Review by: David McLaughlin
I can remember almost the exact point I listened to the new Converge album, ‘You Fail Me’, for the very first time – downloaded, of course, in advance of its release some weeks ago. I could barely wait for the entire album to download before wanting to listen to it, as their previous full length ‘Jane Doe’ had been something of a staple in my listening habits since it fell into my hands amongst a flurry of hype and superlative-dominated reviews.
Considering the progression Converge made from release to release, I had no idea what to expect; but even then ‘You Fail Me’ hit me like a shovel to the face. Jacob Bannon had abandoned the almost constant girlish inhuman scream that had been so consistent throughout their discography in favour of a human, emotion-filled yell. I was completely captivated for the some three and a half minutes of the duration of ‘Last Light’. It was almost perfect, this new vocal direction the vital ingredient which would again separate this special band from the pack.
But as quickly as the promise and potential of ‘You Fail Me’ begins, it ends. ‘Black Cloud’ is about as by-the-numbers Converge as you can get, not just boring but intensely so. Perhaps it’s due to following such an impressive opening act, but it took a few songs of more of the same for me to really start feeling the album on my first listen. And then again, the mood, the flow, was shattered by the album’s longest track “In Her Shadow” which is apparently pure Swans worship, although to me it sounds something like acoustic prog-metallers Agalloch would have done. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely song, beautiful even, but what the hell it’s doing here in the middle of a bunch of technical metal-tinged hardcore I do not know. The entire flow of the album, which if you take away that glorious opening, is pretty consistent, is destroyed by an epic beast of a song which would be the only song on this record you would listen to before returning it to its case or sleeve (or whatever) if you got in the mood for it.
The rest of the album returns to the thread of chaotic mess which had been unravelling before that rude interruption. You can almost hear the yawns from anyone who has been into this type of stuff for any length of time. The final straw is the last track, which although sees Bannon return to the infinitely more enjoyable ‘human’ form again, ends ‘You Fail Me’ on a mere whimper rather than the bang of which had accompanied Jane Doe.
Several listens down the line and my opinion hasn’t changed much since that first listen through. The Epitaph audience that this will be broadcast to via major stores everywhere will most likely shit themselves upon hearing Bannon’s more evil scream (which at times descends to almost growling) and the chaotic mess of the now solemn guitar of Kurt Ballou, but for the rest of us it will largely fail to make any impact. Bannon was once asked in an interview how long Converge would keep going, his reply was simple “as long they had something relevant to say, they would keep making music.” ‘You Fail Me’ sounds like Converge had something relevant to say, but only for half of the writing process.
Opening with a bang and providing delights here and there in between, ‘You Fail Me’ will provoke mixed reactions all round from metalhead to emo scenester. I won’t need to tell you to give it a listen, such is the magnitude of this band, so that leaves the only purpose of this critique as a means to convey my disappointment that such a great band have made such a regular album. And it all started so well.