Villain of the Story is back to play a nasty trick.
Signed to Out Of Line Music, the Minnesota-based band consisting of Christian Grey (vocals), Cody Crook (vocals), Cody Pauly (guitar), Page Brownie (bass), and Max Greene (drums) unveils its new album, Convergence: Two Minds In One, in 2025.
The album opens with the fairly calm piano of Shame, which suddenly develops a heavier rhythm with modern influences, letting the beat accompany the clear vocals before the saturation returns. The track has the feel of a power ballad, playing with a certain melancholy before coming back with a vengeance with Broken Promises, which is immediately more energetic, welcoming roars and aggressive riffs to complement the previous elements and create a contrast that the band plays on. The furious mosh part is quite effective, but What Do You See in Me returns to Alternative influences tinged with Hip-Hop for a fairly short track, while Face It happily brings us back to the groovy and catchy sound with Nu Metal roots. The rhythm section provides a perfect foundation for the vocalists, who respond to each other and cooperate on certain passages, while there is a softer touch on The First Time, where clean vocals are by far the majority. The danceable tone is sometimes reinforced with saturation, then The Love You Took Away takes over with a more disturbing atmosphere, followed by much rawer and wilder riffs, confirming that the musicians were right to choose it as a single and that they would be well advised to play it live. We move on to Waves, which remains in this frenzied mood, offering a few jerky passages but also an intense moment of clear vocals in the middle of the track, then Ishimura offers us a moment of respite with its introductory sample, where a voice calls for help before being trampled by fairly simple but powerful riffs. A few cybernetic additions plunge us into anguish as the musicians go wild, remaining in this very modern approach before finally surrendering, but not without revealing Two Minds in One, the eponymous track, which is one of the most aggressive on the album and gives us very few moments of hesitation, playing mainly on heaviness and blasts, especially at the end.
Villain of the Story’s world is inspired by many elements ranging from Metalcore to Hip-Hop, and there is great diversity on Convergence: Two Minds In One. While I appreciate some tracks more than others, the album remains fairly consistent.
70/100
