Prince played his last show in my city, and I had the exact same thought.

I've been to a fair number of metal and hardcore shows, but there's nothing like Converge, especially in a smaller venue. It's like a shotgun to the face. Jake Bannon leaves it all out there on the stage.

I met him 5ish years ago opening for the Pogues and he was a super cool dude, but his interviews in the past years have been increasingly douchey and concerned with his standing as An Artist.

Watch it with some friends. Also, be drunk.

You think so? I'm still sort of struggling to penetrate AWLWLB past Trespasses. It hasn't grabbed me the way Axe to Fall did - it seems a little less forceful. I wonder if that's a result of the scaled-down recording process. I also think Bannon's voice is a lot less powerful - he went with more of a howl than a bark.…

You think so? I'm still sort of struggling to penetrate AWLWLB past Trespasses. It hasn't grabbed me the way Axe to Fall did - it seems a little less forceful. I wonder if that's a result of the scaled-down recording process. I also think Bannon's voice is a lot less powerful - he went with more of a howl than a bark.…

re: Avatar

re: Avatar

Yeah, I got a little worried when I first heard Aimless Arrow. I'm much more a fan of Bannon's more bass-y, full-throated, dog-with-bees-coming-out-of-its-mouth scream.

Yeah, I got a little worried when I first heard Aimless Arrow. I'm much more a fan of Bannon's more bass-y, full-throated, dog-with-bees-coming-out-of-its-mouth scream.

Titus has so many great, cathartic scream-alongs.

you FAT motherFUCKER

Pogues have got some great ragers too. I can blow off steam with "Bottle of Smoke," "Billy's Bones," "Streams of Whiskey" - any song where Shane goes WREAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHHHHH, really.

"Everyone Choose Sides" can be a pretty righteous headbanger, though.

I've gone hoarse thanks to "NO LOVE / NO HOPE" on several occasions

So much Converge. "No Heroes," "Concubine," "Reap What You Sow," the list goes on. That's some nuclear-level rage. The thing I love about it is that it's so…I'm looking for a better word than empowering, but that's pretty much what it is. Even in its anger, it's an affirmative message.

I just listened to it the first time and was almost overwhelmed. There are, like, four hooks in the chorus.

BB's symbolism and foreshadowing are consistently clumsy or overt. Take, for example, the crawling Mexican pilgrims - a truly disquieting image, but it turns out that they're crawling toward a Temple of Doom-esque death idol - silly - and this foreshadows the incident of terminator twin two leaping from his hospital…

It's not the use of violence, it's the utter *silliness* of the violence. The cartoonishness. Stuff that utterly ruins any suspension of disbelief I might be able to maintain.

Ho ho ho ho ho - Breaking Bad better than Mad Men?