Converge – Aimless Arrow

Axe to Fall was an incredibly fun record to listen to; a band who’d long since figured out the formula that worked for them figured out how to further reduce their own sound to its basest elements and then barreled forward for 42 minutes straight without coming up for air, “Cruel Bloom” and “Wretched World” excepted. The last time the band had really done that was Jane Doe, another favorite of mine. With their new album All We Love We Leave Behind, it’s hard to get a feel for where the album’s sound is going. “Aimless Arrow,” the first track off the album, certainly lacks the muscular simplicity of Axe, but then again, for a band that’s long since known their strengths and weaknesses, that change in sound isn’t a bad thing, necessarily.