Review Summary: Trends are temporary, Converge is permanent
This is Converge’s first standalone LP in nearly nine years (not withstanding Bloodmoon with Chelsea Wolfe). During those nine years, the world and the metal scene has changed a lot. But this album proves the old adage:
trends are temporary. class are permanent. Even pushing 50, Converge make almost every other band in this lane look second rate in comparison. They have built a career on emotional truth, not gimmicks. Beneath the razor-sharp riffs, the blistering drums, and the throat-shredding yells has always been this core of honesty and vulnerability that made albums like You Fail Me, All We Love We Leave Behind, and of course Jane Doe, stick with people on a deep level.
This is also the shortest Converge album ever—30 minutes: all killer, no filler. If
The Dusk In Us and
Bloodmoon felt expansive and experimental,
Love Is Not Enough is the opposite: pure lean brutality. The musical equivalent of being thrown into a trash compactor.
While I would never really consider Converge to be a political band in the traditional sense, this does feels like the most politically influenced album they’ve done. In line with that, this is the angriest and heaviest they’ve sounded in forever. And with songs titles like ‘Bad Faith’ and ‘Distract and Divide’ it feels pretty pointed and venomous.
The first half of the record is pure chaos and violence. Take the title track— a blistering intro with gnarly riffs, that's super aggro from minute one. Or
“Bad Faith”, which opens with an Entombed-style riff that makes you want to fight everyone at your workplace and spinkick your boss. I love Jake’s emotional vocals as he yells’
“you can’t give up, I can’t give up”. The intensity and tempo really ramps up at the end, then you get the mathy, frantic storm of
“Distract and Divide”, which goes hard as all ***. Its 90 seconds of pure fury, totally feral ***. Borderline powerviolence. These guys have no business going this ***ing hard circling 50 years old. We then get the gnarly, groove-heavy punch of
“To Feel Something.”
At the halfway point you hit
“Beyond Repair” which is a low and slow interlude. On it’s own, its nothing outstanding, but it does a good job of a) giving you some breathing room after the brutality of the first half, and b) creating and building an atmosphere, before dropping into
“Amon Amok”, which crushes your spine with industrial-tinged sludge riffs and these big gang vocals. Then
“Force Meets Presence” kicks a bunch of ass with marching rhythms and brain-bending, mathy chaos. The second half of the album becomes more dynamic—still intense, but more emotionally rich. And I love how the band use space to provide moments to breathe while still maintaining this dark, tense atmosphere. Considering how tight this album and these tracks are, its pretty remarkable.
The end run of the album is when the emotion gets cranked up.
“Gilded Cage” has a slower build up with the bass at the forefront. Once again Jacob’s vocals come off with plenty of emotion. I also love the smoky, twangy guitars in the back.
“Make Me Forget You,” features probably the most melodic riffs on the whole album and is probably the emotional highpont of the album. The bridge is devastating, the chorus is huge, and I love the outro which again allows a reprieve while building up the atmosphere, dropping perfectly into the closer.
“We Were Never the Same” isn’t a giant, apocalyptic closer like “Jane Doe” or “Reptilian,” but it doesn’t need to be. I enjoyed it as a single, and it hits even harder in the running of the album. It’s mid-tempo, but loaded with emotional weight.
The only downside for me is I would have liked more curveballs or experimentation, like the post-rock/post-metal tracks from The Dusk In Us or AWLWLB, but the trade-off is a ruthless, concise, no-bull*** record that hits every mark it aims for.
Love Is Not Enough is Converge doing what Converge do best: punishing listeners emotionally and sonically to make extreme music that feels alive, urgent, and deeply human. It’s shorter, tighter, angrier, and more focused than they’ve sounded in years. Not their best album ever—but an excellent one nonetheless.
Full video review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_OEQ5PCpxc
