Converge - No Heroes

by Adam Anonymous

There are few bands screaming bloody murder today that do so with such utter conviction and arresting menace

"Even though at first glance ‘No Heroes’ appears to lag behind its predecessors, in terms of moments that linger once Converge have finished bashing you around the head, in truth it’s swiftly sinking in as their greatest album to date"

There are few bands screaming bloody murder today that do so with such utter conviction and arresting menace as Converge. ‘No Heroes’ continues refining patented and nearly peerless breakneck riffs, Jacob Bannon’s barely comprehensible throat abuse and occasional drawn out threat, yet there’s so much more here than merely another Converge album.

Still based around a plethora of sub-three minute barrages with enough ire to fuel a dozen nuclear power stations, as on previous leviathan LPs ‘Jane Doe’ or ‘You Fail Me’ the true great moments arrive when the Bostonians go adventuring and extend tracks past hardcore time constrictions. So when the vicious title track subsides into partially muted, grinding repetitions that open ‘Plagues’, any thoughts of having peaked too early are trampled underfoot.

Eventually bursting into cacophonous fury, Bannon manages to evoke boundless anger with little more than demonic, wordless howls. More notable still, however, is unfolding epic ‘Grim Heart/Black Rose’, where ex-Only Living Witness vocalist Jonah Jenkins takes the mic to add a dimension beyond screaming, wronged rage.

And even though at first glance ‘No Heroes’ appears to lag behind its predecessors in terms of moments that linger once Converge have finished bashing you around the head, in truth it’s swiftly sinking in as their greatest album to date. Mighty.

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