Converge

Converge put the New England punk and metal scene on the map—and provided a musical blueprint for metalcore—in 2001 with Jane Doe, a bone-crushing collection of churning hardcore punctuated by pulverizing riffage and fury. That spirit of sonic obliteration has been a defining feature of Converge’s songwriting ever since vocalist Jake Bannon and guitarist Kurt Ballou cofounded the band in Salem, MA, in 1990. Converge issued a limited-release 1994 debut album, Halo in a Haystack, and a compilation of unreleased rarities and demos before signing to Equal Vision Records for 1998’s When Forever Comes Crashing. In the wake of Jane Doe’s success, Converge released the 2004 commercial breakthrough You Fail Me, and they kept evolving their punishing hardcore/metal hybrids on subsequent records. In 2021, Converge threw a curveball, teaming up with goth-folk experimentalist Chelsea Wolfe for Bloodmoon: I, touching on smoldering rock and metal.