{"id":290146,"date":"2026-02-18T16:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T16:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/290146\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T16:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T16:02:14","slug":"converge-are-bringing-an-end-to-data-entry-modern-metal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/290146\/","title":{"rendered":"Converge are bringing an end to \u201cdata entry\u201d modern metal"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Converge<\/a>\u2019s world, things don\u2019t happen by accident \u2013 if they say something, they mean it. So, when vocalist Jacob Bannon ushered in the metalcore<\/a> pioneers\u2019 new record Love is Not Enough by observing that \u201crealism is missing from a lot of modern music\u201d, you knew they planned on doing something about it. \u201cPeople, especially young people, crave authenticity,\u201d guitarist Kurt Ballou<\/a> expounds. \u201cThe process of recording metal<\/a> music has been more akin to data entry than playing instruments for quite a long time now \u2013 there\u2019s a whole generation who have been raised with this sort of \u2018perfect\u2019 music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love is Not Enough is not that. It\u2019s a hulking, febrile thing, alive in all its grit and human imperfections. It is Converge at their most Converge \u2013 a band reflecting upon the artistic choices and creative bonds that have underpinned a genre-shaping 35 year run. There are solos on the title track with the head-spinning ferocity of Axe to Fall\u2019s all-timer of an opener Dark Horse, for example, while To Feel Something finds Ballou reinterpreting stabbing, lurching Jane Doe-era carnage from the perspective of someone who\u2019s learned to control the violence at their fingertips. Following on from 2021\u2019s Bloodmoon: I, a collaboration with modern goth icon Chelsea Wolfe<\/a>, Ben Chisholm, and Cave In<\/a>\u2019s Stephen Brodsky, it is about uncovering fresh ore in old hills.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are songs on Bloodmoon that I barely played guitar on,\u201d Ballou says. \u201cMaking Love is Not Enough, that goes back to regular Converge, where we are much more comfortable in our roles. The division of labour is well established in the band and it\u2019s back to being focused on our own stuff. But, also, there\u2019s less space to hide. The guitar ideas are mine, and I\u2019m playing them all. There\u2019s a deliberate lack of collaboration on it. Guitar solos are not my thing, but we\u2019re not having guest musicians here. No one\u2019s playing this solo for me, so I gotta fucking do it. So, you know, I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Converge,Image: PressCaving In<\/p>\n

Recorded at Ballou\u2019s God City facility in Salem, Massachusetts, the album is chiefly a document of a band capable of caving your head in from 10 paces. Bassist Nate Newton and drummer Ben Koller are a rhythm section with an unparalleled track record of unleashing sense-rearranging barrages, while Ballou and Bannon remain a pugilistic pairing pushing each other to scabrous new heights.<\/p>\n

If you A-B the studio version of Love is Not Enough\u2019s closer We Were Never The Same against its staging in Converge\u2019s recent Audiotree session<\/a>, you get a visceral idea of how close they have come to capturing the real thing. \u201cWhen it comes to recording hardcore and metal my approach is always, \u2018What does it feel like to watch this band live?\u2019\u201d Ballou says. \u201cWhat does that excitement feel like, and can I try to capture that excitement? That\u2019s my goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ballou is an interesting case study for this stuff, though, because he\u2019s a working producer as well as a gnarly guitar player in a hardcore band. When he\u2019s collaborating on Nails\u2019 latest voyage into the death metal morass or helping Fleshwater assemble molasses-thick shoegaze-pop, his word isn\u2019t law.<\/p>\n

In fact, his views on recording music are malleable and driven by the desire to get at what people really want. \u201cIn my job, I interact with younger people who are fascinated with analog equipment \u2013 they\u2019re taking pictures of their session with point and shoot film cameras,\u201d he continues. \u201cBut I don\u2019t want to be a luddite. I don\u2019t want to be too cool for modern techniques.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll that technology exists for a reason,\u201d he continues. \u201cIncredible engineering has been done to create amp<\/a> sims, drum replacements, audio file warping and tuning, and I do use that stuff sometimes when it\u2019s helpful to present the music in the most flattering way. I\u2019m not opposed to it. But I think that one of the things about technology that is important to keep in mind is exercising some restraint.<\/p>\n

One of the things about an older style of recording is not so much that tape sounds better than digital, or tube amps sound better than modellers, it\u2019s more that the process of using analog equipment necessitated a certain type of workflow. It didn\u2019t require restraint when you were limited to 24 tracks. That was just what there was, and you had to make it work. Now, you would have to make a choice to limit yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tools Of The Trade<\/p>\n

That studio-rooted discipline also has interesting parallels with Ballou\u2019s attitude towards his other-other career with God City Instruments (GCI), a boutique outfit producing guitars, basses, pedals<\/a> and DIY pedal kits \u2013 something that grew out of Ballou\u2019s legendary GCI business card, which took the form of an actual PCB (sans components) for his Brutalist Jr circuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife does a lot of the order-fulfillment side of that and I QC guitars,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ll get a shipment every three or four months and I\u2019ll spend a few days with them. The company is still pretty small, but it\u2019s manageable. I\u2019m not really trying to grow it \u2013 I don\u2019t really want to lose control of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo double my sales would require more than double of my effort, you know? I think a lot of bands end up in a similar situation,\u201d he adds. \u201cConverge, for example, we have great people that we work with, our fans are awesome, and we can go and play shows just about anywhere in the world. But to play a venue twice the size is more than twice as expensive. We\u2019d be required to have guitar techs and drum techs and lighting techs. The ticket price gets a lot higher and now we\u2019re not doing things on our own terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps unsurprisingly, GCI gear forms the backbone of Ballou\u2019s work on Love is Not Enough. Fitted with their overwound Slug Jammer humbuckers, there are multiple Craftsman models in play, along with a 27.5\u201d scale Deconstructivist baritone that was used to bring the muscle on Distract and Divide, To Feel Something and Amon Amok, a trio of Drop A monsters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve also got a really good short-scale Tele<\/a> with Lindy Fralin pickups,\u201d he notes. \u201cI used that for a bunch of the clean, atmospheric background sounds on Amon Amok. On Force Meets Presence I might have used my First Act Sheena. I can\u2019t remember if I actually did this, or if I just was thinking about doing it, but a lot of that song is rooted on the A string, so to make that clean I might have taken the low E off of the guitar for that whole section.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Converge,Image: PressSpreading The Load<\/p>\n

While working on Bloodmoon: I, Ballou had to find his place within a guitar sound that he viewed as vibe-based more than \u201cdense or athletic\u201d. Here, the opposite is largely true. But his amp selection process remained the same, with five or six rigs primed for work as he chased a tone. \u201cI used to have a whole bunch of amps running at the same time, hoping to capture the best of all worlds,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I\u2019ve come to realise over time that it just flattens whatever cool character each one has.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the rhythm sounds oscillating between an early Sparrows Sons model, employed with a Boss<\/a> OS-2 to accent its articulate, wide-ranging gain, and a GCI Onslaught-assisted Dean Costello HMW, most of the leads were tracked with a first generation Bad Cat Black Cat, paired again with an OS-2 or a GCI Crimson Cock.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s like an NPN Rangemaster,\u201d Ballou says. \u201cIt\u2019s really the best for matching a guitar to an amp. If your guitar feels too bright or too dark, or not loud enough, or too loud, by turning a few knobs on that thing, you can make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

What pass for cleans in Converge\u2019s world, meanwhile, were captured on a Traynor YRM-1 that Ballou picked up for $99 in the mid-1990s. \u201cI can, honestly, probably record anything with that amp,\u201d he observes. \u201cI also have a few JMP 2204s, but one of them is from a transitional year when it started getting a little more JCM900-ish. I want to say I have a \u201876 and a \u201879. They\u2019ve obviously been maintained differently over the years, but the newer one is tighter and the older one is creamier. I like them both a lot \u2013 that was set up as a pedal platform as I needed different sounds. If a song needs a fuzz part or an HM-2 part, that amp can do it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Converge,Image: PressBright Spark<\/p>\n

Zooming out, though, something remarkable about the way Love is Not Enough sounds is the warmth and clarity behind its guitars. As a riffer, Ballou is naturally a grimy, aggressive player, meaning that keeping a sense of nuance alive requires deliberate thought. \u201cI\u2019m always pushing the brightness to try to get more clarity,\u201d he says. \u201cBut then sometimes you end up with a very chirpy sound, which is not very metal. The OS-2 quells the chirpiness and also starves the bottom end.\u201d<\/p>\n

From both a philosophical and practical perspective, Ballou sees his yard as the mid-range. Returning again to the idea of a division of labour, he is happy to leave the sludge to Newton and the splashy stuff to Koller\u2019s cymbals. He\u2019s not trying to grind you to a pulp, he\u2019s trying to punch you in the solar-plexus. \u201cListen to the classic Slayer<\/a> records \u2013 they don\u2019t have crushing low end or sizzly high end,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are great guitar sounds that have that, but we\u2019ve always thought of Converge more as a hard band than a heavy band.\u201d<\/p>\n

Converge\u2019s Love Is Not Enough<\/a> is out February 13 through Deathwish\/Epitaph.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Converge\u2019s world, things don\u2019t happen by accident \u2013 if they say something, they mean it. So, when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1628,156,1614,55819,157,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-290146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-artist","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-metal","11":"tag-metalcore","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}