November 10th, 2011 
James Shotwell 
Artist: A Plea For Purging
Album: The Life & Death Of A Plea For Purging
Genre: Metalcore
Label: Facedown Records
Admittedly, I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately; maybe the changing weather is messing with my mood, and it’s just a seasonal things that’s unavoidable, or maybe because I’ve been considerably busier than usual, or maybe I just complain too much, I have no idea. But whatever the cause, it’s resulted in me sulking around, and generally irritating all my friends. But being an unlicensed non-professional, with absolutely no formal training in the matter, I have prescribed myself the perfect cure: unreasonably aggressive and heavy music. Now, this used to be fever only Converge could cure, but I’m feeling particularly open-minded lately, despite what my rather morose attitude would suggest, so I decided to see if I couldn’t find something else that could do the trick as well as the mighty Converge. All said, that may have been a rather optimistic endeavor to undertake, I’d have a hard time finding something to beat out Converge, but I figured it was worth a shot to try and find something new. And in that sense, I have found some suitable alternatives that can do the trick decently well; stuff like Architects, or the new Oh, Sleeper, but their shelf life has nearly been exhausted, so I’ve been on the hunt again. Which makes the timing of this new A Plea For Purging album, The Life & Death Of A Plea For Purging, rather perfect really. But of course, there is a rather significant difference between an album that is genuinely good, no matter how it’s looked at, and one that is situationally perfect, and good as a result of excellent timing; sometimes timing is all that is needed to make an album unforgettable. However, that doesn’t mean that this album gets a pass as an all around good album, simply because the timing worked out for me, personally; I’m not about to let an album off that easily.
To be fair though, if viewed objectively, the context provided by my circumstantial perspective on this album can still provide some valuable insight into it’s real world merits; my somewhat blurred view on this album can actually mean a lot more than initial impressions may suggest. First off, to break it down to it’s simplest form, I’m not looking for anything profound, I’m looking for an album that tickles that inner urge to smash things that humanity has been suppressing since the discovery of fire; I just want something loud and angry. And A Plea For Purging fill that quota quite well, and to be honest, this album is deserving of much more credit than my primate-like reactions give credit to, it’s a lot more refined than that, and a lot more refined than me in general. Yet it still manages to appeal to that deep-down urge to just break something every once in awhile. Their talents really don’t end at sheer brute force, they have the rare talent of being able to create the perfect balance of heavy songs, and powerful songs. On paper, that doesn’t sound like a very substantial difference, but it amounts to much more than that. They can blend the heavy songs like “Heart Of A Child”, songs that are just pure, heavy, metalcore, and the songs that are best described as powerful, like “Skin & Bones”, that don’t necessarily have the breakdowns or grit of the heavier songs, but can still manage to evoke the same sort of emotions. And both of these methods of songwriting are very important to this sort of genre, it provides a consistency of the raw, visceral feel expected of metalcore albums, while also providing a very welcome sense of diversity and dynamics that is quite rare with this kind of music.
For me, the timing for The Life & Death Of A Plea For Purging couldn’t have been better, but that isn’t to say this album is only good circumstantially, it has a level of cohesive diversity, and attention to detail that are true marks of talent. I was worried that I would come into this album with too much eagerness, which would lead me to ultimately cast a blind eye on the actual characteristics of this album, and ramble on about how this album appeals to me in the most basic and dimwitted sense. But thankfully, it only helped to enhance the many positive merits that were already there. But the band deserves the credit for that, it’s certainly not a result of any extraordinary insightfulness on my end. Any band can sound like an earthquake, and satisfy my most primal instincts, but it takes a special band to pull me out of that delirium, and add some actual depth and intelligence to that concept. Consider me cured.
SCORE: 8/10
Reviewed by: Mike Hogan
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