Converge – “Love Is Not Enough” review

Converge is a metalcore band from Salem, Massachusetts consisting of drummer Ben Koller, bassist Nate Newton, guitarist Kurt Ballou and finally frontman & Deathwish Inc. co-founder Jacob Bannon. Although their 1994 debut Halo in a Haystack was moderately received, almost everything they’ve done since has cemented them as quite possibly the greatest metallic hardcore band of all-time. Petitioning the Empty Sky, When Forever Comes Crashing, my personal favorite Jane Doe, their Epitaph Records debut You Fail Me, No Heroes, Axe to Fall, All We Love We Leave Behind during my sophomore year of high school & The Dusk in Us have all been widely praised for the own individual reasons & they’re back after almost a decade for their 11th studio album.

The title track combines their signature metalcore sound with elements of both mathcore & thrash metal explaining that love won’t do much to fend off the scavengers whereas “Bad Faith” explores the concept of helplessness after witnessing a friend suffering in the midst of a horrible situation beyond his control. “Distract & Divide” takes 91 seconds to express Jacob’s frustrations regarding modern society while “To Feel Something” confesses to being overwhelmed by his own fears, insecurities & stressors to the point where he feels numb to everything.

“Beyond Repair” takes a more compositional approach to reach the halfway point of the LP although it might be the weakest track here, but “Amon Amok” continues the excitement by talking about taking what they deserve & life presently feeling like there’s a whole bunch of demons running around. “Force Meets Presence” explores the concept of 2 different things that forever expand without choosing a winner leading into “Gilded Cage” making some commentary towards the pharmaceutical industry, the opiate epidemic & how it’s tied to so many other things.

The song “Make Me Forget You” winds down Love Is Not Enough‘s last 10 minutes or so observing everything we’ve let slip by as well as silence persisting where memories used to live while the 2nd & final single “We Were Never the Same” blends metalcore with atmospheric sludge metal & post-hardcore to conclude the full-length expanding the previous track’s concept in the sense of Jacob becoming self aware of reaching at the end of the line & it’s too late, coming to terms with him trying to be a better person.

This fall will mark a quarter of a century since Jane Doe became the greatest metalcore ever recorded, so it’s only right Converge celebrates with an album I must confess to enjoying more than The Dusk in Us although I wouldn’t put it above You Fail Me or All We Love We Leave Behind & Axe to Fall. The production in terms of primary & secondary influences is almost similar to Love Is Not Enough‘s predecessor except the post-hardcore undertones are being swapped it in favor of hardcore punk & Jacob makes a clear statement about us needing more than positive relationships & emotional affirmation to survive humanity’s darkest forces closing in on us.

Score: 4.5/5

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The World’s a Beautiful Place & I’m No Longer Afraid to Die – “Dreams of Being Dust” review

The World’s a Beautiful Place & I’m No Longer Afraid to Die are a midwest emo band from Willimantic, Connecticut consisting of bassist/keyboardist Josh Cyr, drummer/percussionist Steven Buttery, guitarist/trumpeter Chris Teti, keyboardist Katie Dvorak, guitarist Anthony Gesa & frontman David Bello. These guys’ full-length debut If Ever & their Epitaph Records debut more specifically Harmlessness would both win me over as a fan of theirs in high school although Always Foreign was merely ok. Illusory Walls thankfully marked a step in the right direction & hoped they’d continue to head down that trajectory for their 5th studio album.

“Dimmed Sun” makes for an alternative metal intro talking about how it’s merely them in the rudderless world we’re living in whereas the melodic post-hardcore single “Se sufre pero se goza” pulls further inspiration from alternative rock & metalcore feeling as if their prayers for their souls & land have all gone to waste. The melodic elements get ditched on “No Pilgrim” to take on a politically charged approach to the songwriting while the hardcore punk single “Beware the Centrist” sings about biting their tongues until they can feel their teeth.

We get a response to the ongoing famine at the Gaza Strip on “Oubliette” from asking what kind of king uses widespread hunger in the poorest of children as a lesson to the blue tarp used to cover up the corpses of the casualties while “Captagon” embraces the alternative metal vibes once more singing about being high off fenethylline. Alternative rock, alt-metal & metalcore all collide during “Dissolving” taking us into the woods late at night noticing the fuzziness of the boundary between our protagonist & the rest of the outside world while “Reject All & Submit” shows off more influences of melodic hardcore singing for a plot to be sold to help them relax.

“December 4, 2024” conceptually takes it’s inspiration from the morning Luigi Mangione killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last winter embracing the sounds of progressive metal while “Auguries of Guilt” fuses post-rock, alternative rock, post-hardcore, Emo & progressive rock talks about the villains being seen as the heroes. “For Those Who’ll Outlive Us” lastly concludes the LP by referring to themselves as bugs that can think of the most invasive game on Earth without trust.

Pulling no punches in addressing the crises that’ve developed as a result of the world as we know it becoming ravaged & devastated by late-stage capitalism alongside neo-liberalism & neo-fascism, Dreams of Being Dust provides the soundtrack to these harrowing times by having The World’s a Beautiful Place & I’m No Longer Afraid to Die focusing more around post-hardcore & progressive metal using alt-metal & metalcore as secondary influences for their most political work ever.

Score: 4.5/5

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Falling in Reverse – “Popular Monster” review

Falling in Reverse is a pop punk/metalcore band from Las Vegas, Nevada consisting of lead guitarist/backing vocalist Max Georgiev, rhythm guitarist/backing vocalist Christian Thompson, bassist/backing vocalist Tyler Burgess & last but not least frontman/keyboardist Ronnie Radke. The latter of whom was the original frontman for Escape the Fate whose debut album Dying’s Your Latest Fashion is the only good thing in Ronnie’s entire career, but was kicked out in 2008 after being sentenced to prison for violating probation due to his involvement in the murder of Michael Allen Cook found guilty of battery with substantial bodily harm & prompted Radke to start From Behind These Walls which would later become Falling in Reverse. Signing to Epitaph Records immediately due to Ronnie’s former ties with Escape the Fate, they put out a mediocrely received debut album The Drug in Me is You in 2011 & came back with one of the worst albums of the previous decade Fashionably Late. Just Like You was almost as bad & Coming Home is their best although not by much, but Popular Monster was set out to be almost worse than Fashionably Late given some of the singles.

“Prequel” starts with over-the-top metalcore production & Ronnie writing in his diary that he’s a cynical, egotistical, unpredictable & hardenеd criminal whereas the title track fuses rap rock, post-hardcore, trap, melodic metalcore, djent & emo rap talking about depression. “All My Life” featuring Jelly Roll works in elements of alternative rock, hard rock, country rock, bro-country, nu metal & alternative metal asking for their souls to be saved leading into “Ronald” featuring Tech N9ne gratingly blending metalcore, trap, nu metal & hardcore hip hop to talk about identity & overcoming adversity.

Meanwhile on “Voices in My Head”, we have Ronnie culminating rap metal, trap, electronicore, nu metal, metalcore & djent whining that there feels like there’s a hurricane going on inside his head just before “Bad Guy” featuring his girlfriend at the time in former NXT Women’s Champion & former AEW Women’s World Champion Saraya a.k.a. Paige who used to date former AAA Mega Campeon, CMLL Mundial Pesocompleto Campeon, TNA World Champion, 4-time WWE world champion & 2-time WWE United States Champion Alberto Del Rio comes clean over a metalcore/trap hybrid that he’s a psycho douchebag. “Watch the World Burn” fails at mixing trap, alt-metal, hardcore hip hop, metalcore, post-hardcore, epic music & symphonic metal rapping about his inner demons prior to “Trigger Warning” asking if you’re proud to be American over a metalcore/nu metal abomination.

“Zombified” continues the torture on this LP bringing the alternative metal, electronicore, post-hardcore & djent vibes back for a pathetic jab at cancel culture while the final song “No Fear” finishes the album biting the $uicideboy$ at the start talking about how “saying what’s on your mind’s like stepping on a landmine” when in fact what he says from the mind is hateful & ugly in actuality. The bonus track happens to be a hideous cover of Papa Roach’s biggest hit “Last Resort”, which I was never a big fan of yet has aged poorly in the last 2 decades or so.

Ronnie has justifiably been one of the most scrutinized figures rock has seen in recent memory due to the battery with substantial bodily harm, assaulting a 16 year old girl & a 24 year old man at Six Flags Great Adventure’s Fright Fest metal festival FestEVIL resulting in Six Flags permanently banning rock/metal bands from performing at their parks going forward, raping a 25 year old-woman, going on transphobic tirades on Twitter (fuck calling it X) or most notably never handling criticism of his music very well & Popular Monster really takes the shit-cake on the same day as Post Malone’s new album F-1,000,000,000,000 did. His production is almost worse as it was over a decade ago uglily mutating sounds together whining about why people hate him tryna gaslight his listeners to thinking he’s the victim. In terms of metalcore, it’s NOWHERE near the epicness of Knocked Loose’s You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To.

Score: 0/5

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Nascar Aloe – “Speed” review

Nascar Aloe is a 24 year old rapper & producer from Lexington, North Carolina who’s released a total 6 EPs as well as a mixtape & a full-length debut album since the late 2010s. He even performed at the 21st annual Gathering of the Juggalos in the summer of 2021, which to date is the only Gathering that I personally have been to. Now his set didn’t do much for me, but I could definitely see why he was booked for the festival since he’s in that trap metal subgenre. That said: I didn’t realize that he was signed to Epitaph Records since the beginning of the decade actually & hoped that his 7th EP would win me over.

The titular intro screams his brains out over a self-produced industrial beat to stop playing with him whereas “Blitz” mixes trap metal with synth-punk talking about wanting full-blown destruction as opposed to a bust down. “S.M.B.U. (Smack My Bitch Up)” dabbles with drum & bass feeling like wanting to assault his girl just before “Fuck! Ah!” featuring N8NOFACE returns to an industrial sound about your head looking better when it’s decapitated.

“Chum Reap Suor” brings a bouncier instrumental into the fold while “Skidrow” asks if you want to stroll down the streets of the slums mixing rage with pop rap & trap metal. “Tall Cans” featuring St!nk gives drum & bass another shot reminding life isn’t nice & you’re all fucked to them that is until “In My Head” finishes the EP by tackling themes of paranoia.

There are artists in trap metal like City Morgue or the Dropout Kings & Ghostemane who all do that style of music incredibly well, but others simply don’t scratch that same itch for me like Kid Bookie & you can throw Nascar Aloe in there too. He’s actually not a bad producer at all & there are some interesting ideas in his production, I just can’t say the same about his songwriting & performances.

Score: 2/5

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