Converge’s J Bannon has another new band with Napalm Death, Megadeth & Nasum members
Not only does Converge frontman J Bannon also have his softer band Wear Your Wounds and his death metal-inspired band Umbra Vitae, he also revealed in a new "Mosh Talks With Beez" interview on Knotfest.com that he has yet another new band with Shane Embury (of Napalm Death), Dirk Verbeuren (of Megadeth, ex-Soilwork), and Jesper Liveröd (of Nasum), and that they finished a 12-song album before the pandemic started. He said (via The PRP):
Aside from the Umbra [Vitae] record I actually finished another album before the pandemic situation hit here in the States. We didn’t totally put that on ice, but it definitely delayed getting that out to the world…
It’s something totally new for me, where Umbra is a band—a proper band—and Converge and Wear Your Wounds are proper bands, this is more of a project that might have some live elements at some point. But I wrote a album with Shane Embury from Napalm Death, Dirk from Megadeth who also used to play drums in Soilwork and Jesper from Nasum.
And we recorded a 12-song album and we’re really excited about it. And we’re gonna get that out to the world, I don’t know, hopefully in the next few months, we’ll see what happens…
He also mentioned that Converge's Blood Moon project with Chelsea Wolfe, her bandmate Ben Chisholm, and longtime Converge collaborator Stephen Brodsky (of Cave In, Mutoid Man, etc) -- which started as a live project -- also have a studio album in the works:
All I can really say is that we’re making some really powerful sounds together and we’re doing stuff that I don’t think that any of us independently have ever really done before. So what Blood Moon is evolving into with the seven of us is, I don’t know, something very powerful. It’s something really special. Right now all of us are working on it.
We were supposed to be working on it a little bit more and all be in the same place around this time but obviously the pandemic situation derailed those plans. So we’re all working on it to the best of our abilities now.
Watch the full interview:
Bannon was also recently interviewed for the Scream Therapy podcast, and he said, " In the episode we discuss a variety of subjects surrounding music and mental health. It was a unique interview and I encourage you to give it a listen. Thank you."
He was also recently interviewed for Saint Vitus Bar's livestream interview series:
Check out photos from a few of Converge's recent tours: