CONVERGE take their emotional battle to the north.
TERROR/SECT/FANGE
O2 RITZ, MANCHESTER Boston’s highly evolved heroes wring more emotion from their maelstrom
CONVERGE’S SUMMER TOUR hits Manchester at its midpoint. A humbly groundbreaking band that evolved beyond their hardcore roots to lay major foundations in the 90s and early 00s for metal, math and deathcore, their support reflects their roots. French sludgers FANGE replace late dropouts Candy, relying on fabled distortion WMD, the HM2 pedal, to wreak destruction but lack the songs to back up their ear-shattering dirge. SECT, later revered by Converge frontman Jacob Bannon as hardcore “gamechangers”, rage wholeheartedly but fundamentally lack impact, their audience lacklustre.
LA hardcore legends TERROR have no such problem. The bullish veterans charge though an energetic set of mixed messages, frontman Scott Vogel insistent that everyone has fun whilst simultaneously encouraging violence. Their 17-year stampede has yet to show signs of slowing down as they flex through ’roid-rage renditions of Lowest Of The Low, This World Never Wanted Me and Keepers Of The Faith.
CONVERGE, progenitors and innovators for almost 30 years, prove still ahead of the game. Their iconic Jane Doe death mask, rendered bone-white behind them, is arguably the biggest visual icon to emerge from punk roots since the Misfits’ skull, and their music – spasmodic tech seething with defiance – dips its toes into everything from hardcore to grind, yet remains their own, having outlasted many they influenced.
After a moody introduction of A Single Tear they tear into Dark Horse. Bannon, heavily tattooed, mantis-like, smiles in earnest, his unintelligible bellow nevertheless speaking directly to the heart. During Black Cloud his skeleton looks sure to tear from beneath tightly drawn skin, so energetically does he leap across the stage. Drummer Ben Koller’s fervour through Cutter and Runaway make four drums sound like 10: a permanent ricochet of hits. His chops are matched only by guitarist/producer Kurt Ballou’s casual complexity as he coolly hammers his way through the dying embers of rager Drop Out. Before a vehement encore rendition of Concubine, Bannon beats his chest and spits the line ‘Pound for pound, I am the most vicious of all’ from Entombed’s Wolverine Blues – covered by Converge in 2012. On tonight’s evidence, he’s dead right.