WEAR YOUR WOUNDS
Rust On The Gates Of Heaven
DEATHWISH
Converge frontman breaks new emotional ground
2017’S DEBUT WEAR Your Wounds album, WYW, showcased a far more grandiose and sensitive side to Converge frontman Jacob Bannon. Written over a period of 10 years, it was a deeply personal project that explored epic song lengths and drawn-out compositions that often built to an epic climax. Rust On The Gates Of Heaven marks the first time the official line-up have written and recorded together, an enviable cross-section of musicians that includes current or ex-members of The Red Chord, Cave In, Twitching Tongues and Trap Them.
While the likes of Tomorrow’s Sorrow, Truth Is A Lonely Word and the epic title track don’t deviate too far from WYW’s post-metal blueprint, there is a newfound sense of slow-hand guitar theatricality added to give even more scope, as if Eric Clapton received a distortion pedal for his birthday and couldn’t resist playing the Top Gun theme on a loop. It might seem an odd comparison out of context but these sweeping triumphant guitar lines actually provide a pleasing counterpoint to the bleak compositions beneath, adding yet more grandiosity to an already magnificent musical palette of gothic metal and post-rock.
But notably, there are deviations from the established formula too; Paper Panthers has the feel of a lost melodic Mastodon song before ending (slightly prematurely if truth be told) on a phrase that could have easily scored one of Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti westerns. And then there’s Mercifully, the beautiful, instrumental orchestral opener with strings that evoke a visceral sense of melancholy, which is later reprised as the album’s final track, Mercilessly, albeit as a far more doom-laden, distorted composition.
Rust On The Gates Of Heaven continues to show a different side to Jacob Bannon’s creativity and provided Converge can continue to exist alongside it, Wear Your Wounds is a very welcome string to his bow.
FOR FANS OF: chelsea Wolfe, Holy Fawn, converge