Converge Review: Love Is Not Enough – Metalcore veterans’ rage remains fresh and angry | metal

Metalcore became a watered-down premise, associated more with bands writing processed lyrical choruses, than with the mixture of metal techno and punk rock fury that it began with. Converge’s 2001 Jane Doe feat still stands the A masterpiece from the genre’s pre-bastard days: as vicious as a pit bull, yet played by men unafraid to test the limits, as evidenced by the tortured 11-minute title track. The New Englanders never rested on their laurels, with subsequent releases emphasizing various shades of their trademark chaos.

The band’s tenth album and first in nine years (the Chelsea Wolfe collaboration Bloodmoon: I’m Not Included), Love Is Not Enough, condenses their carnage, complexity and emotional pain into the shortest running time ever. The distraction, the division, and the feeling of something are angry and tightly arranged, as if napalm and lethal death have combined to strangle you through the speakers.

There is much more than just anger in this 30-minute attack. “We Were Never the Same” oozes pure adrenaline through a guitar melody, while Beyond Repair is an ominous interlude that makes the trap beats of follow-up track Amon Amok hit like a rugby. “Make Me Forget You” stabs with devastation rather than physical rage, as Jacob Bannon screams in agony over a hum.

It’s rare for a metal band to still sound fresh long after they’ve formed, and even rarer when they spend almost their entire career in one subgenre. But Converge has an endless well of inspiration. Masters of Metalcore, both in 2001 and 2026.