Converge - No Heroes

Like all of Converge's albums I've found this to be extremely under rated, however, this one in particular. It's gotten shit from a lot of people, typical emo fags, typical people fags, and strangely enough, a lot of metal heads. They consider it to merely be noise. That, however, is BULLSHIT. Although a few more songs are lot more hectic then even usual Converge, you do get calm moments, and very catchy bits. After all, that is the whole point of mathcore. A very good example of this would be the song “No Heroes”. Having been on Youtube and seen the comments I found on the music video, I can tell you it's depressing how many musically ignorant people there are in the world. But still the song, upon my first listening it was actually kind of boring...it was just kind of...mediocre. BUT, having listened to the whole thing through a couple more times, I can safely say, it's an AMAZING song.

Still taking an even more mathcore based approach to their music, their song lengths range from 58 seconds to 9 minutes and 34 seconds, just as mathcore should be. The short songs are usually the more chaotic songs, while the long songs are a bit repetitive (listen to “Plagues”) however amongst the repetitiveness there's usually some FUCKING EPIC bit. Some people also thought they would hear Jacob Bannon's (lead vocalist) clean vocals again, as they did in Jane Doe. Well. THEY WERE MOTHERFUCKING RIGHT. Personally I think that's a good thing, as it made some songs feel a bit daunting and weirder. However, there's a large chance you wouldn't like his clean vocals, they are a bit....unique after all. However, you may notice a difference in the song “Grim Heart/Black Rose” in the vocals...well that's because they got a guest singer, Jonah Jenkins (the vocalist from the band “Only Living Witness”). Still, the screaming is as good as ever, Jacob Bannon's impossibly monstrous voice has definitely managed to stand the test of that dick, time.

This album is a lot heavier, yet also a lot softer then previous albums (if that makes sense to you), so i'm really quite interested to see which direction they take with their next album. Whether you should buy this or not, is quite an easy question. Although yes, this is DEFINITLY A FUCKING AWESOME ALBUM, it is a very acquired taste, and the likes of mere mortals (people into softer metal, such as Metallica) shouldn't bother, however those who like mathcore, extreme hardcore, or someone who's simply looking for a crazy new album, are definitely in the right place.

Converge - You Fail Me

Now I don't care what you say, this album is THE SHIZZLE. (It was good). Converge are a mathcore band, and probably the best one at that. Although the band claim that their music is what hardcore “should” sound like, when actually the morons went and made a whole new genre...the silly turds. Anyway, if you aren't familiar with mathcore, its basically just a more extreme version of hardcore, and if you aren't familiar with hardcore, well...then you can find out yourself, why should I care? Converge have only a few songs with riffs (such as "You Fail Me"), being mathcore and all that, but I'm sure if they did have riffs on all the songs, the riffs would be AWESOME. They make up for it however, by having the coolest bits in their songs EVER, the little guitar and drum solos and all that are just amazing. And then there's the vocals. the vocals are totally unique (as far as I know) and are practically indescribable (one person said it sounded like a dog barking into a distortion microphone. The world these days is filled with stupid people...).

Me and my friend (yes, I have a friend) had an argument once over who was a better vocalist, Mark Hunter (Chimaira) or Jacob Banner (Converge). (Obviously I was rooting for converge, despite overall liking Chimaira more) and there's not REALLY any proof as to which ones better, so I asked the great Nick Cotton, and it seems Jacob Bannon wins. Hurrah for democracy (?).

Now before I give you advise on whether to buy it or not, I should say something. The majority of metal heads I know say converge are shit, because they "have no tune and are vewwy vewwy boring". WRONG. But anyway you may share that wrong opinion I don't know.

Well I would (and am) going to give the album 4.5/5, because...its good. but its not THAT good, if you get me. Still, and mathcore lovers, GET IT, Converge lovers, GET IT. people looking for some extreme music, GET IT. as for hardcore fans and your average joe metal head (so probably most people reading this) try listening to a few of the songs on the album first., (Go for "Eagles Become Vultures" or "Heartless") and see what you think. and whatever you think, get it anyway.