December 24, 2025

Converge brought a Saddest Day to Roadrunner – 12/13

Metalcore heroes Converge held the first edition of their Saddest Day festival in Allston earlier this month with Touché Amoré, Soul Glo and more.

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If there was a prevailing theme at December’s inaugural Saddest Day festival, it was one of gratitude. Converge – the influential and enduring metalcore four-piece formed by vocalist Jacob Bannon and guitarist Kurt Ballou just north of Boston three and a half decades ago – both headlined and curated the day, and nary a set went by without an acknowledgement of their impact on heavy music of all stripes across that span.

Shouting out your hosts is nothing out of the ordinary of course, but these connections went deeper. Whether from an unproven band they’d taken on tour years ago, one whose music gained its reach via Bannon’s Deathwish label, or one simply comprised of fans, the love was very real. And for a bill characterized by a number of insanely heavy bands, the mood was downright joyous.

Boston sludge supergroup Wormwood (featuring members of The Red Chord, Phantom Glue and Converge offshoot Doomriders) got things started for the early arrivals with a satisfyingly crushing set representing the day’s most traditionally heavy metal vibes, before Chicago’s Stress Positions quickened up the tempo with their furiously manic hardcore. Delaware’s Year of the Knife, meanwhile, focused on a fusion of hardcore and death metal that made up for a somewhat reserved stage presence with sheer sonic brutality.

Philly’s Soul Glo and grindcore maniacs Full of Hell made for the best one-two punch of the day, the former’s noisy, political, genre-hopping hardcore whipping up the day’s first true wave of stagedivers and the latter’s blistering, unpredictable maelstrom often feeling like it defied genre altogether. FoH’s Dylan Walker also proved a funnier frontman than I’d remembered. (To paraphrase one between-songs bit: “I texted [Converge bassist] Nate Newton and said he should call this ‘New England Metal and Hardcore Fest 2.’ He texted me back and said ‘Who is this?'”)

Next up was a pair of sets for the true scene vets – Boston’s The Hope Conspiracy and Missouri’s Coalesce both having returned from fairly lengthy live hiatuses in the past 2 years. Hope Conspiracy’s melodic-leaning hardcore nicely counterbalanced a whole lot of abrasiveness that’d preceded them, and Coalesce’s mutant strain of seasick mathcore was the day’s most intriguing surprise for the uninitiated.

L.A. post-hardcore/screamo favs Touché Amoré might’ve seemed the odd band out on this bill at first glance, but their wildly enthusiastic crowd certainly suggested otherwise. As Bannon would remark on a little later, the day did feel like a successful celebration of artists alike in spirit, not merely sound.

After nearly 7 hours of leadup, Converge’s headlining set did feel like the day’s main event, and delivered as such. It was the longest I’ve ever seen them play, covering 23 songs that spanned live debuts from their upcoming record (their first as a core foursome since 2017), fan favorites, deep cuts they’d gone a decade or more without dusting off, and even a mid-set surprise wherein Full of Hell backed Bannon on a run through “Axe to Fall.” It was, as all Converge sets are, an astoundingly technical blast of fury and feeling – made all the more remarkable by the fact that powerhouse drummer Ben Koller survived a legitimately terrifying car wreck just days prior.

Naturally, they closed things out just before midnight with 1996’s “The Saddest Day” – the fest’s namesake song – but not before a promise to run the concept back for round two next year. Given the degree to which every band on this edition was thrilled to be there, it shouldn’t be a stretch to pull it together.

Scroll below for a chronological gallery of the day.

Wormwood: