Day 52: Converge - Live at the BBC EP

Artist:   Converge
Album:  Live at the BBC EP
Source:  Spotify

Pre-listening Notes:  I love Converge.  They have been one of my favorite heavy bands for going on 20 years now.  I think I first heard them the year after I graduated high school when I got hold of the Caring and Killing Lost and Found cd.  They have progressed a lot since then and have perfected a sound that is equally metal and hardcore, with some punk urgency thrown in on the fast songs.  After putting a huge leap forward with Jane Doe, I feel like they have just gotten even stronger over the last four albums with their last full length being quite possibly their best album.  This EP has three songs off of Axe to Fall and the closer from You Fail Me, redone at the BBC studios back from 2010, however this is just being released now.             

Initial Reaction:  This starts out with the super noodly Dark Horse, the opener from Axe to Fall.  So far this is not drastically different than the original version.  As it is a live, though the mix is pretty different, and the vocals sound much cleaner than on the record.  This song is so awesome though.  Axe to Fall was such a great album too, the songs got a little more blast in the punk urgency with that record.     

Random Thoughts:  The second song is the awesome and brutal title track from Axe to Fall.  It's a quick hitter starting off fast and all yells, before hitting a pretty heavy breakdown for the last half minute, or so.  The recorded version of that song has George from BLACKLISTED on it.  It still sounds pretty heavy on this version.  Then Damages, also from Axe to Fall slows it down a little with a minute and a half minute intro, before the vocals kick in.  Finally, the album closes with a more electric version of the You Fail Me closer, Hanging Moon, which only has acoustic guitars on the album version, even though the song still sounds electric on that album.            

Final Reaction:  Overall, this was good.  They chose four good songs, although I honestly don't know which four they could choose to get me to not like it.  They don't sound too drastically different for there to have been too many negative remarks about this.      

Final Grade:  9.0/10