Love Is Not Enough

It seems unlikely that anyone who has been making music for more than three decades would create one of their best works for their eleventh album. And yet Love is Not Enough might be the apotheosis of Converge’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.

From the opening fusillade of the title track to the closing hurricane of “We Were Never the Same,” Love Is Not Enough is a sonorous balance of vitality and viciousness that reflects the chaos and uncertainty of the times we live in. “There’s always obstacles in the world,” Bannon says. “Personal, professional, economical, whatever. But I feel like we’re in a pressure cooker somewhere on our evolutionary line. It’s a lot just to be a human being in the modern world, trying to function, maintain, grow, have empathy, have compassion. It takes more than it used to, to do all those things.” The album title itself says everything about the trials of today. “The line ‘Love is not enough’ is something I had kicking around for a while,” Bannon says. “Some of the things I wrote at the time were from a human resilience perspective, an acceptance of the brutality and unforgiving nature of the world. I was reflecting on that in poetic form and set it aside. When we got into the studio, it all fit together.”

Love Is Not Enough was recorded and mixed by Kurt Ballou at God City 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.”

Released: February 2026
Cat: DW266V1
Label: Deathwish Inc.

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