5

Yes, indeed, there are no more heroes!

These metalcore boys from Boston, Massachusetts are back to make your ears bleed, bowels explode and brain liquify. Their latest offering, however, isn't quite up to their previous standards.

"Heartache" certainly lives up to its name. It gave me heartache after the first 20 seconds! Thankfully it's only about 2 minutes long! I'm not quite sure if there's anything but noise in here. "Hellbound" does little to change this and sounds very similar though with perhaps a few more aural assaults that could be considered music. "Sacrifice" and "Vengeance" continue, yet again, in the same vein, doing absolutely nothing except giving me a headache. So far, it's not looking very good for Converge.

"Weight of the World" relaxes things off a little bit which is a step in the right direction I feel but it's simply an interlude before we are subjected to more extreme noise with "No Heroes"; the first of the tracks that lasts for over 2 minutes. About a minute in and my head is bopping slightly so there's maybe something to be said for this track. The drumming is certainly aggressive and done well. The guitar work is solidly in the thrash genre with lots of harmonics and screaming but generally nothing to go mad over.

I challenge anyone - yes anyone - to make sense of any of the lyrics on this album. I can't even begin to describe the indecipherable morass as vocals.

"Plagues" is an interesting track though. I quite enjoyed the intro; slower pace, no vocals but heavily distorted, bassy, chugging guitars. I can imagine listening to this if I was in a bad mood and needed some mindless, angry noise to help me through.

"Grim Heart / Black Rose" is another surprise. A much quieter, yet still distorted start to this mammoth 9 minute song. It's touch and go, but I can almost make out the lyrics this time. It's another song that works well as dark, heavy background music. It's not as guttural as the rest of the album and I can imagine it being played on a soundtrack to a dark movie where the lead characters are screwing. It's just got that feel to it.

Sadly, with the next track, we are back to where we began. The rest of the album doesn't stand out very much. "Trophy Scars" departs a little from the established Converge style of noise but to be honest, it's all more of the same noise. Well produced noise but still just noise nonetheless. For fans of very shouty, noisy metal-core, this might not disappoint but it's not one I'll be returning to anytime soon.