Umbra Vitae : "Shadow of Life"

Jacob from Converge decided to put together a death metal band so he enlisted  guitarists from Hatebreed and the Red Chord, along with the ex- drummer from Job For a Cowboy and the bassist from the Red Chord. It's not pure death metal. The drummer is the only one from a dyed in the wool death metal band as the Red Chord brought other elements into play. This works in the band's favor as it's not typical death metal. He admitted Converge was not metal despite being hyper aggressive. Vocally he maintains a hyper aggressive approach. He does not trade out his emotive bark for grunting. So it is more mid range and punk that the kind of vocal performance you would call death metal. There are some lower more Morbid Angel like growls. From songwriting perspective he continues to embrace punk by keeping these pretty condensed 3 minute bursts. Though unlike grindcore they are full formed songs.There are the required weighty chugs of death metal though there is a much wider canvas of sonic depth. 

As with any extreme metal band brutality if the pounding become to much of the focus the song suffers. They mange to do this a few times though the collateral damage is minimal. "Mantra of Madness" has a more conventional death metal groove to it. This is not the albums only foray into the expected bounds of death metal. There digging into the darkness of the more standard formula for death metal works well on " Fear is Fossil". The lyrics can be made out during the lower accented growls , but much like his performance in Converge, Bannon uses his voice as another abrasive instrument. "Polluted Paradise" focuses in on the blurred blast of a beating they give you.. "Intimate Inferno" is a continued after shock from the first explosion of the previous song. It is more interesting as more melodic elements are introduced by the guitar and the low growls give a hooky accent.

"Return to Zero" is a fine example of where maximum brutality can be achieved while still making a song worth repeat listens . I think we often mistakenly assume hooks are a form of selling out. They are not they are embellishments that bring you back to a song . They stick with you. "Blood Blossom" is slower, but the drumming is true to the genre. In other places it helps them take this in a more grind core direction. He has great double bass feet. Brutality is sacrifice for a creeping darkness on the title track that closes the album. Normally I would be over the blood red moon for this kind of experimentation when it comes to death metal . The blasty sections feel like the more death grind kinda thing you hear more in the underground corners of the metal scene. I will round this up to a 9.5 it blends hard core and death metal in a very effective manner and a welcome diversion until the next Converge album.

Wear Your Wounds : " Rust on the Gates of Heaven"

Jacob of Converge has established a more permanent line up that consists of members of The Red Chord, Cave-in,  Trap-Them and Hate Breed. But do not let that deceive you this has metallic elements in play but could only loosely be called a metal band. Ben Chisholm of Chelsea Wolfe fame, contributes as well. So does Gared  from PlanesMistakenforstars. His appearance I was most excited about though it is often relegated to the background since this is Jacobs show and it can be hard to tell their voice apart in places.  Jacob's singing voice has improved. Granted he has effects on it and is not projecting it. But he can hold a tune. Gared from Planes comes in behind him to bolster the melody. I like that this is darkly melodic. I comes with a  heavier build that is not metal, but works. It would most easily be filed under post-rock. "Paper Panther" is more straight forward sonic rock with the post rock atmosphere dialed down.

 There is am ore spoken tone to his voice on "Tomorrow's Sorrows" which winds it's way around to a heavy chugged riff. "Brittle Pillar" also has some heft to it. I like the fact he is using restraint since if this was a Converge album he would have already been screaming. It turns into a sludgey rumble. "Truth Is a Lonely Word " manged to be darker un expected ways that are not tangible and best heard. I can say this song has some great guitar playing. "Rainbow Fades" has some sounds that are already familiar to this project like soft whispered vocals and an almost ballad like intro. The guitar playing gets more Pink Floyd like when we are in the meat of the song. "Love In Peril " mood-wise feels like it could have come from "Crack the Skye".  The weak spots in his voice come through on "Lurking Shadows" thought it still works because he has made no illusion as to begin a great singer and exploits this fact in Converge"s earlier work. There cool touches of country in the guitars to this song.

If Pink Floyd's "Obscured By Clouds " had been the soundtrack to a movie about a serial killer the sound might have been like "Shrinking Violet". The  album ends as it began with a instrumental piano centered piece.  I will give this one an 9.5 . The guitar playing on this album is fucking great. It's not Converge, but it doesn't need to be.

Cult Leader : "A Patient Man"

It seems like a more spastic form of death metal with hard core sensibilities. The line is drawn more toward hard core going into the second song. "isolation in the Land of Milk and Honey" gets more melodic and moody toward the end, this is the side of the band I hope to hear more of going further into this album. It gives them a sense of dynamics that makes the frenzied blasting bits more tolerable. The song after this to my delight goes even further in this direction with clean baritone singing instead of screaming or growling. He has a pretty decent voice not at a Mark Lanegan level , but taking a similar approach.The instrumentation is very atmospheric and post-rock like. "A World of Joy" stays the course on this mellower bit of melancholic It does build into something heavier, which is dynamically appropriate at this point.

"Craft of Mourning" finds grindcore colliding against death metal. "Share My Pain" has a slower and more deliberate groove to it that falls more solidly on the death metal side of the equation. The guitar tone here is sick as hell. The lock in together and really smear you into the sidewalk with some of these riffs. They pick up the pace into more of a chug on "Arum Reclusa" which is with out question death metal. Most metal core to me is also death metal. The title track opens with a clean strum of guitar and the sung vocals returning. It has more tension like a storm is brewing behind the chords. This feeling is further explored on "the Broken Right Hand of God". I really like when the drums and bass come in with a groove that the guitar layers with ambient dissonance.


While this album is really good, I think some of the kids on their Bandcamp page suggesting this is album of the year might be smoking some rather decent weed if they are under such delusion. In the absence of Nails , I will certainly take this to help fill that void. I do like how this album is as heavy sonically as it is metal. While it is not the album of the year, I think it's one of the stronger albums of this ilk, which we will call death metal despite the 3 songs with clean singing . I'll give this album a 9. This was just released on Death Wish Inc.

Gouge Away : "Burnt Sugar"

These guys are a angular screamo band more than they are hard core. I like what they do even if some of the songs run together to due such a similar sound. The lead singer is a very pissed off young lady, who screams rather than sings. They are very aggressive, but have more of a jangle to their guitar sound. The bass player really goes after it on "Hey Mercy" . "Subtle Thrill" comes pretty close to hard core though its more punk. I think this is a little too straight forward for what they are best at until the middle of the song. She proves she can actually sing on "Ghost". She is no Taylor Swift, but holds enough melody to satisfy me. The song also strikes a good moody balance of emotions as well.


The bass driven "Dissociation" sounds like a spastic take on grunge. Not what is up with all the 90s influence creeping into everything this week. They throw themselves back into a more frantic screaming punk on "Can't Relate". The title track has more of a Sonic Youth feel to it. With dissonant melodies amid the clanging guitar. The chorus really stand out on this song when they veer off into it's more melodic expansion. It might be the best song on the album. Wilt"  finds the bass stepping again into the spot light as they continue to rage . This is denser and even closer to hard core than some of the album's earlier punk explosions.

They close the album with the more somber "Raw Blood". It kinda drones until the other guys in the band join in with a chant. I'll give this album an 8.5 , it's pretty solid. If you are more of a punk fan you can even round it up as the more straight ahead punk moments were the ones that did not connect as well with me. While there is a female vocalist, I don't think that is what defines them. Her gender is some what neutralized, until she goes into more of a singing voice. I would have loved her when I was a teenager.

Birds In Row : "We Already Lost the World"

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This album is a matured take on what we once called emotional hard-core. I think kids are calling it screamo these days. Call it what you want it comes across much more honest in intention than the emo of the early 2000s . Despite it's melodic set up when the album gets going it explodes with hard core anger and then rages with the desperation of punk after. When it takes off  it has a similar tension to some of Converge's more musical moments of post- hardcore. This is the French band's 2nd album which has been six years in the making. They certainly had time to get the guitar sound dialed in. "Love is Political" has more angular chaos to it , but the bass player holds it together. The vocals are more sung on the thoughtful "We Vs Us" . It maintains a tension that promises more of an emotional release than a hard core break down. I find this to be more unique as I got my fill of break downs in 1999.

"Remember Us Better Than We Are" blast into frantic motion with punk energy. The vocals stay at more of a punk shout. Around the 3 minute mark the song simmers on it's own brooding thoughts. "I Don't Dance" is a temper tantrum until it finds it pounding staccato groove.For some reason this one rages in a manner than works for me better than the previous song. "15 - 38" has a more casual indie rock saunter. Sung vocals come in and add another color as they chant the albums title in the lyrics. "Triste Sire" takes on on a punk rant, that is not my favorite side of what they do and even then it's not half bad. The impressive bass playing and passion they pursue the tempo wins me over. The bass player stays on his winning streak with the rubbery slink of "Morning". It's like a beautifully brewing storm set to music.

The album closes with the anger driven "Fossils". It gets pretty blasty for hard core, before giving way to a more melodic section, sense you can only stay angry for so long until it becomes exhausting. This melodic section is different from the others earlier in the album as it has more of a shoe gaze feel. Overall this album returns to the days when emotion and hardcore fit perfectly together. Sometimes some of the album abrasion is a temper tantrum it has to work through, but enjoyable non the less so I'll give it a 9.

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Converge : "Beautiful Ruin" Ep

At two and a half minutes "Permanent Blue" is the album's longest song. It displays more of a melodic sense than this EP's other 3 songs that are one and a half burst reminding people of Converges hard core punk roots. On the first songs a couple of things occur that serve as omens of the band's dominance when it comes to this kind of music. The most evident being drummer Ben Koller whose drumming is clearly more inspired by metal thank punk making his patterns more than just the primitive snare tap of punk. The being the chords Kurt Ballou choose to let ring out creating a somber melody to haunt the stampede. Bannon gets some credit as he doesn't just bark his way through this one , his lyrics are more decipherable as his initial vocals are more articulated.

 "Churches and Jails" flies at a rapid hard core pace where "Melancholia" snarls like older crustier classic punk, just packing more weight behind it's punches. "Churches and Jails" eventually with repeat listens begins to grow on me, where the other songs are pretty much already there, with little adjustment needed. It's not that I haven't heard them play that kind of punk before, it's just sometimes even with these guys it can all sound the same and run together. "Beautiful Rain" has a more metallic venom in the speed it pursues you with that takes the spastic temperament of grind core and gives it a thrash heart beat. The riff at the last thirty seconds pretty much makes the whole song worth while,as it is tough as nails and classic Converge.

I'll give this an 8.5, it's almost like an excuse to go on tour, the songs are so short that while they work well within the given minute and a half, considering the speed they are played at, it feels a little rushed in the song writing process , like they just sat down and were like lets just make a six minute ep and play are fastest. Sure this is one side of the band, but it's not as dark and melodic as what I prefer from them, though I have been with these guys almost from the beginning so even this works for me, I did round it down for the creative short cut this feels like, but if you are a fan then you can appreciate this for what it is however these songs don't stand up to say the songs from " the Poacher Diaries".
 

Planes Mistaken For Stars : "Prey"

These guys were always ahead of their time and finds music of today coming a little closer to meeting them in the middle. There has always been an unhinged side to the band and this is what the new album opens with. "Til it Clicks" is less explosive, but more of what I want from this band. The darker melody hangs around on "Riot Season" even after the pace picks up. The yowls of self loathing still haunt Jared's gravelly vocals riding the line between screaming and singing. The guitar to "Fucking Tenderness" carries some melody before tightening the tension. The vocals fill the spaces in the song perfectly and the band touching perfectly on all their trademarks without feeling like this song is any less urgent than it is.

The guitar have more of a clanging jangle on "She Who Steps". This is more of a punk song despite being longer than some of the other more melodic songs. Three and a half minutes in it breaks down into a moody exploration. The build in this song might make you check to see if your speakers are blown. Their ability to convey emotion hit you hard on "Clean Up Mean" , which is the first song that really blows my socks off. It's very powerful. "Black Rabbit" finds them stripping it down to just an acoustic. If memory serves me Jared was pulling off these husky vocals back when Neurosis was still roaring all the time. The hit a more sonic heaviness on "Pan In Flames" than reminds me more of the pre-"Up In them Guts" days.

"Enemy Blinds" has more calm in it's storm. It locks in an drones into the nervous break down that doesn't really come until the next song. You can hear hints of how post- rock might have influenced these guys while they were gone. "Alabaster Cello" doesn't really sound like anything they have done before. I 'll easily give this one a 10 as they are back in fine form and not standing stagnant in the legend of yesterday.






  fg12                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  643