Converge is a smart, aggressive, brutal quintet. They are an absolute cataclysm of noise that sounds like contact mics were stuffed in a bass drum and tossed down the side of a mountain. Very clever, disorienting time swaps, extensive riffage. An actual racket, swirling and careening as the band takes turns possessing and being possessed by their own instruments. Converge are so full of intelligence, skill and intensity that it’s simply masterful.

Baroness is an American heavy metal band from Savannah, Georgia, whose original members grew up together in Lexington, Virginia.