Converge Release New Album “Love Is Not Enough”

For more than three decades, Converge have delivered musical and emotional catharsis, putting purpose before perception and intent before interpretation. Whether it’s their 2001 landmark recording Jane Doe or their 2021 Bloodmoon: I collaboration, Converge have created some of the most compelling music, lyrics, and visual art of the 21^st century. During that time, fewer bands have had a greater impact on the underground imagination.

It seems unlikely that anyone who has been making music for this long would create one of their best works for their eleventh album, in their 35^th year as a band. And yet: Love Is Not Enough— out today on CD/Digital, incoming March 13 on vinyl— might be the apotheosis of Converge’s decades-long journey through the punk, hardcore and metal microcosm. What vocalist/lyricist Jacob Bannon, guitarist/producer Kurt Ballou, bassist/vocalist Nate Newton and drummer Ben Koller have created is a strident artistic statement on the turmoil of living that hones their collective strengths to a razor’s edge.

The band comments on the album: “As a standalone statement, the meaning is subjective— up to you. Love is an essential foundation for everything, yet it is not strong enough on its own to withstand the storm that life brings.”

Love Is Not Enough features no special guests, no studio trickery, no relentless massaging of human imperfection in trying to manufacture the perfect take. “I think that realism is missing from a lot of modern music of any genre, but especially our genre,” Bannon says. “Things either go super raw and almost chaotic to the point where it’s distracting, or bands take the life out of what they’re doing by editing every aspect. Sometimes the perfect take is the one that has some wildness to it. It’s not perfectly executed. There’s a lot of powerful moments on this record and a lot of angry moments. The realism amplifies that.”

Unlike so many albums that adhere to a time-honoured sequencing format, cherry-picking favoured tracks for the all-important first, second, and final spots, Love Is Not Enough is all about momentum. “It does a thing that no other Converge record does—it keeps ramping up,” Bannon says. “And that’s definitely by design. Internally, we passed around dozens of ideas for sequencing because everyone interprets music differently and there’s no right way of doing it. When we do that, we always joke that we all have to be equally unhappy. But this is the one that works.”

Love Is Not Enough was recorded and mixed by Kurt Ballou at God City in Salem, Massachusetts, with engineering assistance from Zach Weeks. Jacob Bannon did the artwork and design, creating an image for each song and a commanding cover depicting a celestial witness to a world aflame.  “We still identify this band as the outlet that’s essential to our lives,” Bannon says. “We give everything we have to it. Being past your average middle age, we’re starting to see deeper than before into a variety of places. And I don’t think that’s specific to us. I think that’s something that’s utterly relatable.”

See Converge on tour in Europe this spring— tickets here.

Converge, on tour:

25 Jun – Ysselsteyn, NL – Jera on Air
26 Jun – Rennes, FR – Superbowl of Hardcore
27 Jun – Manchester, UK – Outbreak Festival
28 Jun – Antwerp, BE – Kavka Zappa ^
29 Jun – Cologne, DE – Essigfabrik ^
01 Jul – Trutnov, CZ – Obscene Extreme Festival
02 Jul – Vienna, AT – Arena ^
03 Jul – Milan, IT – Circolo Magnolia ^
04 Jul – Viveiro, ES – Resurrection Fest

^ with Heriot, Boneflower, Crouch