Converge "When Forever Comes Crashing" CD
[Equal Vision]
Here's the second of the remixed and remastered Converge re-releases from Equal Vision, this time of their (Third?) full-length from 1998, "When Forever Comes Crashing".  I bought this disc used a little under a year after it originally came out because I had heard a few songs in passing that I liked, and it was the first Converge release to earn a home in my collection.  With this record the band completed their reinvention process and became a much tighter and more ferocious unit, focusing on the jarring rhythms and chaotic, caustic dissonance they had started in with most directly on "Petitioning the Empty Sky" - while becoming significantly stronger songwriters in the process.  This is without a doubt the record that set the band in motion to end up where they are today, throwing down plenty of quick shifts between stuttered time signatures and noisy textures to experimenting with how to make contrasting dynamics more emotional and atypically interesting.  Keeping in mind that Converge did play a significant role in paving the way for this brand of metalcore (having become probably the reference point for the sound today), there are still some commonplace trappings present during points on this record, but you've got that stuff leading to the thrashy intensity of "The High Cost of Playing God", whose twisted discordant ending with its spacious midpaced chords and fucked up layers of singing and snarling remains one of my absolute favorite moments in the band's entire catalog.  And what about the fucked up pulses of oppressive bass and detuned clean chords over whispered vocals in the far more subdued and sinister "In Harms Way", which later flirts with blatant references to an Amphetamine Reptile kind of sound?  Or the massive tuned down sludge and feedback of the punishing repetition delivered in "The Lowest Common Denominator", which also brings in some really sparse clean guitars and noise textures that make for one of the most fucked up and ominous tracks in the band's history?  Really every song on this disc is a keeper in its own right, boasting some of the band's most effective forays into diversity with a lot of fluid transitions between contrasting tempos and musical atmospheres - notably in clusterfuck tracks like "Towing Jehovah" and "When Forever Comes Crashing" that hit all the bases but never lose an ounce of steam.  I mean, I'm loving that out of nowhere melodic burst at the end of the title track - what the fuck!?  And the lush effects adding depth to the somber singing and clean guitars in the succinct "Ten Cents"?  Plus you've got the surging rhythms and hyper aggressive post-hardcore sounding textures in "Letterbomb", so the damn thing never lets up from start to finish.  And I can definitely state without question that the tweaking of the sound quality has made this fuckers sound a hell of a lot clearer this time around, too.  The overall aesthetic possesses much more of a dry natural presence, whereas the original release was extremely muddy, thus clouding up a lot of the details.  The bass presence is really nice on this outing, with the drums remaining crisp and powerful.  Sometimes the guitars and vocals fight for space, but I absolutely love the texture of the vocals, and more often than not the guitar parts are surprisingly clear despite how abrasive some of the picking patterns may become.   It really does sound markedly more intricate and powerful thanks to the new mixing and mastering jobs, no doubt.  The only bonus track on this one's an unreleased demo of the "Jane Doe" cut "Bitter and Then Some", which actually fits in pretty well with these songs both from a recording standpoint as well as stylistically.  The CD-Rom content contains a video for the title track, and it's basically exactly like the "Forsaken" video on the "Petitioning..." reissue: Live video, studio audio, etc.  Also like the other reissue in this series the layout looks solid, this time with color band shots, all of the lyrics, and the second half of the liner notes.  Again the outer slip sleeve is more colorful and visually interesting than the booklet itself, though I have to say that as a whole I think I definitely prefer the original layout on this one.  Lyrically the content is still brutally personal and emotional, and still blunt, but was definitely making vast improvements: "Make me an offer I can't refuse.  Give me a reason and I'll give you an excuse.  I get lost in eyes like that.  God never did me any favors."  I've gotta say, when a band comes out with a new record and gets rained upon with praise, I think some of that's because it's so easy to forget how damn good some of their past work really was.  And that's a definite possibility with this one.  Maybe part of it's sentimental value, but having liked everything Converge has done since this record, I can't help but wonder when listening back to it now: As a full-length, I think this album may remain the band's most explosive and creative work to date.  It honestly hits me harder now than it ever did in the past, and I very sincerely and respectably encourage anyone who's fawned all over "You Fail Me" to revisit this masterpiece.  I'm a little embarrassed that I, too, had forgotten just how awesome this record was over the last seven years.  Extremely recommended.  "When Forever Comes Crashing" is a pinnacle release for this brand of hardcore. (9/10)
Running time - 40:47, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: The High Cost of Playing God, In Harms Way, The Lowest Common Denominator, When Forever Comes Crashing, Letterbomb]
Equal Vision Records - http://www.equalvision.com

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