# Converge (band)

Converge is an American metalcore band formed by vocalist and artist Jacob Bannon and guitarist and producer Kurt Ballou in Salem, Massachusetts in 1990. While recording their landmark fourth album Jane Doe in 2001, the group became a four-piece with the departure of guitarist Aaron Dalbec and the addition of bassist Nate Newton and drummer Ben Koller. This lineup has remained intact since. The members have also been involved in various side-projects and collaborations, including the bands Supermachiner (Bannon), Old Man Gloom (Newton), and Mutoid Man (Koller). With their extremely aggressive and boundary-pushing sound, rooted in hardcore and heavy metal, they are pioneers of metalcore and its subgenre, mathcore.

## Song lyrics
### Jane Doe (2001)

* That's where they die That's where they suicide
** "Distance and Meaning," as quoted by Christopher Dare of Pitchfork (July 2, 2002)
* No love! No hope!
** "Homewrecker," as quoted by Christopher Dare of Pitchfork (July 2, 2002)

## Quotes about Converge

* Converge are known as the pioneers of the metalcore genre — the widely popular metal style heard throughout modern metal that amalgamates elements of hardcore and metal. [...] While the band’s influence and contributions to heavy and extreme music are greater than their popularity, Converge has one of the most loyal cult followings in the hardcore and metal communities.
** Quentin Thane Singer of Forbes (Oct 9, 2024)
* Converge are a world unto themselves. They're one of the first names anyone mentions while trying to sum up "metalcore" in a few words. They're one of the most influential heavy bands of the last two decades. The Jane Doe cover art has created one of the most iconic T-shirts in underground rock music. And crucially, Converge as an entity is bigger than the sum of its parts.
** Graham Hartmann of Revolver (September 4, 2023)
* As pioneers and groundbreakers of metalcore, Converge maintained consistent status as one of the most original and innovative bands to emerge from the punk underground.
** Stacia Proefrock of AllMusic
* From the first dissonant notes of “The Saddest Day,” it was undeniable that a new extreme formula had been discovered, blending hardcore and extreme metal together with an ingenious, progressive, chaotic twist. “The Saddest Day” is what a hungry band sounds like — saying “fuck it” to the status quo of their scene and freely experimenting with every dynamic they could conjure up.
** Graham Hartmann of Revolver (September 4, 2023)
* If you're not familiar with this kind of music you might be blown back by the apocalyptic screech of frontman Jacob Bannon's vocals. It's clear with each gritty blast that the guy is screaming out his lungs for you. Naturally, you can't follow a single word but the vox bleed into the furious guitars and it's all acidic corrosion.
** Christopher Dare of Pitchfork (July 2, 2002)
* Despite their tendon-tearing, odd-time calisthenics, tech-metallurgists Converge are just a bunch of dudes with guitars. Oh, but they're not. They're good at deceiving us: What hits the tongue like straight blitzkrieg metal leaves a peculiar aftertaste.
** Pitchfork (March 6, 2005)
* Like the Dillinger Escape Plan’s Calculating Infinity, Jane Doe succeeds at an almost unmatchable level — the lightning of perfecting your own genre does not strike twice. To this day, Jane Doe remains perhaps the most important and influential metalcore album of the 2000s, helping set in motion a scene that’s become a venerable pillar of heavy music in the two decades since.
** Graham Hartmann of Revolver (September 4, 2023)
* Converge used to call themselves “hardcore kids with leftover Slayer riffs,” and that hasn’t fully described them since solidifying the lineup of J Bannon, Kurt Ballou, Nate Netwon, and Ben Koller that made every album from 2001’s Jane Doe onwards, but it was a pretty perfect descriptor back in the ’90s when Bannon and Ballou were still working their way through different lineups and finding their sound. Converge would go on to become one of the most definitive metal/punk bands of the 21st century, one with a sound too diverse to tie to any one genre, but they fit somewhat neatly into the burgeoning metalcore movement when they released their first three ’90s records.
** Andrew Sacher of Brooklyn Vegan (August 26, 2019)