Converge can do no wrong. No Heroes is perfect. I still cannot understand why so many people had problems with You Fail Me though...

nice review. this album fuckin owns. but i have to disagree with you about grim heart/black rose, i love that song.

they never cease to amaze me. this is the perfect blend of jane doe and you fail me. arguably their best work to date.

Another amazing release from an amazing band. The technicallity of this album is to die for.

ORPHANED makes me want to paint my walls black and carve my name in some triflin' motherfuckers chest.

If you think converge sucks you only see the superficiality of music. You can't get past the screams and hard sound. If converge were translated into a softer style you would all love them but it's too complicated for people who listen to My CHemical Romans and Fallout Boy... Fugazi is an amazing band, they've gained more respect for their sound because it's not "hard" like converge hard.

i just also wanted to mention the song Lonewolves since no one else had and mention the fact that I love it because it reminds me a lot of Suicide Note (who Ballou has produced both of their full lengths) and I love that band almost as much as I love Converge, so yeah. Plagues and Trophy Scars are probably my next favorites just because they're different in their own rights, but the entire album is incredible.

I really do think is Converge's best and yes I AM familiar with all of their full lengths at the least and that is my final opinion

great album
fugazi sucks
embrace was great!

-bryan styles

just got this today and it seriously rips. SOMEHOW, Converge HAS stepped it up since You Fail Me which I didn't think was possible. Possibly the best Converge album overall in my mind. I still haven't spent enough time with it to say that for certain though.

doods likethis band is waay too fucking pretentious

saying converge is our generation's fugazi is problematic to me because I'm not sure I have a 'generation' that gets together for punch and cake, I'm not sure the time difference between the bands really validates a whole new generation, like 'my generation, from 1998 will never understand you 1996 fucks'.

It's just a dumb thing to say. It's like comparing apples to sudanese genocide.

I don't even know what it means. Explaining what it means doesn't help because it's forced to begin with.

why would I even want to have the 2 bands conflict against one another?

the internet wins again. fuckin tubes.

wyzo

how can you compare FUGAZI with this shitty band.....there is NO way they are even close to being as good as Fugazi.....sorry kids

---**The curse of epitaph records**--- It seems that once most bands sign to epitaph records, they begin to make the same album over and over again.

This album sounds like when you get up in the morning, go to your car, turn the keys, and forgot that you left the radio on with the volume blasted on a blank station. *ignition, STATIC!!! "argh!!! *turns down* What the fuck!!"

converge make the music that they want to do..this is no mainstream shit..if you understand good for you,if you dont understant you can go home.
andré

Fugazi????Fuck Fugazi man..If you say that converge are inside the metalcore scene you better start to listening that kind of music to understand that converge dont take a shit about genres...
andré

Esta merda É o melhor som que existe.. Mas mesmo!!
andré

I think you have a bit of misconception. What part of this music did Converge wholey create? The members of Fugazi were present for (and some of them participated in) the genesis of hardcore. They went on to infuse it with funk and followed that by writing entire albums that sound nothing alike. Converge is a hardcore band with a double kick and some mathy tendencies. They make great strides inside of the metal/hardcore genre, but never outside of it. They are a genre band. Fugazi is not.

TV on the radio is more like this generations Fugazi to me. They don't play inside one genre and they never sound the same. Of course, they have more of a focus on vocals then instrumentation, but that is neither here nor there.

Converge are our generation's Fugazi because they created a sound essentially from scratch, and in spite of their growing popularity and consistent cries of "their early shit was better!" they push themselves with each record to create something new and unique, and succeed wholeheartedly.

I think most of you guys are operating under serious misconceptions of both bands.

chinatown sucks. it always smells funny there.

He was at home cooking dinner after a day at work when he spoke to me. Definition of down to earth.

Yeah, definitely!!!!!111111

This band sucks.

-Chinatown

I used to like Bane, but it turns out a clothing company owns their guitarist or something. Oh well!

-William

Preaching is boring and I have a feeling he means more then just bands when he is talking about the lack of passion in art.

Just because he is right doesn't mean I have to listen to him preach and enjoy it. I guess I'm just not the overly serious type.

Still like the band though.

HAHA. Anyone who tries to pull Converge's card is an utter fuckbean (my word, do NOT steal it). These guys are hardcore. Everything they do fuckin' drips with passion.

I had the privilege of speaking to Kurt on the phone last week and from the topics we covered, it's bleeding obvious that these guys have their hearts firmly in the right place. They never anticipated being able to make a living from speaking their minds and doing what they love. Every day they get to drive / fly / ski / hang-glide around the U.S and the world and play to people who love their music is a bonus. I hate when people try to class these guys as metalcore. What the fuck? They are hardcore. Punk and metal fused togther.

Kurt breached the subject of the current slew of bad bands more concerned about moving units and selling shirts, but he doesn't put himself or the band on a pedestal. He was at home cooking dinner after a day at work when he spoke to me. Definition of down to earth. They have total creative control on all their albums. He wanted to quote "Make an album that was better than or at least as good as all the other Converge albums". They did that. There's not much "accessible" about this album. It's just angry noise that has to be listened to a lot to be appreciated. If you do not like Converge, either you are of the 1% of people who have a clue and genuinely just do not dig them, or of the 99% that like listening to bad, heartless music and like hating on bands that do what they do out of love.

The reading comprehension level on this site is severely lacking. No where in that statement is there any reference to a "scene," so the argument that Converge is insulting their contemporaries is completely inane. Furthermore, the statement later reads "It's for those who move mountains one day at a time. It's for those who truly understand sacrifice." Doesn't that indirectly acknowledge that passion in music, especially with their peers, is present? And even if they hadn't have clarified with that above quote, “These days, cowards outnumber the heroes.." quite simply means that the ratio of bands who truly have something to say opposed to bands who don't have anything to say is disheartening. Thanks for playing Converge haters, go find something else to bitch about.

primeevil, write another ataris review. This site is missing coverage of bands with passion.

Again, I think they were possibly referring to the music that's big in the mainstream world right now, the eyeliner/nu-screamo "hardcore" crap, etc. Hell, they've been friends with Bane (one of the bands on your list) for years, so I find it hard to believe they consider that band to be without passion... correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Aaron Dalbec IN Converge at one point? I'm pretty sure he played on Petitioning The Empty Sky and When Forever Comes Crashing. Yeah, again, I find it hard to believe they question Bane's values and heart considering one of their former members has been playing in that band for several years.

Dalbec was in CONVERGE, no doubt about it. Left in 2001, methinks. Whether BANE and CONVERGE are friends, I don't know, but I doubt it.

I really would take what that statement Converge made with a grain of salt and not think of it as a "put-down" to those bands on your list, or any other passionate or heartfelt band active in this music scene today. Until they start naming specific bands, I consider it more of a knock at stuff like From First To Last, Atreyu, MCR, Aiden, etc.

I'm not so sure I agree, but maybe I'm just too reactionary, stubborn and iconoclastic to see you're right.

comparing converge and fugazi is comparing apples and oranges.

also, maybe converge is doing something new and good (i don't like them a whole lot, except you fail me is good), but at least fugazi bred really good punk rock bands while converge bred a whole bunch of shitty metalcore acts.

Haha Greenvandal, nice response.

While I disagree with your understanding of how the english language works, I agree with...well I don't really agree with anything.

Nice effort though.

"C. Converge is nowhere near as good as Fugazi on any level."

Exactly. They are nowhere nearly as good as Fugazi...because they are way better. I totally agree with you on that last point.

Converge and Fugazi are both legendary bands. I dunno. Different genres too, difficult to compare.

When I said there wouldn't be a couple of those bands if Converge didn't exist - you listed, This Is Hell. This Is Hell is on Bannon's label, he even did the cover art for that CD. Imo, that CD was total crap, but a lot of other people liked it.

younger was what i wanted to say. younger then fugazi.

Converge is a great band but calling them this generations Fugazi is fucking hilarious.

A. They aren't that much older that Fugazi

B. Fugazi hasn't officially called it quits yet. Everyone thought they were done after 'End Hits' as well, yet they came back with arguably their best album after that. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I think they have one more album in the tank before they end forever.

C. Converge is nowhere near as good as Fugazi on any level.

one obvious observation regarding Mr.Bannon's statement about the passionless world, and certain rebuttals citing bands.

Bands aren't that important.

call me crazy.

Being in a band, and bands existing aren't what I would call the benchmark for whether the world is lacking passion, heroes, or hope.

When bands are like lawyers and there are more of them than people not in them, we're in trouble.

Most of the world in need of passion aren't looking for a new CD. Just throwing that out there.

Maybe step into the real world.

wyzo

Person below me - very well said

to the poster below me, EXACTLY. i doubt converge would consider the bands on jacob bannon's own label to be passionless. and i doubt they'd find any of the bands on labels like hydra head, or a few who have been on equal vision who they've toured with, to be without passion. but we forget that all us folks who check out punknews.org live in a fairly small microcosm of the larger music scene. joe or sally middle america living out in say, wyoming or iowa, who are just barely getting out of the slipknot/linkin park/shitty corporate whine-rock era even now, probably have very little idea of who Converge, or for that matter, Bane, Modern Life Is War, This Is Hell, Crime In Stereo, Blacklisted, etc. etc. etc. are.

yeah yeah, "modern life is war are from iowa, douche." i know, i know...but still, keep in mind that all of us here consider a band like Converge to be gods of the scene on a large indie label. but the majority of people in the US are still stuck with listening to Nickelback on Clear Channel radio stations, because that's all they have. let alone the trendy mascara-core shit like From First To Last, Atreyu, et al.

Truth is, CONVERGE probably just wanted to distance themselves from what's going on now and that's understandable, they do things differently and that's to be commended. However. When they start putting honest bands down to give themselves props, that's where I draw the line.

Again, I think they were possibly referring to the music that's big in the mainstream world right now, the eyeliner/nu-screamo "hardcore" crap, etc. Hell, they've been friends with Bane (one of the bands on your list) for years, so I find it hard to believe they consider that band to be without passion... correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Aaron Dalbec IN Converge at one point? I'm pretty sure he played on Petitioning The Empty Sky and When Forever Comes Crashing. Yeah, again, I find it hard to believe they question Bane's values and heart considering one of their former members has been playing in that band for several years.

I really would take what that statement Converge made with a grain of salt and not think of it as a "put-down" to those bands on your list, or any other passionate or heartfelt band active in this music scene today. Until they start naming specific bands, I consider it more of a knock at stuff like From First To Last, Atreyu, MCR, Aiden, etc.

-This is our generation's Fugazi.-

I always thought Fugazi was our generation's Fugazi.

Without Converge, most of the bands he listed wouldn't even exist. Most of them, from what I've heard, are the same re-hashed garbage that people have been doing for years and that a lot of other bands do better. Shit, most of them are even in a different genre, and of those genres they are generally regarded as not being the top tier bands.

The point is not what genre the bands are in or whether CONVERGE writes better or more complicated songs, but the passion and the emotion those bands put into their songs. CONVERGE, by putting themselves on a pedestal is conveniently ignoring all the bands I listed whether knowingly or not, painting the scene, and therefore those bands, as passionless and heartless. Anyone who has listened to those groups can tell you those groups have passion and heart in spades.

Truth is, CONVERGE probably just wanted to distance themselves from what's going on now and that's understandable, they do things differently and that's to be commended. However. When they start putting honest bands down to give themselves props, that's where I draw the line.

Also, I don't really see that many bands that wouldn't exist without CONVERGE in that list, but I'm willing to listen to arguments to the contrary.

When I want technical hardcore, I'll listen to the Formaldehyde Junkies, thanks.

-Will

I like Planes Mistaken For Stars (love?), but they don't even compare to Converge. This is our generation's Fugazi.

Having Sinc do all the art for Hot Water Music turned out alright. They were all different, but had the same traits. I mean, you can tell a Picasso is a Picasso and a monet is a monet.

True, there is that aspect to it, but I still think it's good to show variety. Everyone here rips Pennywise for sounding the same; just saying "at least you know it's Pennywise" doesn't make their music amazing.

"Generic Converge"

That sounds like an oxymoron.

When you hear Converge, you know its Converge, right?

When you see Bannon's art, it's pretty apparent it's his. They could have had someone else design the cover, but I think it's part of the package of having a great visual artist in a band. This sounds dumb, but I bought Jane Doe based on the album art. I then marveled at what I found inside.

planes mistaken for stars>converge

I know Jake does all the artwork himself, but man, this cover looks so generic Converge, you know? I guess it's good to have a recognisable style and everything but he just does the same thing all the time. Well, actually, You Fail Me's looked pretty cool, but this is just (cover wise) Jane Doe II.

That said, this album is fucking amazing.

you fail me was pretty much cock/

planes mistaken for stars or converge.

That's like your girlfriend asking you to pick between her or your friends. It's a lose-lose situation. Clearly, whoever could even ask that kind of question is a sick person who wants to spread disorder and chaos. I can't choose, I won't choose. I will keep seeing both without the others knowledge. We will each stick to certain restaraunts, and I will shower after each sexual act so as to give proper respect to the other band.

I have urges, I'm not a one band man anymore.

wyzo

I have heard of most of those bands. The only one that has talent is Planes Mistaken For Stars, and to be honest, Converge is better than them.

Without Converge, most of the bands he listed wouldn't even exist. Most of them, from what I've heard, are the same re-hashed garbage that people have been doing for years and that a lot of other bands do better. Shit, most of them are even in a different genre, and of those genres they are generally regarded as not being the top tier bands.

Cave In is not and was not a hardcore band.

ditto on converge being better than all the bands that guy listed, by far.

Have you people even heard ALL of those bands? That's kind of a sound judgement to make considering there were a lot of examples given... there's got to be some you haven't heard.

I wouldn't necessarily say Converge is better than all those bands, a lot of those bands listed are fucking awesome. But Converge's press release or writer or whoever probably was referring to the crap that's on Fuse and MTV these days, not the active other scene. Remember, a lot of older bands aren't aware of newer bands that exist nowadays.

Someone needs to talk to CONVERGE about their messiah complex, it's getting ridiculous now.

"Both in life and in art, the lack of passion is sickening"

Huh? It's as though CONVERGE is living in some Bizzaro world without SINKING SHIPS, SHOOK ONES, MODERN LIFE IS WAR, KILLING THE DREAM, THIS IS HELL, CRIME IN STEREO, AMBITIONS, BANE, IGNITE, WESTERN ADDICTION, NEW MEXICAN DISASTER SQUAD, HAVE HEART, OUTBREAK, ANOTHER BREATH, SHAI HULUD, DEAD HEARTS, PLANES MISTAKEN FOR STARS, SICK OF IT ALL, THE POLAR BEAR CLUB, HOW WE ARE, MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD, PAINT IT BLACK, VERSE, and THE CARRIER.

"This album is the artistic antithesis of that sinking world; a thorn in the side of their beast."

Whoever writes their press releases has an ego that could fill stadiums.

P.S.Admittedly, No Heroes isn't my cup of tea, but I can see why other people would like it..

primeevil, although i don't agree with all of your band examples, you hit the nail right on the head.

You Fail Me was one of the greatest EP's ever. After the first killer 6 tracks ending with the title track, the rest of the album seemed like b-sides tacked on to it.

This is a much better effort, feeling like a whole album.

This will sate me quite well until the next one. Met my expectations by much.

wyzo

no one should have even taken the time to review this shit.

""'and classic metal vocals seem out of place in the middle of the record'

what the fuck? have you ever heard metal at all? the vocals sound nothing like classic metal vocals at all. really, what the fuck?"

Dude - don't even try to tell me that you don't listen to that and think anything but Sabbath."

hmm....you are nuts. If you guys are talking about Grim Hearts/Black Rose then I don't know where that is coming from. I thought Cave In. And that is far from classic metal...even their hardcore stuff.

ditto on converge being better than all the bands that guy listed, by far.

I can't say this is my favorite converge record, but at the same time, there's some sick shit on here. Orphaned, the first five tracks, etc. Sometimes I missed the high-pitched screams, but the screaming on Orphaned really makes up for it. There's that one peak where he sounds like a dog squealing, it's really painful to hear.

To be honest, it's no Jane Doe. It's not even Petitioning the Empty Sky. It's better than You Fail Me, and it's better than When Forever Comes Crashing. Which leaves it right in the middle.

But, considering this is Converge, and that their worst album is better than 90% of music being released today, middle is good.

"'and classic metal vocals seem out of place in the middle of the record'

what the fuck? have you ever heard metal at all? the vocals sound nothing like classic metal vocals at all. really, what the fuck?"

Dude - don't even try to tell me that you don't listen to that and think anything but Sabbath.

converge>all those bands that dude listed. combined.

"and classic metal vocals seem out of place in the middle of the record"

what the fuck? have you ever heard metal at all? the vocals sound nothing like classic metal vocals at all. really, what the fuck?

i was disappointed with you fail me (still thought it was good though), but i think i just might like this even better than jane doe.

Converge again proves why they are the world's best metalcore band.

this is your album of the year?!
blehhhh..

Someone needs to talk to CONVERGE about their messiah complex, it's getting ridiculous now.

"Both in life and in art, the lack of passion is sickening"

Huh? It's as though CONVERGE is living in some Bizzaro world without SINKING SHIPS, SHOOK ONES, MODERN LIFE IS WAR, KILLING THE DREAM, THIS IS HELL, CRIME IN STEREO, AMBITIONS, BANE, IGNITE, WESTERN ADDICTION, NEW MEXICAN DISASTER SQUAD, HAVE HEART, OUTBREAK, ANOTHER BREATH, SHAI HULUD, DEAD HEARTS, PLANES MISTAKEN FOR STARS, SICK OF IT ALL, THE POLAR BEAR CLUB, HOW WE ARE, MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD, PAINT IT BLACK, VERSE, and THE CARRIER.

"This album is the artistic antithesis of that sinking world; a thorn in the side of their beast."

Whoever writes their press releases has an ego that could fill stadiums.

P.S.Admittedly, No Heroes isn't my cup of tea, but I can see why other people would like it..

I think this is one of those albums that as I listen to it more (and not just on the mySpace), I'll find a lot of stuff I like about it.

My only gripe is the vocals. Don't sound as good as the ones on their previous albums.

I love this band and all, but that description of what the album is about makes me chuckle everytime I read it. "This album is THE antithesis...", quite the claim!

Still good though, so I can ignore it.

Decent coverart. I liked You Fail Me's better.

Propagandhi>Converge

album of the year

fucking great album. "Vengeance" is one of my favorite converge songs of all time now.

"I AM VENGEANCE, PREPARED FOR WAR"

holy shit.

I agree that this is probably their most accessible album to date and will hopefully draw in new fans, but I don't agree with Ben's thoughts on "Grim Heart/ Black Rose." I think its the centerpiece of the album and gives listeners a much needed break from the audio beating they'd been getting before it. Its one of my favorite Converge songs.

Overrated. Good but not worthy of all the cock stroking.

jane doe is stilll my favorite, but this album owns.

this sounds like a wet fart

also, contrary to what that guy thinks below, i thought they reined in the "noodley guitars" a little more in this album. the album was very tight.

definitely better than you fail me, still not as hard-hitting as jane doe. definitely approaching that level of greatness again though. i would've thought they'd move further into the ambient/experimental realm, but goddamn. right out of the gate this album punched me in the gut. that guitar line in the title track, fucking heroic. it's good to see them finding a more harmonious balance between the more experimental shit and the really crushing riff-heavy stuff from When Forever Comes Crashing.

At first I thought this album might dissapoint me, but after listening to the whole thing and not judging the album entirely on the first few songs that zip into the album like a 40 yr old seamstress zips scissors into fabric, it honestly came to me that this work is one of their best. I honestly treasure all of their music as I would treasure a work of art done by Picasso. They are truly amazing.

incredible album.

Amazing. Grim Heart/ Black Rose is fucking amazing. I really like the creepy feeling tp Plagues. All around, this album is magnificent.

This record is so tight.

Posted by sickboi on 2006-11-03 00:30:39
Ben is becoming the Anchors of reviews lately....

Hey hey, I may be slacking lately, but I'm a busy guy. I'm still the Anchors of reviews.. and I do not care that that doesn't make sense.

now this is great. from the first time some homeless guy gave me a compilation for a homeless charity w/ some crazy fucked up hardcore song by someone called converge (like 10 years ago) to this very day. converge is what hardcore should be in the year 2007. metal this, punk that....it all means nothing when the almighty mother fucking converge step up to shred a new disc. long live converge......(and joan of arc....hahahaha).

Album of the year so far.

"Grim Heart / Black Rose" and "Heartache" are awesome.

"wheres the converg review?

and you are now staff congradulations super ben"

Thanks a lots.

"Ben is becoming the Anchors of reviews lately...." - Is this good? High five. Is this bad? I'll fight you.

against me in a foreign land. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsW-QQM4BY8

The first five songs of this hit you harder than any opening sequence of any other recent record I can think of. Goddamnit it's good.

It was all downhill after Jane Doe
This sounds like You Fail Me part two
The same rehashed noodley metal riffs
Jane Doe fucking changed my life and You Fail Me was ok but this doesn't cut it
Saw Converge tonight in Harrisonburg and they were fucking amazing . They played 8 new songs (Not "Grim Heart/Black Rose" which is the best song on the album in my opinion) and then a few old ones.
They have such an amazing back catalogue and you will see only a tiny fraction of that if you go see them unfortunately.
Yes this band can do wrong. This album isn't that great. Not terrible. It has cool moments. But it is the worst Converge album to date.

incredible...

Can this band do any wrong?

Good review, but... Grim Heart/Black Rose is fucking incredible, and the entire album revolves around it. It's the centerpiece of the record, and it balances out the front-loaded aspect of the album. You can't give it any lip.

:)

I keep trying to get into these guys and I just can't.

The same thing with the Blood Brothers. I respect their talents but it just sounds like a bunch of noise.

Where's the Brand New review ? ! ? !

So...where's the Exploding Hearts review?

Where's the Converge review? Ha Ha...I am so fucking funny and original...man I am probably the funniest person that I know...

Ben is becoming the Anchors of reviews lately....

Score is for the album cover, fuckin' awesome.

Their singer was a cool bro though. Nice guy.

Crazy good album. Lolz controversial arguments about what real hardcore is

um. does that mean superdude is staff?

- jones the bones

- stevejones8770@yahoo.com

I saw theese guys live. It was meh. Too much guitar looping and boring vocals. I really liked their drummer though. He had bitchen' cut-off shorts, a neon blue tank-top, long hair, and a metal band baseball cap. Hell yeah.

P.S. This is hardcore nowendays?

Heaviest cd I've ever heard. I love it.

wheres the converg review?

and you are now staff congradulations super ben

hoooray this album fucking owns