Converge is an American hardcore punk 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.
Board Up the House is the second full-length album by the experimental metal band Genghis Tron. The album was recorded and mixed at Godcity Studio from August 29 to September 21, 2007, in Salem, Massachusetts, by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou. It was mastered at New Alliance East by Nick Zampiello. The album was released on February 19, 2008, by Relapse Records on CD and on March 25 by Lovepump United on vinyl.
Axe to Fall is the seventh studio album by American metalcore band Converge, released on October 20, 2009, by Epitaph Records. It is the band's most collaborative album, featuring a number of guest musicians, including members of Cave In and Genghis Tron and Steve Von Till of Neurosis, who performs lead vocals on the slow, Tom Waits-esque track "Cruel Bloom". The album was produced by guitarist Kurt Ballou, and the artwork was created by vocalist Jacob Bannon.
"On My Shield" is a single released by American metalcore band Converge. It was originally made available during the band's European tour in July 2010. The single was self-released by the band, though it was distributed by Converge's labels, Epitaph Records and Deathwish Inc. The physical release does not contain a label catalog number, however Deathwish lists the single as CONCULT01. The song was recorded and produced by guitarist Kurt Ballou at his own GodCity studio between the band's 2010 US and European tours in support of Axe to Fall.
All We Love We Leave Behind is the eighth studio album by American metalcore band Converge. It was released on October 9, 2012, via Epitaph Records. The album did not feature any guest collaborators, unlike the band's previous album Axe to Fall. The album was produced by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou and the artwork was created by the band's singer Jacob Bannon.
Code Orange is an American hardcore punk band that formed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2008, while the members of the band were still in high school.
The Ape of God is the name of three different studio albums released by the American rock band Old Man Gloom—one of which was a "fake" album released promotionally to music critics and subsequently leaked online, and two of which were officially released to the public making up the band's sixth and seventh studio albums. The two publicly released albums were released on November 11, 2014, through Profound Lore Records (digital/CD) and SIGE Records (vinyl)—marking the first time since the band's inception that an album was not released through Tortuga Records and Hydra Head Records. The Ape of God albums were marketed and promoted as a single album for several months, but the weekend before its official release, it was revealed to actually be the name of two separate but identically titled studio albums and was also revealed that the version that some music critics had reviewed and leaked only featured edited-down versions of songs from both albums.
Godless Prophets & the Migrant Flora is the ninth studio album by American metal band Darkest Hour. It was released worldwide on March 10, 2017 through Southern Lord Records. The album features guest guitarist Kris Norris who previously played with the band from 2001 to 2008, contributing with some additional guitar work. Early preorders of the album were bundled with their first full-length live DVD recorded in 2015 for the 10th anniversary of Undoing Ruin. This was limited to 1,100 copies. The band made a digital version of the album available to fans who contributed to their Indiegogo campaign on February 17, 2017.
"I Can Tell You About Pain" is a single by American metalcore band Converge. It was released on July 25, 2017, as a 7-inch vinyl record via Epitaph and Deathwish, Inc., with the much longer track "Eve" as a B-side. The music video for the song "I Can Tell You About Pain" was directed by Tony Wolski.
The Dusk in Us is the ninth studio album by American metalcore band Converge. It was released on November 3, 2017, via Epitaph Records and Deathwish Inc, and is the band's first studio album in five years since 2012's All We Love We Leave Behind. The album was produced by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou and the artwork was created by the band's singer Jacob Bannon.
"Post Self" is an industrial metal song by the band Godflesh, taken from their 2017 album of the same name. It was released ahead of Post Self on 31 October 2017 through frontman Justin Broadrick's own label, Avalanche Recordings, as a digital download.
Electric Messiah is the eighth studio album by American metal band High on Fire, released on October 5, 2018 through Entertainment One Music. It is the band's third album to be produced by Kurt Ballou, and it serves as a tribute to Lemmy Kilmister of the band Motörhead. On August 6, 2018, Electric Messiah's title track was released early for streaming. On October 3, 2018, the band released "Spewn from the Earth" as the album's second single. The song "Electric Messiah" won the Best Metal Performance at the 2019 Grammy Awards. It is the band's last album with founding drummer Des Kensel, who announced his departure in July 2019.
Weeping Choir is the seventh studio album by the American grindcore band Full of Hell. The album was released on May 17, 2019 and serves as the band's debut release through Relapse Records. Weeping Choir was engineered by Kurt Ballou of Converge, who previously produced Full of Hell's 2017 studio album Trumpeting Ecstasy.
"Cold" is a song by American nu metal band Korn. It was released as a promotional single from their thirteenth studio album The Nothing.
May You Be Held is the fourth studio album by Canadian-American metal band Sumac. The album was released on October 2, 2020 through Thrill Jockey, pushed back from its original release date of September 18. To promote the album, Sumac released the track "The Iron Chair" for online streaming in July 2020. Sumac asked Thrill Jockey to refrain from posting the album to the music streaming platform Spotify due to what the band referred to as CEO Daniel Ek's "pretty repugnant statements" made earlier in 2020 about artists not performing well on the site.
Dream Weapon is the third studio album by American experimental metal band Genghis Tron, released on March 26, 2021. The album is the band's first studio album since 2008's Board Up the House and the first with vocalist Tony Wolski and drummer Nick Yacyshyn, marking the first time the band has ever used a drummer.
Bloodmoon: I is the tenth studio album by American metalcore band Converge, and a collaboration album with Chelsea Wolfe. It was released on November 19, 2021, via Epitaph Records and Deathwish Inc, the band's first studio album in four years since 2017's The Dusk in Us. Converge's longtime collaborator Stephen Brodsky and Wolfe's longtime collaborator Ben Chisholm also contributed. The album was produced by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou and the artwork was created by the band's singer Jacob Bannon. It was met with universal critical acclaim, receiving an average score of 89 based on 10 reviews aggregated by Metacritic.
Heavy Pendulum is the seventh studio album by American rock band Cave In, released on May 20, 2022 through Relapse Records. This is the band's first album with bassist/backing vocalist Nate Newton, though late bassist/vocalist Caleb Scofield still has a presence on the record.
Umbra Vitae is an American death metal supergroup formed in 2020. The band features vocalist Jacob Bannon (Converge), guitarists Mike McKenzie and Sean Martin, bassist Greg Weeks and drummer Jon Rice. The band's debut album, Shadow of Life, was released in 2020.
We're Not Here to Be Loved is the debut studio album by American rock band Fleshwater. Produced by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou, the album was released on November 4, 2022 through Closed Casket Activities.
