2 out of 5

Label: Hydra Head

Producer: Billy Anderson (Brutal Truth)

Yeah, it’s tough rating 7″.  It’s also tough to follow the first volume of this set, which placed the bar rather high with two screamy bands delivering fairly straight forward mash-ups of Black Sabbath jams.  Vol. 2 is rather hindered by its A-Side, which is a live track.  Converge’s particular punky hardcore sound, on album, requires a rather clean production to get the uniqueness across to the listener (at least that’s been my experience), so the typical dimmed, reverby live capture of ‘Snowblind’ lacks any kind of definition and would – to this non-Black Sabbathy guy – even sink as a cover, since live covers are just, like, a staple of any group and so shrug yer shoulders where’s my in-studio recordinging.  The Brutal Truth track steps into the frame on side B with a quick swipe of noise and then a good ol’ 70s metal riff, but whereas I could hear the influence of the groups involved through the songs on Vol. 1, the cover of ‘Cornucopia’ could be any band in this case, and it’s a short song, over before you can blab about it any further.

The Turner art is okay, a bit drab and generic (sketchy, a bland, deep red chosen for the cover) and the vinyl is a bit old-school HH fun ’cause there’s no label, just indicators scratched in the run-out, but you wish it had some art too.  But Turner touches everything on that label, so I can forgive him for being tired that day.  I GUESS.