Epitaph, 2009

Seven albums and twenty years in, Converge remain as ferocious as hell. Axe To Fall is as brutal, frenetic, and thrashy as anything before it, but also shows their enduring thirst for expanding their sound (and the versatile musicianship to pull it off); see the slow dirge of “Worms Will Feed” and the Steve Von Till-fronted, Tom Waits-like “Cruel Bloom”. Here’s to the next decade.

Ipecac, 2009

It’s probably unfair to expect a genre-changer from a band that’s done so much past defining work, so whilst Wavering Radiant is similar to previous Isis records – albeit somewhat honed and hookier – lets welcome it as another solid effort from a great band.

Go Kart, 2006

Very competent and atmospheric prog-/doom-metal – but the 70 minutes of the Dutch five-piece’s sophomore effort borrows way too much from Isis, Cult Of Luna, Neurosis, etc., to be labelled a great album.

.