Converge

Converge stood out from the start as trailblazers within metalcore, holding firm as one of the most distinctive and forward-thinking groups to surface from the punk underground. Their artistic identity crystallized with the pivotal 2001 album Jane Doe, maturing past the roster flux and sonic experimentation that marked their early hardcore years. Growth continued after they inked a deal with Epitaph Records, delivering detailed and rigorously crafted albums such as 2012’s All We Love We Leave Behind, 2017’s The Dusk in Us, and 2021’s Bloodmoon: I. Each successive release outsold the one before it, prompting the musicians to stretch their creative reach and intensify the force of heavy music throughout their long-running career.

The band took shape in Salem, Massachusetts during the winter of 1990/1991. Following a string of singles, compilation spots, and typical early struggles, they issued their debut full-length, Halo in a Haystack, in 1994. Founding members included vocalist and visual artist Jacob Bannon, guitarist Kurt Ballou, bassist Jeff Feinburg, and drummer Damon Bellorado, with second guitarist Aaron Dalbec arriving the same year and departing in 2001 without a replacement. Over time, several members also participated in side projects such as Kingdom of the Sun, Old Man Gloom, and Kid Kilowatt, the brief outfit that also featured players from Cave In.

Hydra Head released Caring and Killing in 1996, assembling material from the group’s formative phase, and Equal Vision followed a year later with Petitioning the Empty Sky. Cave In’s Stephen Brodsky stepped in for bassist Feinburg in 1997, and the 1998 album When Forever Comes Crashing confirmed Converge as a serious presence in the hardcore-metal landscape. Brodsky exited that same year and was succeeded by bassist Nate Newton; Bellorado left in 1999, after which drummer Ben Koller joined. A split with Japan’s Hellchild appeared in 2001 via Death Wish, Inc., the label co-owned by Bannon, before the band’s rising stature was reinforced by the widely praised fourth album, the metal landmark Jane Doe.

By this point Converge were viewed as one of the most singular acts to arise from the punk underground. The musicians logged more than 600 concerts during these years, though their efforts preserved a devoted following inside the punk scene rather than yielding the mainstream breakthrough that carried some other punk acts onto alternative radio. Scarce and deleted tracks were gathered for the 2003 compilation Unloved and Weeded Out, after which the band returned in 2004 with You Fail Me, its first release on Epitaph. Dependable and unrelenting, Bannon, Ballou, Koller, and Newton resurfaced in October 2006 with No Heroes and three years later with Axe to Fall, the latter featuring contributions from members of Cave In, Neurosis, and the Red Chord.

All We Love We Leave Behind, the eighth studio album, arrived in 2012. You Fail Me Redux, a remixed and remastered edition of the 2004 album handled by Ballou and Alan Douches with new artwork by Bannon, surfaced in 2016. A complete live reading of Jane Doe captured at the Dutch Roadburn Festival was issued in 2017 as Jane Live. Later that year the band unveiled the single “Under Duress,” drawn from the sixth full-length The Dusk in Us, which reached stores in November and climbed to number 60 on the Billboard 200. Four additional tracks from those sessions formed the Beautiful Ruin EP in summer 2018. In 2021 Converge collaborated with doom-folk artist Chelsea Wolfe, her bandmate Ben Chisholm, and Cave In vocalist/guitarist Steve Brodsky on the atmospheric Bloodmoon: I.