tsunamis of anger that are Jane Doe, You Fail Me and No Heroes. It is unbelievable that the human condition can beget this type of output; though the inspiration for Axe To Fall probably wasn't pretty, the world has paradoxically benefited from the fantastic art that has resulted. This is incendiary material, and that's even before the indie-rock fascination street that is epic closer 'Wretched World'. Axe To Fall is the sort of record that seriously enters into 10 territory, however it's unfortunate that Converge chooses to occasionally drench its toil in southern rock vignettes that do nothing but shift the focus away from the task at hand. Still though, that's a minor complaint when the stunning totality of Axe To Fall is taken into consideration.