Converge’s Kurt Ballou is a Goddamn American Hero

“The Star Spangled Banner” is to rock guitarists as Hamlet is to actors, which is to say, everyone wants to try and prove they can pull it off, but few actually can. The same way the towering legacies of John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier ultimately proved insurmountable for Keanu Reeves and Mel Gibson, most guitarists cannot escape the looming shadow of Jimi Hendrix.

But Converge’s Kurt Ballou is no mere Mel Gibson, simple Slash. He might seem an unlikely candidate to totally nail “The Star Spangled Banner” because it’s hard to picture him indulging in any form of passionate jingoism. But sometimes the toughest man does not make the tenderest turkey.

Here’s Ballou creating aural fireworks at the recent Final Flatland Fracas. Don’t listen to it around anyone impressionable, for it may fill them with the overwhelming desire to go enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces.

[via Metal Insider]