finally the new converge record is upon us. it took the band five years to come up with new material but if it is with this high level of creativity and artistic brilliancy, i have no problems with waiting another five years for the next record. a good friend, who shares the fascination for this boston based band, and me were eagerly awaiting the pre-orders going live for this full length. we already bought the teaser 7" at the same time and when he messaged me that pre-orders were up, we checked the possibilities. we wanted to keep shipping costs as low as possible, so an order from the states wasn't acceptable. the deathwish e.u. store had an opaque orange version but shipping was still pretty high due to the store being located in italy.
then it dawned on me that kingsroad merch europe would probably sell the epitaph exclusive version because they host the epitaph e-store. they did and as the store has its home here in germany shipping costs were reasonable. after almost two months of waiting, the record finally arrived. what can i say? it is a masterpiece through and through. maybe the scale turned a tiny bit in favour of the more melodic side of their work but the heavy and fast hardcore punk is still plenty. "the dusk in us" is so well balanced. i especially love the straight metal riffs at the end of the album in songs like "reptilian"or "cannibals".
new to this album is that jacob bannon does the complete clean singing. on previous albums a handful of guest singers did the job but bannon, probably trained by his side project wear your wounds, pulls it off flawlessly. the lyrical side of the album is amazing. so sophisticated, check "under duress" for example. the presentation is top notch like the rest. it comes with a fantastic holographic mirror board sleeve which represents all the rainbow vinyl colours of the first press. next thing is the outstanding thick booklet with wonderful artwork. beautiful! next to mastodon's "emperor of sand" converge's ninth full length is definitely the release of the year. period. 500 copies on yellow vinyl. deathwish inc. epitaph records. 2017.
