Converge’s New Albums Gets Titled, And They’re Set To Tour With Mastodon And The Bronx

Several places are reporting that Converge has now titled their new upcoming album “No Heroes”. Lambgoat.com has an explanation by Converge as to why they’ve chosen the title “No Heroes”.

In case you haven’t heard of Converge, they started off doing punk, hardcore and metal covers sometime in the early 90's. Their sound has evolved a lot over time, from their self-confessed "hardcore kids with leftover Slayer riffs" to grow far beyond those boundaries. I’ve heard Converge labelled as “metalcore” on the odd occasion, and I guess that term fits in the very loosest sense, as they do blend a hardcore base with some metallic elements, and also some other very creative things. The band themselves prefer to be called simply “aggressive music”.

Vocalist Jacob Bannon has a very unique and distinctive voice, and the Converge albums consistently have an intentionally raw production which works extremely well to their favour. The free mp3's on their website give a lot better insight into what Converge sounds like, much better than the description I can give here.

They gained a huge amount of critical success in 2001 when they released “Jane Doe”, the only album which I would indefinitely give a 10/10 (although “Annihilation Of The Wicked” by Nile is often personally debated whether it deserves a 10/10 or not). Their other albums are of consistent quality. The last album released “You Fail Me” is an incredibly good album. Converge doesn’t play the same album twice, and “You Fail Me” is vastly different album from “Jane Doe” yet still contains Converge’s signature sound.

The members of Converge are busy people. Vocalist Jacob Bannon creates album art and does art design for many bands, although that only scratches the surface of all the things he uses his art for. Guitarist Kurt Ballou is a producer. Unlike most producers who have a certain production style, the production for the bands he works with differ very much from one band to another. It’s Kurt’s preference to use a production style that fits the band, so some of the artsists he’s worked with may have a very raw feel, while some have a more polished sound. Drummer Ben Koller currently also drums for Cave In. Bassist Nate Newton plays guitar in the side projects Old Man Gloom and Doomriders.

Even with all work they have, they still find time to do more than just one tour a year. They’re currently scheduled to play some select dates on the “Sounds Of The Underground” tour, as well as some off dates. They’ve also been scheduled to do a tour soon with Mastodon and The Bronx. The only date so far in that tour is September 22 - Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater, but more will be announced soon. I swear, their live sound is exactly like their studio releases.

As a final note, in every promotional picture I’ve seen, Jacob Bannon always has a bad haircut.

Converge
Epitaph Records
Converge at Epitaph Records
Theprp.com
Lambgoat.com
Latest Converge News at Lambgoat.com
SMNNews.com
Latest Converge News at SMNNews.com
Converge at Wikipedia.com