Converge - No Hereos

Epitaph Records . 10/24/2006 . written by Roya . genre: New School HC/ Post HC/ Experimental

With most of the songs on No Heroes tracked in their entirety in just one or two takes, Converge has captured its ferocious, urgent sound undiluted. The opening track Heartache is sure to peel paint from the walls with its raw emotion. “What we do is very different than what’s happening in the mainstream,” frontman Jake Bannon says. “I think we’re a weird amalgamation of stuff that doesn’t really exist anymore that’s somewhere between the thrash world, the hardcore world, the punk world and the alt-rock world. We just went and did our thing on this record rather than try to make a name for ourselves or dilute our approach.” Converge needs not prove themselves in any respect when it comes to hardcore metal. With Jane Doe, and in fact through every release, the Massachusetts quartet has developed their sound expanding their reach to unimaginable depths, unmatched by their peers. This album has a violent energy that breathes new life into your spirit. Bannon says, “We’re always going to make that high volume, highly emotional music. It’s hardcore metal, man.” Devotees of Jane Doe will be blown away by epic tracks like the nine-minute “Grim Heart/Black Rose,” a doom masterpiece which show that Bannon can sing as deftly as he can scream. From Bannon’s captivating artwork and introspective lyrics to Ballou’s masterful production techniques, Converge’s artistic vision has always separated the band from their peers, and No Heroes exemplifies that, tenfold. “A lot of bands that people consider to be our contemporaries don’t share that attention to detail,” Ballou admits, fresh off the Sounds of Underground amphitheatre tour. “With us, everything is carefully crafted and intentional, which is kind of ironic considering to a lot of people our music is just a wall of noise,” he continues. “I think a lot of what exists now is just decoration—and we’re simply not decoration.” All of this ties into the album’s central theme: No Heroes. “There’s people who choose to stand up and do something and be relevant in life and there’s other people who choose to be part of herd,” Bannon explains. “But, like any other Converge album, these songs are outwardly personal and we don’t really make any excuses for that. That’s just kind of what we are and what we dig.”

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Rank: (4 out of 5)

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