Converge – Love Is Not Enough
Over the course of 35 years, Massachusetts metallic hardcore legends Converge have sharpened their craft to the point of mastery. Converge’s art is of frenetic emotionalism—their performances showcase dizzying instrumentation, roaring riffs, a hybrid of crushing abrasion and melodic rush, further heightened by frontman Jacob Bannon’s evocative lyrics and anguished vocal performances.
This ferocious artistry is on full display throughout their eleventh album, Love Is Not Enough. The band are a relentless force of adrenaline, pummeling and shredding their way through the album’s concise yet potent 31 minutes. Yet amid the whirlwind, Bannon’s lyrics speak to personal struggles, and how we endure them as a community.
As the album roars to life with the title track, Bannon speaks to people finding connection through hardship, and how perseverance in the face of cruelty requires action. “Don’t trust a soul / if it does not fall / We learn nothing without gaping wounds / We must grow to stomach the taste of our own blood / We have to accept that love is not enough.” As a prime showcase of Converge operating at full force, the group unleashes an intense fusion of grinding tone and thrashy speed to match Bannon’s screams.
Throughout Love Is Not Enough, Bannon speaks to the struggle to find solace in a world in chaos. His use of poetic allusion never comes across too vague, allowing his messages to land with clarity. In “Bad Faith,” he addresses the feeling of watching a loved one being used by someone and having no power in the situation: “Today, I saw the face of love in pain / with a sadness that couldn’t wash away.” “Distract and Divide” sees Bannon speaking to systems that aim to divide our attention while profiting off our suffering: “Complacency spreads as technology thrives / Predation by proxy arming all sides.” Each song offers an idea worth meditating on, yet there’s a central question being screamed throughout: What can we do for those around us, and for ourselves, to create a more loving world?
Bolstering Bannon’s emotional wisdom are some of the band’s most blistering compositions in years, ramping up the ferocity after the slower, more dirge-driven sound of 2021’s Bloodmoon: I. Guitarist Kurt Ballou, bassist Nate Newton and drummer Ben Koller maneuver between stylization and crafting structures with greater depth beneath the impact. They’re constantly shifting speed throughout “To Feel Something,” with an ever-flowing and shifting air of anxiety. On “Make Me Forget You,” Bannon’s screams coast on a d-beat gallop, with bass and drums thunderously pumping through the production to create an intoxicating surge of adrenaline. Toward the song’s end, the rhythmic sprint eases off to offer a slower atmosphere tinged with melancholic sounding melody, just one of many high points that reinforce the band’s status as a technical powerhouse.
Love Is Not Enough is one of the strongest records of Converge’s career thus far. It’s a relentlessly riveting work of exhilarating instrumental performances and beautiful, heart wrenching lyrics. Yet regardless of how dark Bannon’s lyrics may get, there’s always a sense of hope. The phrase “love is not enough” in itself may sound pessimistic, but it’s mostly a reminder: there must be effort behind it. “We all struggle with these things: showing up, being present when we need to be,” he recently told me. “Being focused when we need to be; being loving, compassionate, empathetic when the time calls.” Though there’s introspection and work to be done, love is still key to survival.
Label: Epitaph
Year: 2026
Similar Albums:
