Converge: There Will Be Blood

Originally hailing from Salem, Massachusetts (the small town outside of Boston made infamous by its colonial-era witch trials), Converge vocalist Jacob Bannon and guitarist Kurt Ballou initially set out to play the music they loved, but have since gone on to completely redefine postmodern heaviness through their peerless combination of metallic precision and hardcore brutality.

Now joined by bassist Nate Newton and drummer Ben Koller, this long-standing quartet have enjoyed a significant level of success considering the extreme nature of their music. Thrash, grindcore and sludge collide in a skin-tight, ferocious hybrid overlayed with Bannon’s signature unintelligible shrieks and animalistic screeches – somehow these manage to pierce through a dense layer of mathematical riffage that suggests a more prog-inclined Slayer at their most punk.

Early releases highlight a young group that was fleshing out its own individuality through much gnashing of teeth, but some of the weaker stylistic elements (OK, the emo bits) have long since disappeared. Most of us who found ourselves located outside the tight-knit northeastern hardcore scene began to take notice when the band released Jane Doe in 2001, a seminal record that effectively inaugurated the beginning of their current sound.

Perhaps unconvincingly, Bannon insists that their entire output should be judged as a whole: “I feel we started doing things that were interesting probably a couple of years into being a band. We were starting to find our own voice and shed some of the stereotypical influences. When you’re a teenager and you start growing and spreading your wings creatively a little bit, you stop being concerned with the music community outside of you, and you’re more concerned with creating something that’s pure and interesting artistically. That’s when things start mattering; it’s all about perspective.”

This sense of perspective has a large part to play, and when asked how the band see themselves in relation to what’s gone on over the years in their hometown scene, the answer is simple: “We don’t. (laughter) When you start looking at what you should be, or how you should be classified, or where you fit in the grand plan of a scene or sub-genre, you start becoming dated. At that point, you’re no longer concerned with writing interesting music – you’re more concerned with your place in history. I don’t think it’s healthy to think that way.”

Health, indeed, is something that Bannon, who goes to the gym almost every day, takes pretty seriously. Since his vocal chords are basically shredded on a nightly basis throughout their gruelling tour schedule, he’s forced himself to be more aware of his body’s basic needs and limitations. But having said that, are the Converge guys total sport dudes? “Most people of our generation of hardcore kids rejected sports – we didn’t wanna relate to the jocks or anything like that. I rejected that world of regular culture.” As a die-hard fan of combat sports like boxing and Muay Thai (kickboxing), Bannon is currently pursuing his certification to become a judge (i.e. referee) in the state of Massachusetts.

Besides his active involvement in blood sport, Bannon has also made a name for himself as a graphic designer of immense talent, one who not only defines the look-and-feel of Converge, but also dozens of other bands in the heavy music universe. His work is instantly recognisable and his approach has been mimicked for over a decade – on everything from websites and album covers to t-shirts and skateboards. He humbly claims to be unaware of his status as a trendsetter: “We don’t really operate in that world of music, nor do we really pay attention to the influence that we’ve had visually on stuff. We just put our heads down collectively and continue doing our own thing, both visually and musically, and getting something out of it rather than paying attention to how things get watered down or misrepresented.”

He goes on to elaborate on the work-intensive method of collectively creating every aspect of the band’s output: “That creative process is truly brutal and it’s a bitch in every way. It comes natural, but the refinement of it is torturous at times. You get a lot out of it, psychologically, but it’s definitely draining.”

Converge have released four full lengths to great acclaim over the course of the past decade and show no sign of letting up any time soon. Their latest, Axe To Fall, topped many 'best of' lists for 2009 and was a former Album of the Month here at The Skinny. In the live setting, they continue to focus their attention on the intimate club gigs that are their bread-and-butter, but as the followers of heavy music continue to grow in number, the band find themselves playing larger venues year in and year out.

They have never encouraged violence at their shows, but the bloodthirsty reputation of audience brawls and injuries precedes them. Years ago they started playing with other bands that increasingly come from the metal scene, but their hardcore roots remain firmly intact. Meeting the expectations of their fanbase or critics does not concern them on any level: “Some people will look at the Jane record, and say this is the watershed record, or something like that – for me it isn’t, but for those people it is, and that’s all well and good, because my personal experience with creating the record is different from theirs listening to it.”