Converge "Unloved and Weeded Out" CD
[Deathwish]
I've always been back and forth on Converge, never really getting into them until "When Forever Comes Crashing" came out, so I wasn't sure what I'd think of this. The disc includes the "Unloved and Weeded Out" 7" along with other rare and out of print tracks, as well as some unreleased demo and live material. Really this stuff doesn't sound all that different from most of the band's recent work, it's just got a few more straightforward metalcore elements involved and the level of sheer chaos isn't as over the top. It's a lot more melodic as well (though not all the time). Hell, to be honest, if this stuff had better recordings I'd probably like it better than most newer Converge material. I don't know... it definitely hints at where they ended up, I think. Tracks like "Flowers and Razorwire" and "Home Song" are especially diverse, with all sorts of musical changes and vocal variation, and I think these songs sort of lean towards the finer aspects of what the band has done in recent times, it's just that these days the production sounds more appropriate and they're tighter (and more experimental on occasion). But I like the fact that most of these songs cover a lot of ground and don't focus so much on super crazy speed and pseudo noisy/technical riffing... it might not be particularly original, but it's good... and a ton of bands are biting off of this style right now (though admittedly not as well as it's done here). The five demo tracks were recorded prior to the band's signing with Equal Vision, and all of the songs were eventually re-recorded for "When Forever Comes Crashing". Here the songs are stripped down and raw as fuck, but I sort of like the sound... it's flawed, for sure, but aspects of these versions (such as the texture and clarity) are stronger than the album versions. There are noticeable differences in the tracks though, which is cool. For instance, the end of "The High Cost of Playing God" is nowhere near as insanely awesome on the demo as it ended up on the record, so... it's cool that they're not carbon copies of the songs with a different sound. The earlier material (the 7", the 5", and the compilation tracks) tends to be a little bit raw and somewhat thin, which is unfortunate, but it doesn't harm the strengths of the songwriting. The two live cuts sound okay, but they're a bit heavy on the bass (granted the bass sounds amazing), and despite a lot of individual clarity everything sort of feels separated. I've heard far worse, though. I'm guessing this is definitely a soundboard recording. All of the songs have been remixed and remastered, but I haven't heard most of the original versions, so I can't attest to what that's done. The CD comes in a slick digipack with some great artwork that looks like a combination of painting and photography, but is probably all photography and digital manipulation (very well handled). The text is small and crisp, a little hard on the eyes, but nice looking. Lyrics are included for every track (including the two live songs) which is cool, as that's not so often the case with collections such as this. I might have liked to see a bit more information about where these songs came from (perhaps original album covers or something), but the amount of space in the digipack is limited so it's understandable. As usual the lyrics are the brutally personal explorations you'd expect: "How much I tried to kill the smiling boy. The burden of falling out of the womb. How much 'not enough' I ever gave, and how much nothing I ever received. I will solve these dreams before I wake up this time. This loss weighs, it will always weigh." This is a good collection. Perhaps better than I expected. I do want to check out more of the band's older work now... so that's something. (7/10)
Running time - 44:07, Tracks: 14
[Notable tracks: Flowers and Razorwire, Tremor, Home Song, For You, The High Cost of Playing God (demo)]
Deathwish Inc. - http://www.deathwishinc.com

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