Photo by Nick Fancher
You feel it before you hear it. And once you hear it, you can’t unhear it. A low, persistent noise throbbing in the background. Scientists say it registers between 30 and 40 hertz. It’s been heard in Ipswich, Massachusetts; Auckland, New Zealand; and Windsor, Ontario. It has haunted the population of Taos, New Mexico, for decades. It’s been linked to suicides in the UK. Not everyone can hear it. No one knows where it’s coming from. They call it The Hum. Converge have taken this mysterious real-world phenomenon and reimagined it as a physical manifestation of human suffering. Then an idea struck. “What if ‘The Hum’ is the culmination of all the pain in the world, creating an audible signal across the universe?” vocalist and lyricist Jacob Bannon posits. “Something noticeable to others operating on a similar emotional plane.”
Hum of Hurt follows Love Is Not Enough as Converge’s second full-length release of 2026. Like its predecessor, the album offers a bleak yet empathetic assessment of the human condition and its ongoing deterioration. With this album, the songs are more raw and exposed. “When we came together to write, we ended up with a wealth of material,” Bannon says. “As work progressed we realized we had created two separate albums, and treated them as such.”
The album’s latest single— “Doom In Bloom“— is raw and bloody, as guitarist Kurt Ballou’s spiky riffs scrape against Nate Newton’s bass and Ben Koller’s drums. You can practically hear Bannon’s throat tearing apart in every scream. “It’s dark and pointed right at you,” he says. “Lyrically, I’m exploring how my own middle-aged introspection doesn’t always bring a brighter light. I see my own trappings reflected in those around me. Here I am imploring them to slip the noose to see another day.”
Hum of Hurt was recorded and mixed by Kurt Ballou at God City in Salem, Massachusetts, with engineering assistance from Zach Weeks. Bannon and renowned UK artist Thomas Hooper collaborated on the album artwork.
“For the cover, I had a vision of an EKG signal fusing with some kind of volatile seismography. This amalgamation represents the conditions that would theoretically create a ‘Hum.’ Specifically the heart skips beats before dissolving into static. The signal is then interrupted by a seismic event at the center point of the cover. In conversation, I shared some of these ideas with artist Thomas Hooper, who offered to illustrate them using scientific diagrams as a source of inspiration. I then spent months creating a mixed media piece for the interior,” Bannon says. “The figures represent the five elements of our planet, or ‘Pancha Bhuta’: Prithvi (Earth), Ap (Water), Agni (Fire), Vayu (Air), and Akasha (Aether). I present them in the throws of chaos, as if the elements themselves are entangled in the Hum of Hurt.”
Pre-order Hum of Hurt here and see Converge on tour this month and beyond.
Converge, on tour:
May 07 Denver, CO — Summit %
May 09 Austin, TX — Stubbs Outdoors %
May 10 Houston, TX — House of Blues %
May 12 Mesa, AZ — The Nile %
May 13 Los Angeles, CA — Belasco %
May 15 Anaheim, CA — House of Blues %
Mar 16 San Diego, CA — The Observatory North Park %
May 17 San Francisco, CA — The Regency Ballroom %
Jun 25 Ysselsteyn, NL — Jera on Air
Jun 26 Rennes, FR — Superbowl of Hardcore
Jun 27 Manchester, UK — Outbreak Festival
Jun 28 Antwerp, BE — Kavka Zappa ^
Jun 29 Cologne, DE — Essigfabrik ^
Jul 01 Trutnov, CZ — Obscene Extreme Festival
Jul 02 Vienna, AT — Arena ^
Jul 03 Milan, IT — Circolo Magnolia ^
Jul 04 Viveiro, ES — Resurrection Fest
% with Poison the Well, The Armed, The Barbarians of California
^ with Heriot, Boneflower, Crouch
