WILL BY MOUTH

Lack of updates lead to massive backlogs. I've been lazy blah blah blah and now I've got a shit tonne of material to wade through. To start, here's this new split 7" between Converge and Napalm Death on what Deathwish Inc has described as 'vinyl bong' colourway which I gather just basically means it's a press of all random coloured stuff like the last Converge split with Dropdead. Two tracks from each band, a new one and a cover from Converge and two new ones from Napalm Death. The ND tracks are extras left over from the recording sessions of the LP they put out this year that sucks, so to be honest I haven't really given these songs much attention. The one or two listens I've given them is enough for me to know that I'm not really into them. Rather typical of modern ND I suppose, but they suffer with a really boring recording, much like the new album of theirs.

The Converge stuff doesn't really thrill me that much either. Like their songs from the other small record releases they've been a part of over the last 18 months, they're recorded somewhat roughly (in Converge terms anyway), but in a good way. They cover an Entombed classic with a pretty on point approach, but it's not the best Entombed song out there. Their new song doesn't even exceed a minute long and shows massive potential with a really cool, knuckle dragging build up into what sounds like will be a great break, but then said break doesn't really follow through with the thick, groove that gets my fists clenched. I don't know, I am all for short songs, but when your only new material on a new EP barely exceeds 50 seconds, I take it as a bit of a cop out. I'll always back Converge no matter what at this point though. I'll always buy their records and I'll always lord their older material, but I worry that post 2004 Converge is really just an overhyped rehash of their glory days (Jane Doe). With that said though, they launched the orders for their new LP "All We Love We Leave Behind" this week along with a new, really cool song, so maybe they'll prove me wrong?