Review by Sonny for Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - Bloodmoon: I (2021)

I am partial to a bit of darkwave and Chelsea Wolfe has been my favourite exponent of the genre for the best part of the past decade or so, since hearing her 2013 Pain is Beauty album. During that time her music has darkened and become relatively heavier and my appreciation of her style has deepened with each subsequent release. Consequently, unlike most Academy members I suspect, I have approached this as a fan of Ms. Wolfe and not of Converge of whom I know very little, having always been put off by the various -core genre tags associated with them. As a result, I was a bit apprehensive that Chelsea had got herself associated to a bit of a dud, at least as far as I was concerned. Thankfully, nothing could be further from the truth and this collaboration works exceedingly well. I have no idea if this is typical of Converge's sound or not, but if it is then I have done them (and myself) a grave disservice for all this time by ignoring them as they come across as very Cult of Luna-ish, which is always welcome in my book.

While the album is definitely a genuine collaboration, it does seem to be more of a metal album than Chelsea Wolfe would normally produce, so feels like Converge were the dominant side of the partnership with their music being tempered by Chelsea's presence rather than being an equally divided recording. This is no bad thing and I'm guessing this was the natural way for the album to come about, without worrying about ego and  preciousness, the music coming first.

From the opening track, the almost eight minutes of Blood Moon, it is apparent that Chelsea Wolfe's gothic darkwave influence acts as the perfect temper for Converge's withering intensity, providing the moments within the music that allow it to breathe and offer some introspection rather than merely deploying relentless aggression which, for me personally, is a big plus as I find the sustained intensive aggression of metalcore and mathcore to be insufferable most of the time, but these gentler, more reflective parts provide contrast and context to the whirling maelstrom and make it much more effective as a result. Don't be misled though, there are still plenty of great riffs and metal moments - I'm particularly fond of the riff towards the end of Coil as the track peaks from the extended build-up. Chelsea's influence can also be felt on the crawling, Soundgarden-ish Flower Moon which also has a great riff and crunchy guitar sound as it ramps up the intensity for a real stand-out track. Flower Moon is followed by Tongues Playing Dead which sounds more like I imagine Converge to usually sound and, I must confess, if the whole album sounded like this track then I would struggle with it. Lord of Liars is similarly intense, but the presence of Chelsea Wolfe's clean vocal and the whirlwind guitar work make this a far superior number.

Anyway I have no intention of producing a track by track breakdown, suffice it to say that Bloodmoon:I provides far more variety and interest than I originally expected and although I certainly wouldn't say it's a perfect album, the protagonists, despite coming from very different directions, work well off one another and have combined to produce an album that should appeal to a large cross-section of fans of metal and more mainstream taste alike.