Aural Devastation: Converge, Pig Destroyer

Converge

Few bands have remained as relevant and impossible to duplicate as the Massachusetts based metalcore kings Converge. Ignoring the insane impact that each member of the band has had in all aspects of the music industry — from record label owning and producing to cover designing and playing in every band possible — it isn’t a very far stretch to call Converge one of the more important heavy bands to exist in the past 20 years. All We Love We Leave is the perfect example of Converge’s ability to develop something new while still maintaining the familiarity of the whole assault of sound.

See full post for tour dates.

CONVERGE TOUR DATES
10/15: Columbus, OH @ Skully’s w/ Torche, Kvelertak, and more
10/16: Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre w/ Torche, Kvelertak, and more
10/18: Chicago, IL @ Metro w/ Torche, Kvelertak, and more
10/19: Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock Social Club w/ Torche, Kvelertak, and more
10/20: Lawrence, KS @ Granada Theatre w/ Torche, Kvelertak, Coalesce, and more
10/21: Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre w/ Torche, Kvelertak, and more
10/22: Salt Lake City, UT @ Club Sound w/ Torche, Kvelertak, and more
10/24: Seattle, WA @ El Corazon w/ Torche, Kvelertak, Nails, and more
10/25: Portland, OR @ Branx w/ Torche, Kvelertak, Nails, and more
10/26: San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s w/ Torche, Kvelertak, Nails, and more
10/27: Pomona, CA @ Glasshouse w/ Torche, Kvelertak, Nails, and more
10/28: Los Angeles, CA @ EchoPlex w/ Torche, Kvelertak, Nails, and more
10/30: Mesa, AZ @ The Nile w/ Torche, Kvelertak, Nails, and more
11/01: Dallas, TX @ Club Dada w/ Torche, Kvelertak, and more
11/02: Austin, TX @ Fun Fun Fun Festival w/ Torche, Kvelertak, and more
11/03: Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s w/ Torche, Kvelertak, and more
11/04: Little Rock, AR @ Downtown Music w/ Torche, Kvelertak, and more
11/05: Birmingham, AL @ Zydece w/ Torche, Kvelertak, and more
11/06: Nashville, TN @ Exit/In w/ Torche, Kvelertak, Whips/Chains, and more
11/07: Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade w/ Torche, Kvelertak, Whips/Chains, and more
11/08: Durham, NC @ Motoroco Music Hall w/ Torche, Kvelertak, Whips/Chains, and more
11/09: Philly, PA @ Union Transfer w/ Torche, Kvelertak, Whips/Chains, and more
11/10: Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony w/ Torche, Kvelertak, & Whips/Chains
11/11: NYC, NY @ Highline Ballroom w/ Torche, Kvelertak, Whips/Chains, and more
11/12: Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair w/ Torche, Kvelertak, Whips/Chains, and more

Pig Destroyer

Sometimes music has no place in politics. But when politicians threaten to cut funding to public broadcasting, why then we just need to rebel. Because without NPR, we wouldn’t have a full stream of Pig Destroyer’s fantastic new album Book Burner due out on Oct.ober 23.

Courtesy of NPR’s First Listen, you can go listen to the delightfully violent tales the grindcore band creates.

With 19 tracks clocking in at 32 minutes, Pig Destroyer’s latest effort in five years has something for everyone — if everyone loves grindcore. NPR sums up the themes of the album with the following quote:

In some editions, Book Burner comes with a short story by Hayes called The Atheist. To sum up it briefly, in a not-too-distant Fahrenheit 451/Mad Max future, a heavy-handed Christian theocracy burns libraries to the ground and crucifies heretics. The story is gruesome, but also darkly comic — much like Hayes’ lyrics. While the “book burners” provide the album and song title, Hayes says the themes don’t cross over, but it’s hard not to draw more politically charged lines between the two. Sure, the stark, dangerous narratives still paint more in a minute than most do in an entire album or novel. (The closing line to “Baltimore Strangler” is particularly chilling: “I just wanted to hold her like an anaconda.”) But Book Burner seems like an internal struggle for Hayes: an attempt to make sense of the ugly chaos that inspires unsound logic.

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