Convert “Saves” 2022. Triple Eye Industries. Limited edition blue vinyl. Convert is one of the best new local Milwaukee bands; technically this album doesn’t drop until April 29th but because we got in on the vinyl preorder and and we live in their neighborhood, here it is! Gothically dark and crashingly post-punk with elements of industrial, metal and noise rock, their debut Saves is fantastic. Singer Dillon Hallen (Burning Sons, Brain Bats, a really sweet guy!) howls in the most deliciously tortured way. Drummer Ben Davison (Get Rad) provides the crash while bassist Richie Murry (Assault & Battery) keeps the music steady, heavy and dark. Guitarist Sam Sharkey (The Pukes) kills with power chords and overwhelming sound and fury. But I think the key to Convert’s exciting sound is keyboardist Mick Cleary who stealthily slides in some lighter melodic touches (see especially “Night Bursts”) and crazy electronic sounds (“Tribeless”). He’s also really fun to watch play live.

We saw Convert perform a couple of times pre-pandemic (they formed in 2019) and just recently saw them play when they opened for The Pack A.D. here in Milwaukee at the end of March. The lighting at The Backroom Colectivo sucks so it’s hard to tell how dynamic Convert are from these photos.

My top tracks from Saves are the EBM/Nitzer-Ebbish opener “Bleached Bones,” “Concrete Life” which recalls the good, old Ministry “Stigmata” and “Thieves” days, Convert’s first video/album single “Slow Choke” and the nihilistic “Watch It Burn,” which Dillon described to Milwaukee Record as exemplifying “the fruitless fight to solve the overwhelming horror of humanity and then ultimately accepting its hopeless cycle. It’s meant to express the beauty of our chaotic existence and the liberating feeling of letting go because no one is bothering to put out the flames. The song describes generations of souls watching in awe of the all-consuming flames until the last generation inherits the ash.”