At last night’s CONVERGE show at the Middle East in Cambridge, it was evident the single clenched fist has replaced the double “devil horns” as the new symbol of metal solidarity.

The CQ Presents gig sold out a week in advance, it was obvious that no one decided to stay home, with each attending patron sporting either a dirty Sox hat, a neck tattoo, a neatly trimmed beard, or a combination of the three.

Pointy-eared, ivory-tower webternet theorists and starched-collar marketing gurus love to talk about the power of social networking. And major record labels have spent millions combatting internet music piracy. But today they all should be taking a lesson from Boston hardcore heroes CONVERGE.

Two days ago, when Converge's new album Axe To Fall leaked to the internet (its official release date is October 20), the band did something that appears to be unprecedented: they publicly shamed the leaker.

Without a doubt, the most fun we've ever had shooting video? No contest: CONVERGE, at the end of March, kicking off a short small-venue tour before hitting the studio to record their next album, throwing down at the International Community Church in Allston. We stopped trying to come up with words for them a long time ago, which is why we're so psyched to present this audio/visual record: just fucking look at it, for fuck's sake. Above, they rip through a ten-year-old epic, "The Saddest Day" -- but wait for the part where they sneak in the riff from the new Metallica record. Two more insane clips and links to new songs after the jump . . .