“Love Is Not Enough” — the upcoming album from CONVERGE — might be the apotheosis of the band’s decades-long journey through the punk, hardcore and metal microcosm. What vocalist/lyricist Jacob Bannon, guitarist/producer Kurt Ballou, bassist/vocalist Nate Newton and drummer Ben Koller have created is a strident artistic statement on the turmoil of living that hones their collective strengths to a razor’s edge.
There isn’t an ounce of fat on the album. Every song moves with a power and purpose that eclipses their human origins, that speaks to the anger, pain, and frustration of the modern age. From the opening fusillade of the title track to the closing hurricane of “We Were Never The Same”, which premieres today, “Love Is Not Enough” is a sonorous balance of vitality and viciousness that reflects the chaos and uncertainty of the times we live in.
Bannon comments on the track: “I wrote these words in the parking lot of a funeral home while reflecting on loss. Why do we gather to mourn but not to cherish? It’s an honest question that exposes our collective distractions and shortcomings. Grief brings clarity. We all must do better.”
For more than three decades, CONVERGE has delivered musical and emotional catharsis, putting purpose before perception and intent before interpretation. Whether it’s the band’s 2001 landmark recording “Jane Doe” or the 2021 “Bloodmoon: I” collaboration, CONVERGE has created some of the most compelling music, lyrics, and visual art of the 21st century. During that time, fewer bands have had a greater impact on the underground imagination.
“Love Is Not Enough” — due on February 13, 2026 via Epitaph — features no special guests, no studio trickery, no relentless massaging of human imperfection in trying to manufacture the perfect take.
“I think that realism is missing from a lot of modern music of any genre, but especially our genre,” Bannon says. “Things either go super raw and almost chaotic to the point where it’s distracting, or bands take the life out of what they’re doing by editing every aspect. Sometimes the perfect take is the one that has some wildness to it. It’s not perfectly executed. There’s a lot of powerful moments on this record and a lot of angry moments. The realism amplifies that.”
Unlike so many albums that adhere to a time-honored sequencing format, cherry-picking favoured tracks for the all-important first, second, and final spots, “Love Is Not Enough” is all about momentum. “It does a thing that no other CONVERGE record does — it keeps ramping up,” Bannon says. “And that’s definitely by design. Internally, we passed around dozens of ideas for sequencing because everyone interprets music differently, and there’s no right way of doing it. When we do that, we always joke that we all have to be equally unhappy. But this is the one that works.”
“Love Is Not Enough” was recorded and mixed by Kurt Ballou at GodCity in Salem, Massachusetts, with engineering assistance from Zach Weeks. Jacob Bannon did the artwork and design, creating an image for each song and a commanding cover depicting a celestial witness to a world aflame.
“We still identify this band as the outlet that’s essential to our lives,” Bannon says. “We give everything we have to it. Being past your average middle age, we’re starting to see deeper than before into a variety of places. And I don’t think that’s specific to us. I think that’s something that’s utterly relatable.”
“Love Is Not Enough” track listing:
01. Love Is Not Enough
02. Bad Faith
03. Distract And Divide
04. To Feel Something
05. Beyond Repair
06. Amon Amok
07. Force Meets Presence
08. Gilded Cage
09. Make Me Forget You
10. We Were Never The Same
Photo credit: Jason Zucco
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source blabbermouth.net ’
