Review Summary: "Dusk lives within us," another impressive notch in the decorated belt of one metalcore's finest.
Converge is a special band for me. Their artful, aggressive, passionate, and deeply cathartic metalcore music resonates with me in a way that few bands do, and other than their bland debut, I️ think everything they’ve ever put out has been excellent. It’s been five years since All We Love We Leave Behind, an album I️ think stands in contention with Jane Doe for Converge’s best, so I️ was beyond excited for the new album as Converge seemed to be entering new artistic territory with the inclusion of elements of post-hardcore and sludge metal. With The Dusk in Us, Converge have stepped back slightly into more comfortable territory, but have still unleashed a fantastic new entry to their near impeccable catalog.
The album kicks off perfectly with the song A Single Tear. Converge have always had a knack for strong openers: Concubine, Aimless Arrow, and Dark Horse just to name a few, so it’s really no surprise that with A Single Tear Converge put together one of the best songs on the album. The pounding drums and driving dissonant guitars are exhilarating, and Jacob Bannon’s manic shouts and screams gets my heart rate speeding up, and the personal lyrics on this detail fatherhood and self-improvement in an inspiring way. Overall, I️ absolutely adore this song and the middle passage when the guitar melody shifts and the vocals become this cathartic mantra is breathtaking. It brings such an overwhelmingly powerful sense of emotion that nearly evokes a single tear from my own eye.
Honestly, this is how I️ would describe a lot of the album. So many of the songs here are more of the pummeling, chaotic, and frenzied whirlwinds of emotion that we’re used to hearing from Converge, but they also bring some subtle changes to their tried and true sound with some impressive results. The song Arkhipov calm has one of the most frenetic drum beats I’ve ever heard from Ben Koller, and its spastic staccato rhythm is phenomenal. Kurt Ballou’s lumbering distorted guitar riff on Under Duress coupled with Jacob Bannon’s furious screams dripping with venomous spite for a tainted world had my adrenaline flowing and my fist in the air. Here and on the closer Reptilian, Converge let their new found sludge metal influence shine beautifully. Their post-hardcore influences are displayed on cuts like Wildlife and Murk and Marrow, and in Jacob Bannon’s cleaner more yelled vocals that highlight his darkly poetic lyricism that discuss many personal struggles like fear and pain, but also hope, love, and rising above what plagues you. Other highlights include the almost hip-hop like chorus and punchy swinging baseline on Trigger, and the aggressive one two punch of Broken by Light and Cannibals causes me to reminisce on the dynamic duo of Concubine and Fault and Fracture.
As far as negatives go, the monolithic seven minute title track meanders just a bit throughout its elongated runtime. While Jacob Bannon is beyond emotionally expressive when he’s performing harsh vocals, his clean singing is a tad empty and lacking in character. It’s unfortunate because the somber hazy guitar riff sets an impressive mood that I enjoy quite a bit, and the lyrics about the monsters that live within the shadows of ourselves are haunting. The song does have a strong finish though when the instrumentation kicks in gear and the vocals become a frenzied cry that “dusk lives within us,” a worthy conclusion to a sort of spiritual exorcism. On the song Thousands of Miles between Us, Converge succeed a lot more in slowing things down. The clean vocals here are much more dynamic and engaging and the atmospheric drums and guitar work mesh magnificently.
When a band has a discography as consistent as Converge, it becomes difficult to keep impressing fans that have grown accustomed to a standard Converge has set repeatedly throughout their two decade career. On The Dusk in Us, Converge have achieved that standard once again, and given hungry fans more emotionally rich metalcore to devour and enjoy. They haven’t completely reinvented their winning formula, but they’ve added enough subtle nuance that keeps their audience comfortably on their toes. This will definitely go down as one of my favorite albums of the year, and is yet another notch in Converge’s already insanely decorated belt.
