Music

San Diego’s Mizery are a defiant powerhouse ready to shake things up with their crossover hardcore sound.

Originally breaking out with 2014’s Survive The Vibe EP followed by 2016 full-length Absolute Light (Flatspot Records), Mizery quickly grabbed attention with their groove-driven rhythms and dynamic live show. Formed as an idea by childhood friends Jose Luna (vocals) and Taylor Parker (lead guitar), things really came to fruition when the pair met drummer Cayle Sain and soon enlisted Miguel “Mikey” Salazar on bass and began creating as a four-piece. Following the album release, Mizery toured alongside genre heavyweights including Power Trip, Terror, and Backtrack, and added Ahmad Ali on bass, moving Mikey to rhythm guitar. Like the rest of the world, the band stalled during the pandemic, but kept writing and were ready to come back with full momentum. In December 2023 the unexpected passing of drummer Cayle Sain, who also performed with Twitching Tongues, God’s Hate, and GhosteMane, rattled the music community and understandably put a pause on Mizery.

While processing their grief and reflecting, the members of Mizery knew they had to continue on and a found recording gave them a new sense of purpose. Jose and Taylor discovered Cayle had taken pre-production demos they had sent him and he tracked drums for them in a professional studio. With the help of producer Taylor Young (The Pit), the band was able to obtain these drum tracks and use them for what would become their self-titled EP.

Due out March 20th, 2026 on Flatspot Records, the Mizery EP is an overtly political record built around renewal and reflection. Across the six tracks lyrics are utilized as a weapon, as Jose shares, “It’s a reflection of a world that some of us see, and others choose to ignore. The acts of violence, the fear of violence, & the repercussions of violence.”

The songs defy a steady route, mixing infectious rap-sung vocals with metallic riffs, inventive grooves, and a few twists. Influence stems from Leeway’s Adult Crash, Merauder’s 5 Deadly Venoms, and Only Living Witness’ Innocents combined with the output of Rage Against The Machine and P.O.D. that surrounded the band members as youths. From opener “Renegade Rhythm” it’s clear Mizery is standing on business, addressing the state of the world while making music built to stay in your head. “The Weapon PT.II” lives sonically as Mizery’s heaviest track on the EP while hitting back at using words to invoke change over physical violence. Closing out the EP is the vindicating “Eulogy” featuring guest vocals from DRAIN’s Sammy Ciaramitaro. The song came together as an early demo and was the only track Cayle had laid down programmed drums for instead of studio recordings. To complete the single, drummer David Stalsworth (Militarie Gun, Torena) stepped in on the recording and now joins Mizery as a member.

While some might look at the EP release as a triumph, for Mizery it’s showing of persistence and a band ready to enter its next era.

San Diego’s Mizery are a defiant powerhouse ready to shake things up with their crossover hardcore sound.

Originally breaking out with 2014’s Survive The Vibe EP followed by 2016 full-length Absolute Light (Flatspot Records), Mizery quickly grabbed attention with their groove-driven rhythms and dynamic live show. Formed as an idea by childhood friends Jose Luna (vocals) and Taylor Parker (lead guitar), things really came to fruition when the pair met drummer Cayle Sain and soon enlisted Miguel “Mikey” Salazar on bass and began creating as a four-piece. Following the album release, Mizery toured alongside genre heavyweights including Power Trip, Terror, and Backtrack, and added Ahmad Ali on bass, moving Mikey to rhythm guitar. Like the rest of the world, the band stalled during the pandemic, but kept writing and were ready to come back with full momentum. In December 2023 the unexpected passing of drummer Cayle Sain, who also performed with Twitching Tongues, God’s Hate, and GhosteMane, rattled the music community and understandably put a pause on Mizery.

While processing their grief and reflecting, the members of Mizery knew they had to continue on and a found recording gave them a new sense of purpose. Jose and Taylor discovered Cayle had taken pre-production demos they had sent him and he tracked drums for them in a professional studio. With the help of producer Taylor Young (The Pit), the band was able to obtain these drum tracks and use them for what would become their self-titled EP.

Due out March 20th, 2026 on Flatspot Records, the Mizery EP is an overtly political record built around renewal and reflection. Across the six tracks lyrics are utilized as a weapon, as Jose shares, “It’s a reflection of a world that some of us see, and others choose to ignore. The acts of violence, the fear of violence, & the repercussions of violence.”

The songs defy a steady route, mixing infectious rap-sung vocals with metallic riffs, inventive grooves, and a few twists. Influence stems from Leeway’s Adult Crash, Merauder’s 5 Deadly Venoms, and Only Living Witness’ Innocents combined with the output of Rage Against The Machine and P.O.D. that surrounded the band members as youths. From opener “Renegade Rhythm” it’s clear Mizery is standing on business, addressing the state of the world while making music built to stay in your head. “The Weapon PT.II” lives sonically as Mizery’s heaviest track on the EP while hitting back at using words to invoke change over physical violence. Closing out the EP is the vindicating “Eulogy” featuring guest vocals from DRAIN’s Sammy Ciaramitaro. The song came together as an early demo and was the only track Cayle had laid down programmed drums for instead of studio recordings. To complete the single, drummer David Stalsworth (Militarie Gun, Torena) stepped in on the recording and now joins Mizery as a member.

While some might look at the EP release as a triumph, for Mizery it’s showing of persistence and a band ready to enter its next era.

Recorded and engineered by Jack Shirley (Funeral Diner, Comadre) and designed by Nick Steinhardt (Touche Amore) "Sunbather" deals with the profound sadness found in the quest for one's personal perfection. Serving as an artistic lucid dream of warmth despite the stinging pain of life's cruel idealism.

With opener "Dream House" George Clarke's tortured vocals familiarly intertwine with Kerry McCoy's hypnotic guitar work before crashing into a wash of post-everything melody. This leads to the moving instrumental "Irresistible" a track that carries a twisted indie-like sensibility buried beneath glittery layers of guitar and piano. However it is in the title track and beyond where the maturation and growth of Deafheaven brightly shines. In "Sunbather" they explore sonic peaks and valleys created by superb percussionist Daniel Tracy (new to the band for this recording). His inclusion brings new dynamics to light as an urgent pulse to the swirling musical chaos. Pushing bleak epic "Vertigo" and the dark emotional closer "The Pecan Tree" to new, awe-inducing heights.

Without question "Sunbather" is Deafheaven at the peak of their creative strength and vision of their young existence. A masterfully crafted work of art that will be renowned for years to come.

Track Listing:
01. Dream House
02. Irresistible
03. Sunbather
04. Please Remember
05. Vertigo
06. Windows
07. The Pecan Tree

Gouge Away are a hardcore punk band from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. "Burnt Sugar" is their latest album, co-produced by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Oathbreaker) and Jeremy Bolm of Touche Amore. With "Burnt Sugar" Gouge Away dive into personal and social political subject matter without getting the bends on their way back to surface. Carrying an emotional vulnerability and honesty that few bands own in today's music world.

Track Listing:
01. Only Friend
02. Fed Up
03. Slow Drown
04. Hey Mercy
05. Subtle Thrill
06. Ghost
07. Dis s o c i a t i o n
08. Can't Relate
09. Stray/Burnt Sugar
10. Wilt (I Won't)
11. Raw Blood

For over two decades, 100 Demons have stood as one of hardcore’s most uncompromising forces — a band built on raw conviction and a sound that refuses to be boxed in. With Embrace the Black Light, their long-awaited third album on Closed Casket Activities, Connecticut’s own deliver twelve tracks that push the boundaries even further.

Recorded and fully realized within the walls of Silver Bullet Studios in Burlington, Connecticut, Embrace the Black Light marks a new chapter in the 100 Demons story — one forged with patience, intention, and an ear toward something lasting. Written by Pete Morcey, Rich Rosa, Rick Brayal and Jeremy Braddock, alongside Sean Martin rejoining the group. Produced and recorded by Greg Thomas and engineered alongside Chris Teti, the album was built brick by brick over the course of a year, allowing each song to breathe and find its shape. The result is the most fully realized record of their discography.

“Writing and recording this last record was an experience like no other. We were able to take our time and carefully craft every single song on this release. Working with Greg Thomas and Chris Teti at Silver Bullet made us realize we would not have been able to do this record without them. And with the guidance of Justin from Closed Casket Activities, we know they brought out the best of us on every level.” - Pete Morcey, Vocals

The album opens without losing any of the band’s signature ferocity. Elsewhere, Embrace the Black Light stretches without losing its footing, adding texture and dimension to an album that earns every moment of its runtime. Mastered by Will Putney of Graphic Nature Audio and featuring the artwork of James Bousema, with guest vocals from Twitching Tongues/God’s Hate members Colin Young and Taylor Young.

Embrace the Black Light is 100 Demons at their most deliberate and their most dangerous.

TRACK LISTING:
01. The Nightmare
02. Made for Nothing
03. Through Seven Eternities
04. Meat for the Beast
05. Nail it Shut
06. The Cold Wind of the Crossroads
07. Häxan Hammer
08. Night Parade of 100 Demons
09. Foul
10. Werewolves at the Wall
11. Return to Zero
12. Spiritual Obliteration

CONVERGE “Hum of Hurt” by J. Bennett

You feel it before you hear it. And once you hear it, you can’t unhear it. A low, persistent noise throbbing in the background. Scientists say it registers between 30 and 40 hertz. It’s been heard in Ipswich, Massachusetts; Auckland, New Zealand; and Windsor, Ontario. It has haunted the population of Taos, New Mexico, for decades. It’s been linked to suicides in the UK. Not everyone can hear it. No one knows where it’s coming from. They call it The Hum.

Converge have taken this mysterious real-world phenomenon and reimagined it as a physical manifestation of human suffering. I read on the phenomena while researching my own tinnitus. Then an idea struck. “What if the Hum is the culmination of all the pain in the world, creating an audible signal across the universe?” vocalist and lyricist Jacob Bannon posits. “Something noticeable to others operating on a similar emotional plane.”

Hum of Hurt follows Love Is Not Enough as Converge’s second full-length release of 2026. Like its predecessor, the album offers a bleak yet empathetic assessment of the human condition and its ongoing deterioration. With this album, the songs are more raw and exposed. “When we came together to write, we ended up with a wealth of material,” Bannon says. “As work progressed we realized we had created two separate albums, and treated them as such.”

Hum of Hurt is distinct from Love Is Not Enough, but just as volatile and potent. “It’s not a sequel,” Bannon explains. “The unifying musical idea early on was, ‘Let’s make a noise rock album.’ But we never really did. The first one wasn’t. This one touches on that spirit, but it’s much more dynamic than that descriptor. To me, it leans more into being an emotional hardcore album, while Love Is Not Enough feels more metal leaning album. In the end, we simply gave creative birth to another Converge record with its own unique identity and character.”

Opener “Slip the Noose” erupts with a furious cannonade from drummer Ben Koller before launching into a short, grinding frenzy that would feel at home on Jane Doe. “Doom in Bloom” is raw and bloody, as guitarist Kurt Ballou’s spiky riffs scrape against Nate Newton’s bass and Koller’s drums. You can practically hear Bannon’s throat tearing apart in every scream. “It’s dark and pointed right at you,” he says. “Lyrically, I’m exploring how my own middle-aged introspection doesn’t always bring a brighter light. I see my own trappings reflected in those around me. Here I am imploring them to slip the noose to see another day.”

“Dream Debris” is a gripping, doomy epic born from a single bass note that builds to a booming crescendo. “It has a lot of twists and turns, yet starts off incredibly simple. The slow build was driven by Nate’s vision and bass tone,” Bannon says. “We kept asking ourselves ‘Does it need anything else?’ In the end, it didn’t. It was just so heavy, encapsulating everything we wanted in the song."

The menacing track “Detonator” delivers a powerful line that will linger: There’s nothing to win if there’s no one to lose. “I go on a bit of a rant here,” Bannon says. “The idea is that when passion withers, the broken and beaten often remain in discomfort. The song ends with the line, ‘Don't be blown apart by your mistakes,’ which sums up my stark mentality.”

The title track stands as one of the most propulsive and emotional songs of their career. Thematically, Bannon examines the price of the lives we pursue. “I’ve given 35 years of my life to creating art and music,” he says. “I appreciate the creative home and support this community has given, yet rarely is space left for anything else. These lyrics are me looking in a mirror, recognizing that I am not the man I want to be. I need change, and still have work to do.”

The album also features a new rendition of “I Won’t Let You Go,” originally recorded for the 2020 video game Cyberpunk 2077. “When we recorded the first version, Ben tracked drums in California and we assembled it here,” Bannon explains. “It was good, but we knew we could do better. This version has everything the previous one was missing. It now feels right.”

Hum of Hurt was recorded and mixed by Kurt Ballou at God City in Salem, Massachusetts, with engineering assistance from Zach Weeks. Bannon and renowned UK artist Thomas Hooper collaborated on the album artwork.

“For the cover, I had a vision of an EKG signal fusing with some kind of volatile seismography. This amalgamation represents the conditions that would theoretically create a ‘Hum.’ Specifically the heart skips beats before dissolving into static. The signal is then interrupted by a seismic event at the center point of the cover. In conversation, I shared some of these ideas with artist Thomas Hooper, who offered to illustrate them using scientific diagrams as a source of inspiration.

I then spent months creating a mixed media piece for the interior,” Bannon says. “The figures represent the five elements of our planet, or ‘Pancha Bhuta’: Prithvi (Earth), Ap (Water), Agni (Fire), Vayu (Air), and Akasha (Aether). I present them in the throws of chaos, as if the elements themselves are entangled in the Hum of Hurt.”

Track Listing:
01. Slip The Noose
02. Doom In Bloom
03. It Only Gets Worse
04. Detonator
05. I Won't Let You Go
06. It's Not Up To Us
07. Dream Debris
08. It Used To Matter
09. Hum Of Hurt
10. Nothing Is Over

Available for the first time in nearly 20 years. The debut EP from No Warning has been remastered from its master tape and features a revamped layout. Vinyl comes in a gatefold cover with printed inner-sleeve. 7" includes digital download.

TRACK LISTING:
01. A Day in the Life
02. Too Much to Bare
03. My World
04. Take It or Leave It
05. Almost There
06. Wrong Again

Zao performing 4 songs from the mid 90s Western Pennsylvania scene that inspired them. Covers of songs by Creation Is Crucifixion, Passover, Puritan and Abnegation.

TRACK LISTING:
01. The Data Body
02. Since Birth
03. Indoctrination
04. Hopes of Harmony

“We wanted to do something grander than the typical four-piece Converge music.”

That’s Converge vocalist Jacob Bannon talking about the seed of inspiration that eventually bloomed into Bloodmoon: I, the new collaborative album created by the legendary hardcore band alongside dark songstress Chelsea Wolfe, her bandmate/writing partner Ben Chisholm and Cave In vocalist/guitarist Steve Brodsky.

“I’ve been a fan of Chelsea and Ben’s work for some time,” Bannon says. “I bought the Apokalypsis record from Aquarius Records in San Francisco, and Ben and I started communicating here and there. He had roots in this world of music, so it started to make sense that we could all work together in some way.”

“Ben introduced me to Converge when we started playing music together in 2009,” Wolfe says. “A couple of years later, we saw that Converge had put Apokalypsis on a year-end list, so we were totally fanning out about that. When they reached out to Ben about performing some Converge songs with new arrangements, I said, ‘I want in on that...’ And it seems like they were happy to have me along.”

Fast forward to a 2016 European tour and a rapturously received appearance at Roadburn that saw all seven musicians performing revamped Converge material. Overnight, what had started as a mutual admiration society had become one of the most formidable musical constellations in recent memory. “We felt like there was enough energy in the live collaboration to actually create new music together,” Converge guitarist and Bloodmoon: I producer Kurt Ballou explains. “It just took a few years to free up the time to get together.”

The musicians descended upon Ballou’s God City Studios in Salem, Massachusetts, to work on material in late 2019. Future sessions were planned for 2020, but then the pandemic hit. The rest of Bloodmoon: I was recorded remotely, though you’d never know it. “I wanted a record that breathed like a band playing together in a room, even if it wasn’t possible during this time period,” Ballou says. “It feels like we achieved that.”

Harrowing and atmospheric, triumphant and melodious, Bloodmoon: I is Converge as you’ve never heard them before. It’s Chelsea Wolfe and Ben Chisholm as you’ve never heard them before. It’s Steve Brodsky as you’ve almost never heard him before—after all, he was a member of Converge in the late ’90s and played bass on 1998’s When Forever Comes Crashing.

“It’s been a real treat to see one of my favorite bands continue to do cool stuff and break the molds of what’s considered hardcore and punk,” Brodsky says of Bloodmoon: I. “It’s a very rare thing in this kind of music to go an experimental route and challenge the quote-unquote ‘rules’ of what’s been laid out beforehand—and do it successfully.”

As Bannon points out, Bloodmoon: I has been a long time coming—longer, even, than the 2016 shows would indicate. The members of Converge—Ballou, Bannon, bassist Nate Newton, and drummer Ben Koller—tipped their hand ever so slightly with the release of 2009’s Axe To Fall, which featured a lengthy list of guest musicians, including members of Neurosis, Entombed, and Genghis Tron—not to mention Brodsky and some of his Cave In bandmates.

“Kurt and I have been talking about trying to do something more collaborative even prior to the Axe To Fall album,” Bannon reveals. “For years, there was talk of doing ‘Con-Cave’ or ‘Verge-In,’ a Converge and Cave In supergroup, and some versions of those songs ended up on Axe To Fall. But this is different.”

Thrilling in its apocalyptic grandeur, Bloodmoon: I is a collaborative work in every way—to the point where Wolfe, Bannon, and Brodsky found themselves writing lyrics for each other. “That’s one of the keys to the album,” Ballou points out. “Sometimes when there’s a collaborative group, it just sounds like such-and-such a person doing the thing they do in their band while the other people are doing the things they do in their bands. So for Jake to write lyrics for Chelsea or for Chelsea to write lyrics for Steve, it forces each person to approach the vocals in a way that’s unique to the project.”

Holding down the fort at GodCity while tracks came in from across the country, Ballou and Bannon were often surprised by the songs Wolfe chose to sing on. “I was surprised as well,” she confirms. “The project stretched my vocals in new ways. It’s so different than what I normally sing over that I was able to open up and be vulnerable with my vocals. I feel like I also heard that with Jake and Steve. It became one of the most fun recording experiences I’ve had in a long time.”

“As someone who’s been making loud music with the same guys for a long time, adding new elements to what we’re doing and having a new version of the band is very exciting,” Bannon enthuses. “Our dynamics are pushing and pulling in all different directions on this record, and I find that to be creatively rewarding.”

Indeed, the more hectic and seemingly Converge-esque material like “Lord of Liars” or the Cave In-like “Failure Forever” quickly veer into unexpected territory as Bannon trades vocal parts with Wolfe on the former and Brodsky on the latter. And even those tracks are outliers on an album that can’t be pinned down as the work of any one of its creators. Epic opener “Blood Moon” and the profoundly haunting “Coil” might be the best examples of this. They mark an indelible and climactic collision of artists working at the height of their collective powers.

“With a project like this, egos could have really flared up,” Brodsky says with a laugh. “But I feel like everyone just kept the music in mind and wanted to do what’s best for the song. We’ve all done this enough to know that if we don’t get our way every time a decision needs to be made, we’ll be okay. We’ll get our time in the sun at some point.”

“It’s hard to find new ways to be creative, but I think we’ve been good at sort of forcing ourselves to do that,” Ballou says. “And this project is no exception. Getting Steve and Chelsea and Ben to contribute with us, we were kind of playing musical Cupid with all of them. But we had a feeling that if we got this group of people together, something powerful would come out of it.”

First Press:
100 - Clear (Friends and Family Exclusive)
300 - Red / Black Mix (Deathwish Exclusive)
300 - Blue / Black Mix (Converge Exclusive)
500 - Black / Red / Neon Violet Mix (Chelsea Wolfe Exclusive)
500 - Clear / Navy Cloudy (Revolver Exclusive)
1000 - Red / Blue Mix
1000 - Black / Red / Blue Mix (Newbury Comics Exclusive)
1650 - Navy w/ Red & Orange Splatter (Epitaph Exclusive)
4000 - Black / Navy / Neon Purple Mix (Indie Exclusive)

∞ x Transparent Red / Transparent Blue

Track Listing:
01. Blood Moon 
02. Viscera of Men 
03. Coil  
04. Flower Moon
05. Tongues Playing Dead
06. Lord of Liars  
07. Failure Forever
08. Scorpion’s Sting
09. Daimon
10. Crimson Stone 
11. Blood Dawn

It never ceases to amaze me how the things we initially dismiss, overlook, don’t notice can become the most important and meaningful to us and our lives.

The first time I saw Converge was in 1996 with Deadguy, Coalesce and a number of other bands whose names are now lost to memory in a Legion Hall in a rundown part of Buffalo, NY. I’d like to say they changed my life that night but they didn’t — not that night, anyway. However, there was something about the way their rail-thin singer (Jacob Bannon) threw himself without regard into his performance, and the audience, and glimpses of the more than then-typical Victory Records mosh in their music that spoke of things to come. If you told me that band (Converge, I would discover later while buying Deadguy merch) would become one of the most important to not only myself but to aggressive music and its various scenes and factions, I would have cracked a smile, at the very least. Funny, how things turn out.

Formed in the winter of 1990 in Boston, MA, during the rise and subsequent fall of the legendary Boston hardcore scene, Converge are unarguably one of the most important bands in the history of aggressive music. Through numerous line-up changes (the band are currently comprised of vocalist/visual design terrorist Jacob Bannon, drummer Ben Koller, guitarist/back-up vocalist Kurt Ballou and bassist/back-up vocalist Nate Newton), musical trends (mosh, tech, guys crying and wearing make-up, ’80s thrash revival) and the coming and going of more “the next great thing” than I care to recall, Converge have established themselves as leaders in the aggressive music underground.

It seems redundant to use the word “landmark” when discussing their musical canon, as almost every album is genre-defining, but Converge’s run is unparalleled. Releases such as Petitioning the Empty Sky (1997), When Forever Comes Crashing (1998), Jane Doe (2001), You Fail Me (2004) and No Heroes (2006) have established Converge as trendsetters and innovators, setting new standards in hardcore and metal with each release. These records have evolved the band (from their thrash-inspired, hardcore-drenched beginnings to slower, more ominous and atmospheric work to all-out Tsunami-of-hostility hell-bent on levelling creation) and produced new waves of followers and emulators with each successive work. Honestly, has there been a band more influential on past and present “successful” metal/hardcore acts as unaccredited? It’s true: integrity has its price.

After nearly 20 years, such a glorious run of releases and a live show that’s gone from flailing kids flailing against kids to legendary exorcism for both band and audience — watch the pit during “The Saddest Day” and tell me it’s not the closest thing to a near-religious experience atheists will ever have — Converge could be forgiven for releasing an endeavour that was simply good, okay, just maintaining their status quo. After all, it’s much easier to win the title than retain it, and even the greats slip from time to time. Axe To Fall (Converge’s third release for indie institution Epitaph Records), however, is no such relapse.

True to themselves and their art, as always, no matter the cost, Axe To Fall continues to push relentlessly forward, much like a shark that needs to always keep swimming to survive. Where No Heroes was a refinement and broadening of hostilities declared on previous assaults such as Jane Doe, Axe To Fall returns to the more AmRep-inspired noisecore abrasions of You Fail Me while also updating and making vital the thrash influences that defined earlier Converge efforts (Caring and Killing, Petitioning the Empty Sky) and retaining the hardcore hostilities and frantic pace so vital to their foundation. Of course, the experimental anguish and pleading for salvation are no mere sharpening of past knives but yet another leap forward in an existence full of them.

From frenetic, frantic opening track “Dark Horse,” which is a downhill avalanche of ferocity culminating in one of the heaviest riffs Converge have ever laid listeners to waste with, to “Worms Will Feed,” an ominous exploration that ebbs and flows, building upon crashing then retreating waves of music and lyrical condemnations (“the worms will find a way, the rats will find a way”), to the barely restrained chaos of “Losing Battle” and Axe To Fall’s sanguine, beautiful, climatic seven-minute-plus dénouement, “Wretched Word,” Axe To Fall isn’t just another mere “release” or record from spoiled kids discovering metal and crying about how difficult life is in the suburbs. Axe To Fall is a nearly two-decade culmination of hard roads travelled and unwanted, but necessary, lessons learned, of prayers for salvation lost to the wind and too-fleeting nights where everything was still, if only for a moment, consumed by morning’s inevitable advance, of crushing defeats and the realization that the war only ends when we do, and it’s not one we can win, merely endure.

Once again recorded by Converge’s resident engineering genius Kurt Ballou, whose God City Recording Studios has become the Mecca for aggressive music’s elite to congregate at for assistance realizing their sonic sermons (from Trap Them and Genghis Tron to Torche and Buried Inside), Axe To Fall is as sonically dense a tapestry and punishing a release as Converge have ever conceived, once again perfectly echoing musically Bannon’s heart-ripped-out-of-chest-but-still-beating lyrics. It’s the summation of experiences learned working on records such as No Heroes and You Fail Me, also recorded by Ballou at God City, and it surpasses them.

But even while Converge and Axe To Fall stand alone — as Bannon is so fond of saying live: “we’re born into this world alone, and we die alone, so make your mark while you’re here” — they’ve never forgotten the core values of the hardcore scene they were raised in, and raised others on: community. Axe To Fall is Converge’s most collaborative effort to date, even while paradoxically sounding as focused as ever. Axe To Fall features the likes of John Pettibone (Undertow, Himsa), Ulf Cederlund (Entombed, Disfear), Cave In’s Steve Brodsky, Adam McGrath and J.R. Connors, F. Sean Martin (Hatebreed), George Hirsch (Blacklisted) and Genghis Tron’s Mookie Singerman, Hamilton Jordan and Michael Sochynsky, amongst others, contributing to its dense sonic soundscapes. Even Steve Von Till (of legendary star destroyers Neurosis) graces the record on “Cruel Bloom,” an ignoring of musical confines that sounds akin to something Tom Waits and Mr. Bungle might concoct if trapped in a watering hole on the fringes of Purgatory right before the end-time hit.

Something Bannon said to me years ago during our very first interview has stuck with me ever since: that hardcore needs to be about something more than bad poetry and Slayer riffs. And that search for and desire to be something more have defined Converge since their inception, and continue to propel them and their art ever-forward. Through sheer hard work, perseverance and an unwavering commitment to artistic integrity Converge have risen from humble beginnings to become that mercurial and so very rare “something more.” Axe To Fall continues their reign, long may it last.

- Christopher Gramlich

Track Listing:
01. Dark Horse
02. Reap What You Sow
03. Axe To Fall
04. Effigy
05. Worms Will Feed / Rats Will Feast
06. Wishing Well
07. Damages
08. Losing Battle
09. Dead Beat
10. Cutter
11. Slave Driver
12. Cruel Bloom
13. Wretched World

Best Ex is the solo project of New Jersey songwriter Mariel Loveland, best known as the former vocalist of Candy Hearts. On Good Girl, she returns to guitar-driven songwriting, drawing inspiration from the melodic hooks and shimmering production of '90s alternative rock. Across eleven tracks produced by Andy Tongren, Loveland explores growing older, identity, and the expectations placed on women with honesty, wit, and emotional clarity.

TRACK LISTING:

01. Good Girl
02. Eurydice
03. Is This It?
04. Losing Streak
05. Sick of Myself
06. I Will (Superman)
07. Papercut
08. Man Like You
09. Boring
10. Living in Hell
11. Parallel Lines

PRESSING INFO:

100 x Noise Cult Violet
200 x Coke Bottle Green

Permanent Repeat is the highly anticipated second LP by Long Island indie/emo favorites Macseal and is their first new release on Counter Intuitive Records. Coming nearly five years after their 2019 debut, Permanent Repeat was an outlet for the band to emotionally and musically reflect on their lives at their own pace. Sonically, they honed in on sounds bringing to mind early 2000s pop rock with more modern twists and turns, condensing big themes such as longing, existential dread, and falling in love into moments that can be played on permanent repeat.

Tracklist:

A+B
Golden Harbor
Four Legs
Easily Undone
October
Permanent Repeat
Beach Vacation
Your Door
Dinner For Two
Hide Out
Afloat