In 1998, a little record entitled When Forever Comes Crashing shook the music world by fusing the atonal, offbeat time signatures of post-hardcore (particularly the instrumentally complex variety that had come to be dubbed "mathcore") with the sheet metal ferocity of noise rock in a seamless manner that hadn't been accomplished before. Three years later, Jane Doe cemented Convege's reputation as tech-punk innovators of an elite, nearly unparalleled order.
The eleven years between then and now has seen the innovation aspect plateau for the large part, ceding instead to a honing of the template that the band almost singlehandedly created at the turn of the millennium; which is to say that the three albums released in the interim – You Fail Me, No Heroes and Axe to Fall – are all sterling efforts that nonetheless pick up exactly where the last record left off and don't take many hairpin turns from there.
This happens with most artists, actually. Whereas a guy like Picasso had at least three distinct periods of innovation before Cubism ever even occurred to him, musicians in particular have historically had a hard time establishing themselves as trend setters in multiple disparate areas. Then again, Picasso didn't have to clear every far flung idea with three or more collaborators, nor was he forced to perform night after night for fans who clamored loudly for the old shit.
Converge are now four albums past their breakthrough with Jane Doe, and by this point fans have come to know what to expect of them. Guitarist Kurt Ballou is their de facto producer, and he doesn't exhibit too strong an inclination to tamper with what works even when he's manning the boards for other artists (High on Fire, Black Breath, etc).
And so All We Love We Leave Behind is exactly what it was meant to be: a summation of a decade's worth of work. "Coral Blue" initially seems like a left field change of pace, but for the most part it merely strips away the breakneck time signature changes and reveals the 90's post-hardcore influences Converge cut their teeth on to begin with. By the same token, "Aimless Arrow" hearkens back to the band's nascent material, but Jacob Bannon tries on a more melodic singing guise, not quite old school emo but more like Source Tags & Codes-era Conrad Keely (… And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead).
"A Glacial Pace" is the most uncharacteristic of All We Love's tracks, an atmospheric, sludge-derived tune that breaks up the whirlwind barrage of two minute ragers but is otherwise somewhat difficult to love on its own merits (speaking of sludge, I bet Eyehategod or Rwake would love to have written "Shame in the Way"). And that's just it in a nutshell; it's nice to see Converge shake things up with a slower, more cerebral number every now and then, but ultimately the band is at their crowd-pleasing peak when they're doing what they do better than anyone: abridged, howling hyper-thrash noise epics executed with surgical precision.
All We Love has no shortage of memorable micro-epics to add to the Converge canon, particularly if you grab the Deluxe Edition, which expands the standard issue to 17 tracks by including the 2010 single "On My Shield" as well as two short blasts culled from a couple of split 7"s released over the last 18 months. Though previously released, the three bonus cuts are woven seamlessly into the album's track listing rather than being merely tacked on at the end.
Despite the title seemingly indicating a new chapter in the band's career, instead All We Love We Leave Behind finds Converge toeing the line, not deviating significantly from what made them punk/metal icons to begin with. That doesn't mean that it sounds in any way stale or irrelevant. If there's a saturation point at which this shit starts to become boring humanity isn't ready for it yet.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-vZRGK4FbI[/youtube]
