Review Summary: Even after a 5 years’ wait, Converge still deliver two of their most visceral and composed performances to date.
5 years away is a hell of a time, especially for a band like Converge, to just not release any music. With fans seemingly foaming at the mouth for new music, particularly after some fairly lackluster solo releases from frontman Jacob Bannon, time was starting to tick for Converge. I mean sure, they dropped the redux for
You Fail Me which slimmed down the rough edges from the original recording, and the live version for
Jane Doe, but you can only keep putting out projects like these for so long before you fall out. But it’s hard to blame the band for taking time. I mean, after an album like
All We Love We Leave Behind which sees the band with some of their most solid and mature efforts to date, where could they go from there? Well, to put it simply,
I Can Tell You About Pain is the logical next step, but, what now, what’s next?
Opener and A-side title track “I Can Tell You About Pain” opens up with blistering hardcore instrumentals, very reminiscent of a lot of songs on
You Fail Me that kicks the 7” into the highest gear off the bat, with an infinitely improved vocal performance from Jacob Bannon, who is actually sounding out some really introspective, passionate, and
actually comprehensible lyrics, with a deeper and more cathartic shout than before. The crisp (but not clean) production serves only to amplify their previously lofi edge, allowing the band the rawer sound many fans crave. The real diamond on this 7” though is B-side “Eve”. “Eve” serves as a beautiful centerpiece to Converge’s discography, encompassing everything they represent, musically, lyrically, and technically. The track starts off with an atmospheric build-up, pressurizing the listener as the track goes forward, similar to “Wretched World” from
Axe To Fall or the phenomenal title track from
You Fail Me. The track contains some of their most unstable and trembling instrumentals, with a horror-invoking vocal take from Bannon, shouting out some of his most damaged vocals to date. The track closes out in triumph as every aspect of the song culminates into a howling spiritual void of terror, and it cuts there.
There really is no issue with
I Can Tell You About Pain musically. But the fact that it is
only two tracks serves as a minor issue. It just feels almost too much of a tease. They’ve been in the studio, so the question is really, what are they teasing? Where are they going to go from a song like “Eve”? Where
could they go? If the new record is anything like the tracks teased here, Converge are looking at an intricate and terror-infused revolution in sound that only they themselves could reinvent.
