All We Love We Leave Behind

Having formed during the winter of 1990, Boston quartet Converge is considered pioneers of metalcore. Their eighth studio album finds them reclaiming their sound — the preceding Axe to Fall was riddled with more guest musicians than a hip-hop album. Opening cut “Aimless Arrow” makes good on its name by throwing fans a curveball with Jacob Bannon trying his hand (or larynx, rather) at melody. But the following “Trespasses” returns the mentally disturbed frontman to his throat-ripping howls and growls with a feral abandon. But things get really interesting with “Sadness Comes Home,” a shape-shifting sock in the clock that opens with a Sabbathesque sludge before erupting like a sonic volcano of hyper-fast fretboard shredding and propulsive, explosive drumming that feel like a thousand fists punching one face. Over this Bannon channels all his inner demons into one ferocious beast doing battle with his own soundtrack. At under two minutes, “Vicious Muse” plays like a stormy tantrum tailor-made for the mosh pit. Conversely, “Coral Blue” stretches out almost five minutes of sludge-infused aural brutality.