CONVERGE have released "Love Is Not Enough," their first album featuring the core-four lineup since 2017's "The Dusk In Us." Out today via Epitaph Records, the record was recorded and mixed by guitarist Kurt Ballou at his legendary GodCity Studios in Salem, Massachusetts -- the same facility where Ballou has produced landmark records for CAVE IN, NAILS, HIGH ON FIRE, CODE ORANGE, and dozens of other heavy acts over the past two decades. GodCity has become one of the most important studios in extreme music, and having CONVERGE record there lends the album an authenticity that no outside production could replicate.
Frontman Jacob Bannon described the album as one that "keeps ramping up" from start to finish, with no guest musicians or studio trickery -- just the raw chemistry of four musicians who have played together for over three decades. Bannon, Ballou, bassist Nate Newton, and drummer Ben Koller formed CONVERGE in 1990 in Salem, Massachusetts, and their interplay remains one of the most volatile and precise partnerships in extreme music. The band's ability to channel chaos into tightly controlled bursts of sonic violence is unmatched in the hardcore and metalcore world.
The artwork, created by Bannon himself through his Deathwish Inc. design studio, depicts a celestial witness to a world aflame -- a recurring motif in his visual art that mirrors the band's apocalyptic sonic palette. Bannon's artwork has long been inseparable from the CONVERGE identity, with his visceral designs for "Jane Doe," "All We Love We Leave Behind," and "The Dusk In Us" becoming iconic within the hardcore community and beyond. His visual art has been exhibited in galleries worldwide and has influenced an entire generation of album cover aesthetics.
Early reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, praising CONVERGE for delivering one of the most intense albums of their career. Critics have noted the band's refusal to mellow with age, instead doubling down on the chaotic hardcore and metallic fury that defined records like "You Fail Me" and "Axe To Fall." The album clocks in at a lean and punishing runtime, wasting not a single second across its tracklist. Several publications have already positioned it as a leading contender for album of the year in heavy music circles.