@Gfunk I agree that pushing oneself through classics misses the point, wanted to give this a fair trial at least (especially since I appreciate Drop Out). But I'd also try the new one and Halo, the former bc I recall liking one of the singles and the latter bc I'm curious about the low avg.

Funny thing Mimsy, I've been thinking of dropping the rating for SAF. As classic as the singles are, it has some ugly aspects and those are less forgivable than on Fever and the s/t.

Album Rating: 4.0

It’s kind of strange, because I actually feel like a lot of Converge fans would be justified in calling this one of their weaker efforts. This is really the only time they tried to write a sludge drenched metalcore album from start to end. If you’re not a fan of sludge metal, it makes sense to dislike this one. But it’s kind of crazy how well they nail this particular iteration of their sound. It kind of depends on the day for exactly where, but this is top 3 Converge for me. And I doubt that will ever change. It might also be their first album that I loved on first listen.