Hi, everyone. Lovethony Istano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Converge album, Love Is Not Enough.

Massachusetts metalcore legends here, Converge, back with their 11th full-length album, Love Is Not Enough, out via Epitaph Records and Death Wish, too. It is their first record in five years because the band's last was pretty much that collaborative crossover they did with none other than Chelsea Wolfe, Bloodmoon: I, which, is there even going to be a Bloodmoon: II? I don't know. We'll just have to see.

But it's also the band's first solo just band full-length since 2017's The Dusk In Us. So yeah, about a decade now at this point with Love Is Not Enough. But you know what? When you have essentially crafted one of the most impressive, well-aging and consistent discographies in all of metalcore, you can afford to take your time.

Now, frontman Jacob Bannon has said in the lead up to this album that this is a very vulnerable and very emotionally intense album for the band. Immersive as well, reflecting on the world surrounding them right now and how they're navigating it as a group, personally, too. It's also been said that the intentions behind this album were for it to be very pure, raw, and reflect on who Converge is as a band, a musical unit that's been functioning for about 30 years now. A desire that is partially in reaction to the way the COVID pandemic impacted the group, their collective perception of time as a band, knowing that they really needed to make a record right now.

And with that in mind, went into the studio wanting to essentially lay down tracks for an LP like they might have for an album back in the day, which makes Love Is Not Enough almost a return to form type of album for Converge, which is interesting because it's felt like a lot of the band's creative energy since the 2010s hit has gone into producing and making records that feel restlessly creative, like the band is trying to find new and innovative ways to enhance their sound and vary it up, be it either again with that Chelsea Wolfe collaboration or through other recent releases that have seen them dabbling more in post-hardcore. Sludge metal is a means of bringing more melody and dynamics into the fold.

But the focus on Love Is Not Enough, is very much not around that. It's more around messaging. It's more around intensity. Again, coming back to this phrase of "a return to form" in a way, I wouldn't say the band is doing that here as much as they are giving us maybe one of their most direct albums in years. Because it's not like they're simply going back to the mathcore chaos of Jane Doe or You Fail Me on this LP. This is more like a to the point Converge with a lot of riffs and drums and structures that lean much more into straight up hardcore punk while still bringing the heaviness and relentless ferocity that you want from a Converge album.

Love Is Not Enough is a very tight 10 tracks and 30 minutes of runtime. And pretty much every track here has something about it that makes it stand out from the bunch, be it the title track, which features these pumping riffs and cleanly talk-shouted vocals, a rock and roll-flavored guitar solo, too, all of which are a very nice contrast from the heavy monstrous gang vocal hooks that cover much of the track. Also, the sentiment of the song revolving around the idea that love is not enough to fight off or fend off the savages, the worst of the world right now. I can't disagree.

There are definitely similar sentiments being echoed on the track "Bad Faith" with refrains like, "We can't give up on us". It's very much a track about not giving up in the face of pressure, of oppression, which, yes, is a very prescient statement at the moment, but simultaneously plays into some very tried and true lyrical hardcore tropes. The band knows exactly what they're doing, calling back to doing a song like this. We get even more great messaging on the track "Distract and Divide". "Complacency spreads / As technology thrives / Predation by proxy / Arming all sides". There are a few times in the Converge catalog where their social commentary has felt more apt. Making sure that what is being said on this track isn't merely just a statement on power hierarchies, but literally an address to the tech oligarch freaks. It's a great track and another killer contribution to a stellar first leg for this project.

There's also "To Feel Something" which very much lives up to its title, especially with these harmonious but dark guitar passages and desperate cries of numbness comes when. I just love the way that the band plays with space and clean vocals on this record. Once again, contrasting that from harsher, heavier, more guttural vocal passages. There's also some amazingly chunky riffs around the bridge of this track that are going to sound insane at the live show.

Then after this point, we get the "Beyond Repair" instrumental centerpiece transition moment on the record, which is very dark, very murky, very repetitive, and quite lengthy, too. Personally, I think it could have been pared down a little bit or maybe progressed in some way, but it does effectively break up the flow of the tracklist a little bit because there are some varied cuts on the record to follow from here, like "Among Amok", which is not a highlight here for me, but it is the slowest and persistently heaviest song on the entire album. Again, not blowing me away, not one of my favorite Converge tracks of all time, but it does serve a purpose in the tracklist insofar as that there's no other track on the record quite like it. It certainly keeps things from sounding too samey, that's for sure.

Then on "Force Meets Presence", the heat gets turned back up, not only with that trademark Converge-type mayhem, but more guitar work that is reminiscent of a rock and roll vibe. I would even say some glam metal, dark, harmonized guitar leads soaring across a few different points of the track, too, that sound, frankly, amazing and are an insane placement for a Converge track. It's like maybe one of the most theatrical guitar sounds to ever make it into a Converge song. Very much not their usual thing, and somehow it still works, resulting in one of my favorite tracks here, no question.

Then "Gilded Cage" plays with more open space and sad, dreary vocal and guitar passages. I would even say the vocal performance sounds pained and emo-influenced here. Some of those emocore roots seem to be surfacing back up a little bit on this track for the band, which frankly, I think is pretty cool. Again, maybe not a return to form album, but certainly like a back to basics record for Converge, and somehow they sound really fresh doing it.

And speaking of a blast from the past, I would say, "Make Me Forget You", despite a different lyrical approach here, does have big Axe To Fall energy between Kurt's guitar work and Ben's drumming. It doesn't do too much more other than make me a little nostalgic for that era, but still, it's a solid track.

And then "We Were Never the Same" is this album's final track. In my opinion, it's a very strong message to end the album off on. The way that I read it personally is that it's very much an observation on how isolated and atomized society and people generally have become from each other. And nothing has essentially been gained from that. There have been no net positives, only distance, only a lack of understanding of where people are, respectively, what suffering each of us are going through. And then the most oppressed and vulnerable amongst us are suffering the most due to this lack of empathy and togetherness and community. Also referencing the idea of losing your innocence when you choose not to look away from these great horrors that may be acted upon others.

But yeah, again, in terms of messaging, really one of the most powerful albums that Converge has come together with in quite a while. The way the band treats vocals on this record makes certain parts, certain tracks, especially hooky, structuring and recording these songs to be as high impact and intelligible as possible and giving all of it this hard core punk energy and flair. It really is a winning formula, and it's also just inspiring to see Converge at this point. Still very much not sounding like your average aging metalcore act that's farting out an album just because they can or they have to, where they're putting in no effort, phoning it in, doing something bland and predictable.

Because still, after all these years, Converge's sound, their performance style, still has more guts to it even than some young up and coming bands, all of which is why I'm very much feeling a decent to strong 8 on this record.

Anthony Fantano, Converge, Love Is Not Enough. Forever.