September 2020 Feature Release - The Revolution Edition

It's now September which of course means that we'll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we're asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We're really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don't be shy.

This month's feature release for The Revolution is 2012's classic "All We Love We Leave Behind" album from legendary Massachusetts metalcore establishment Converge, a record that saw the band flexing their creative muscles & resulting in a rabid, classy, monstrous metal-infused hardcore release based on controlled chaos & intelligent violence. How do you rate it against Converge's star-studded back-catalogue? And the rest of the metalcore subgenre for that matter?

https://metal.academy/releases/243

I did a review, here's its summary:

After 2009's Axe to Fall where the band enlisted a small deadly army into a ferocious battle of metalcore malevolence, the tables have turned in this album All We Love We Left Behind. Converge left behind their mercenaries and went on their own quest to summon their signature intensity. Converge has been known as true masters of metalcore and its abstract subgenre mathcore. There are a few softer songs thrown in here and there, but other than that, All We Love We Leave Behind is one of the greatest non-melodic metalcore albums packed with chaotic songs that help the band show the true meaning of American metallic hardcore. Converge still reign as one of the greatest metalcore bands still living. Long live the true kings of metalcore!

5/5

Sometimes you can stumble over a release that shows you in no uncertain terms just how much your taste can change over time & how your current mindset & environment can influence your opinions & Converge's eighth album is fine example of that for me. When I first gave it a few spins around the time of release I found that I quite liked it but wouldn't have suggested that it was anything all that special however after this week's revisit I think it might just be my favourite Converge release. I can't believe how much energy & virtuosity this band maintains throughout the entire tracklisting & their sludgier moments are nothing short of crushing. I've never been a fan of front man Jacob Bannon's vocals but this might just be the record to turn that opinion around as he's got a lot more intelligibility & power here. And then there's drummer Ben Koller who is utterly mind-blowing & has been one of my favourite musicians for many years now, only this time he's reached another level altogether. Unlike some of the band's earlier classics though, "All You Love You Leave Behind" never sees Converge needing to extend themselves into mathcore territory for too long because they're far too efficient at their craft for that now & have ultimately transcended the requirement. This is rabid, classy, monstrous metal-infused hardcore based on controlled chaos & intelligent violence. Amazing!

4.5/5

The fact that this album came out in 2012 blows my mind, since that was when everyone I knew was neck deep in rocking out to their respective Warped Tour Metalcore bands, whether it was A Day To Remember, August Burns Red, Atilla, Sleeping With Sirens, We Came As Romans, or whatever have you. If I had known that Converge released something like this during the heyday of whiny teenage angst in metal form my old opinions of Metalcore would have been a lot different, because wow was this good. 

Converge are a weird band for me, since I apparently didn't enjoy their 2017 album whatsoever, and Jane Doe left me pretty conflicted with what it was trying to do. Even though Jane Doe seems to be universally loved by critics, it felt so alienating to me. Like I wasn't angry or sad enough about something to "get it", even though I could tell where other people were coming from with their perfect scores. All We Love We Leave Behind reigns in the aggression just a touch and it makes all the difference for me. Instead of a blinding assault that I didn't get much out of at the end of the day (Jane Doe), this one struck me and just a stellar Metalcore album with some seriously heavy breakdowns, beautiful moments of respite ("Coral Blue"), and just a more balanced product. Like Daniel said above me, the vocals actually being slightly intelligible is a massive plus as well. This easily surpasses Jane Doe for me, at least for right now, and it really makes me want to go back and check out The Dusk In Us to see if I wrongly threw that album under the bus.

4/5

I agree with Daniel with his assessment of Converge's All We Love We Leave Behind. I found this record to be far more enjoyable than the bands more critically successful Jane Doe from 2001.

And given my opinion on that record to be quite controversial, Converge fixed the production significantly from that record, and created a throwback album that is more refined, melodic and well thought out than any in their entire discography. It's still ruthless and aggressive as hell, but in a more developed and intentional way. One that I greatly appreciate and marks the turning point (at least for me) where I start to "get" Converge. Mathcore is not a genre I take lightly, but Converge deliver here.

8/10