Converge
No Heroes

THE REVIEW

The new work by Converge carries with it the weight of years, positively: all the experience accumulated album after album has allowed them to create an extremely personal and immediately identifiable sound amidst the myriad of anonymous hardcore bands.

An instinctive and wild punk attitude combined with metal-core technique and power (derived from thrash and death, especially their early works where influences from bands like Slayer or Entombed were more evident) have made them one of the leading post-core bands. A band that has contributed to the development of this musical genre, where a thousand nuances of a single musical universe are encapsulated. Taking Neurosis and Converge as examples: two bands with an apparently distant and different approach (in some ways almost at opposite ends), yet complementary and with common intentions.

And the intent of this "No Heroes" is not as concealed as in the past, where one fought for survival instinct and to avoid becoming prey to something prickly that offered no rest but the inevitable shedding of one’s own blood.
A mature album that encapsulates and blends most of the elements that have characterized the sound and soul of Converge, where starting from the sounds, they return to being incendiary once again, compared to those of "You Fail Me".

If indeed the penultimate album opened with "First Light" as a sort of intro, here Converge immediately attack the listener with highly intense, insane tracks of "ridiculous" and grind duration, giving a sense of initial fragmentation (Heartache-Hellbound-Sacrifice-Vengeance).
A sense that recomposes from "Weight Of The World" where Converge regain "clarity" and reason to pave the way for the title track, a real gem of destruction and a hymn to "anti self-celebration" and "celebrations" in general, of which a synonym could easily have been "no salvation". Paradoxically, from the song title, the lyrics of the title track are absolutely positive and provide great encouragement (at least as I interpret them).

The only "experiment" of the album is "Grim Heart/Black Rose", where the voice of Milligram blends with the self-destructive melancholy of Converge: needless to say, the poignant song culminates in a poisoned finale. It's hard to remain indifferent in the face of the anguish of "Trophy Scars", truly one of the best tracks on this album.
And as it began, it closes: "Bare My Teeth" and "To The Lions" inject the last epileptic shocks into an album ultimately much more convincing and inspired than "you fail me", but which obviously cannot replicate the greatness of "Jane Doe".

By now, Converge is a mature band (perhaps a bit paradoxical for a band with a fundamentally punk attitude) that wisely avoids being hermetic at all costs but instead seeks to spread the teachings acquired, the result of their personal sacrifice for the cause in the underground. An underground which they have helped to grow with albums of absolute depth and which, alongside those of the Neurosis, represent the pinnacle of a genre.

"Alone In My World Of Enemies, I Fear Nothing".