“Anyone not happy with the new Converge? Like, Bloodmoon: I was so cool and forward-thinking, but this is how they’re following it up? After five years? This is just a normal Converge album! Disappointed!”
If that’s you, then you’re grasping at straws situated on the dark side of the moon, friend. Come on—this is Converge we’re talking about here! They’re one of the most seminal heavy bands of the modern era; any band worth their gnarly salt has been produced by Kurt Ballou. Their legacy is practically untouchable, and the fact that they’re still giving no indication of slowing down? How can you feel anything other than elated by that?
So while it’s true that Love Is Not Enough isn’t another doom-flavoured opus with added Chelsea Wolfe to season, it’s far from a backpedal. Even for what you might consider a ‘back-to-basics’ approach for Converge, and their shortest album to date, this isn’t some settled, late-period phone-in. Quite the opposite, actually; the first four tracks in sequence are an ample illustration of metalcore’s elder statesmen at their most unfetteredly chaotic. With Distract And Divide and To Feel Something especially, you’d almost believe that Converge have a point to prove in how mangled and unfriendly they are. Neither eclipses two minutes, but the combination of Jacob Bannon’s opaque gnashing, Ben Koller’s flammable percussion and a pitch-black mix ensures they’re still plenty worthwhile.
For as quickly as Love Is Not Enough moves along, there’s not a second of wasted space to be found. Even at just a touch over half an hour, there’s considerable flow and evolution that takes place, all of which feels entirely purposeful. In Bannon’s own words, “it keeps ramping up”, and that’s an entirely accurate assessment. Beyond Repair is the point where it becomes apparent, a bleak post-metal instrumental that might seem to tighten the leash after To Feel Something rages, but serves to open the album’s next phase for Converge to double their efforts. The back half of Love Is Not Enough is overall slower and more traditionally metallic in places, which Converge can meet with aplomb. The big, bombastic guitar rips on Force Meet Pressure almost have a melodeath feel to them; later, the production of Make Me Forget You encroaches upon a black-metal frost-blast.
The tightness of Converge, a band now in their 36th year of life, can’t be overstated. Though not the revelation that Jane Doe was in 2001, the ethos has gone unchanged, and thus, you get a band acutely aware of their strengths. Decades of growth and refinement manifest in Love Is Not Enough’s ferocity and confrontational openness, striking as hard as they ever did. It helps when you’ve got a vocalist like Bannon who’s the ideal mouthpiece for all of this. If you must nitpick, his ‘cleaner’ shouts don’t amputate as swiftly as his screams, though them being a clear minority makes that a bit of a moot complaint. And even then, a song like Gilded Cage that crafts itself from raw, tense nerve—think of it almost as a metallic La Dispute song—is a perfect outlet for that exact style of delivery.
Other than all of that…look, it’s a Converge album; after ten of ‘em, you have to realise there’s a set bar that isn’t going to be a problem to clear. Especially for a band like this who are so creatively individual, Love Is Not Enough sits most comfortably as a worthy new inclusion to the catalogue. That’s to say, it’s not beating any doors down that Converge haven’t previously left as splinters, nor will it be their private music-esque reach-out to a new, wider audience. What it is, is the kind of inhumanly strong Converge album that’s become their benchmark for ages. Just keep that in mind for any post-Bloodmoon gripes you may see about this being just ‘normal’. (It’s hard to picture that actually happening, in truth, but gotta keep your bases covered, y’know?)
For fans of: The Dillinger Escape Plan, Poison The Well, Nails
‘Love Is Not Enough’ by Converge is released on 13th February on Epitaph Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall
