Converge are a hardcore band from the US and this is their tenth album, (or eleventh if you count their collaboration with Chelsea Wolfe).
Love Is Not Enough is the hotly anticipated follow up to 2017’s The Dusk in Us and 2018’s Beautiful Ruin. It must be stated early on that Converge have not disappointed – Love Is Not Enough is excellent.
Converge’s passion for their music has always been obvious, and you can instantly tell that Love Is Not Enough is no different; the band are energised, pissed off, and ready to riot. Combining hardcore aggression with metallic substance and lashings of Converge’s well-developed personality, the songs exemplify the band’s inimitable style. Basically, it’s an absolutely winning combination.
The highest praise I can lavish upon Love Is Not Enough is that it sounds like Converge. The band have carved out an individuality rare in extreme music, and this new album provides listeners with the sort of high quality songcraft, sound, and delivery we’ve come to expect from this iconic act. That’s not to say they sound stale or don’t try anything different – far from it. As just one example, Force Meets Presence has an unexpected speed metal influence, (as well as some crushingly massive riffs). Or maybe another example might be Bad Faith, which features the most blatant example of an Entombed-worship riff they’ve done, (outside of their storming cover of Wolverine Blues).
The songs are very moreish. They grab you fiercely when you first encounter them, but then increasingly hold you close over time and drag you further and further down into their idiosyncratic world. Love Is Not Enough is inescapable and infectious. Brutal, but nuanced, the songs beat you down with both furious violence and emotive weight. Even Beyond Repair, which could have been a pointless interlude in a lesser band’s hands, is a brooding tension-filled mood-piece that sits perfectly in its place in the running order.
There’s a flow to this collection of tracks that works very nicely indeed. Along with the content of the music itself, Love Is Not Enough feels like a complete and well-rounded record. There’s a little over 30 minutes of material here, and it’s all perfectly executed. Roughly speaking, the first half of the record is a bit more aggressively direct, (the first four tracks), whereas the second half is more jagged and diverse, (the final five tracks), blending a few different influences into their style, both old and new. I should note that it’s not quite as linear or simplistic as this, but you get the general idea. As the album moves through its running time it keeps getting more expansive, diving ever deeper into feeling-rich waters, while maintaining that core intensity that Converge do so well.
As you’ve probably guessed, Converge are one of my favourite bands of all time, and Love Is Not Enough is a fantastic addition to their discography. What more can I say? You need this record in your life.
Utterly essential.
Wonderbox Metal 