Converge - Academy, Manchester - 29th November 2012 (Live Review)
Thursday, 06 December 2012
Written by Ben Bland
There’s more than one reason Converge are always worth seeing when they come over to the UK on tour. Not only do they remain the best metalcore band of all time, but the Massachusetts quartet also have a well-deserved reputation for bringing many a fine band with them to these shores when they turn up. This particular tour, supporting excellent new release 'All We Love We Leave Behind', quickly proves to be no exception.
Kicking things off alarmingly early, Italian mob The Secret pack one hell of a punch with half an hour of ruthlessly delivered sludgecore. Whilst the short, sharp bursts of grind that populate much of the set are brutal enough, it is the onslaught of feedback gracing their supposed ‘quieter’ moments that really makes the band stick out from the crowd. Whilst it may all be slightly uninvolving at times, largely because of a room that is yet to fill up and is almost exclusively unfamiliar with the band’s material, The Secret manage to extract enough primal rage to begin the evening in seriously heavy territory.
A Storm of Light will always be best known for being the current musical venture of ex-Neurosis visuals man Josh Graham, but that probably fails to excuse the amount of serial Neurosis worship that takes place during their set. The bass and guitar tones may be a bit crustier than that of the sludge innovators, but there isn’t really all that much setting them apart from other bands in the scene, which is a shame. Leaving that aside, however, A Storm of Light are effective at what they do. As their crushing waves of distortion, accompanied by Graham’s signature visuals, rain down upon an audience largely assembled for less patient forms of aural violence, it is hard to take too much away from them.
The odd ones out on this bill are most definitely Touché Amore. The least heavy on the bill they may be but that hasn’t stopped their fans turning out in force. From the moment they step on to the stage there is a small sea of kids screaming every last word back at frontman Jeremy Bolm. Although the early stages of their set render the crowd near-indifferent, by the time they troop off the quintet have probably won a fair few fans. Their take on post-hardcore may rely almost exclusively on emotion, but sometimes that is no bad thing.
Converge may be one of the most influential bands of the last fifteen years but, starting their set from on stage merely by giving a “we’re ready” following a brief soundcheck, it’s clear they are here to get on with the job not to wallow in their own glory. From the moment that classic cut 'Concubine' rips into the crowd like a particularly sharp scalpel, Converge are completely unstoppable. Jacob Bannon is as livewire a frontman as they come but it’s the riffs emanating from Kurt Ballou’s guitar that really steal the show. Thick and doomy when they want to be, squalling and mathtastic at other points, Ballou’s guitar work is what has made Converge the force they are. On this night, as per usual, it is the sound as much as the energetic performance that reminds Manchester just how important Converge remain to the lifeblood of heavy music.
Converge’s 'All We Love We Leave Behind' is out now via Epitaph.
Touché Amore’s 'Parting the Sea between Brightness and Me' is out now via Deathwish.
A Storm of Light’s 'As the Valley of Death Becomes Us, Our Silver Memories Fade' is out now via Profound Lore.
The Secret’s 'Agnus Dei' is out now via Southern Lord.
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Kicking things off alarmingly early, Italian mob The Secret pack one hell of a punch with half an hour of ruthlessly delivered sludgecore. Whilst the short, sharp bursts of grind that populate much of the set are brutal enough, it is the onslaught of feedback gracing their supposed ‘quieter’ moments that really makes the band stick out from the crowd. Whilst it may all be slightly uninvolving at times, largely because of a room that is yet to fill up and is almost exclusively unfamiliar with the band’s material, The Secret manage to extract enough primal rage to begin the evening in seriously heavy territory.
