There's a ton of worthwhile heavy shows coming through town this week — Hatebreed and Circa Survive at the State (on different nights), Drowningman at Masquerade, Thrice with Underoath at Ford Amphitheatre — and only the fans that didn't spend all their money on pot and tattoos are going to be able to afford them all. By all means, choose carefully, but for my money, veteran Northeastern punk-metal spectacle Converge tops the must-see list. This pioneering quartet was crafting cacophonic, cathartic aural cinema back before the term "screamo" existed (and it was first used as an epithet, you know), and is still a dark-hearted entity unto itself — last year's unbelievable You Fail Me found the band cleaning up a bit around the edges, but stands as one of Converge's best beginning-to-end recorded works.
Converge, w/The Red Chord/Municipal Waste, Monday, Nov. 14, @ Masquerade, Ybor City. 7 p.m.; $12.50.
This article appears in Nov 9-15, 2005.
