(Epitaph)The band’s long-awaited collaboration with dark rocker Wolfe is slower and more melodic than their usual albums, yet even heavier
Bloodmoon: I commences with the sound of piano notes and a distorted croon from frontman Jacob Bannon. Instantly, it’s in a different hemisphere from anything else Converge have done. After all, this is the rabble whose defining statement is Jane Doe: an attack that, 20 years after its release, remains the nastiest metalcore album ever. Bannon screamed so hard on it that you could hear the microphone struggling; Kurt Ballou’s guitars rang with tortured squeals and the rhythm section thrashed faster than a machine gun.
Now, on their long-awaited collaboration with dark rocker
Chelsea Wolfe (plus her writing partner Ben Chisolm and Cave In’s Stephen Brodsky), Converge’s rampage deadens to a crawl, sacrificing speed for a slower and more melodic, yet heavier battering. Opener Blood
moon captivates as Bannon and Wolfe exchange verses to hypnotic effect, the gentleness serving to amplify the
explosion of post-metal that follows.