Converge

Converge are a hardcore band from Salem, Massachusetts, formed in 1990. Starting as teenagers channeling Slayer riffs into hardcore punk, they became one of the defining acts of the metallic hardcore and mathcore movements, known for jagged, poly-rhythmic guitar work, unpredictable time signatures, and vocalist Jacob Bannon's raw, throat-shredding delivery paired with his own striking cover art.

The band's classic lineup — Bannon, guitarist and producer Kurt Ballou, bassist Nate Newton, and drummer Ben Koller — solidified around the release of «Jane Doe» in 2001, an album widely regarded as a landmark of extreme, emotionally devastating hardcore. Ballou's own Godcity Studio became a hub for the genre, and Converge's sound influenced a generation of heavier bands blending hardcore aggression with metal precision and noise-rock texture.

Albums like «You Fail Me», «No Heroes», «Axe to Fall», «All We Love We Leave Behind» and «The Dusk in Us» carried the band through decades without major lineup change, a rarity in hardcore. In 2021 they expanded into a new collaborative branch with Chelsea Wolfe, Ben Chisholm, and Stephen Brodsky, releasing material under the «Bloodmoon» banner, blending Converge's intensity with Wolfe's atmospheric, gothic sensibility.