Jacob Bannon

Converge is an American metalcore band formed in the winter of 1990 by vocalist Jacob Bannon and guitarist Kurt Ballou, they were later joined by bassist Jeff Feinburg, and drummer Damon Bellorado. They started by playing covers of hardcore punk, punk rock and heavy metal songs. The band soon graduated to playing live performances in 1991, after recording some demos on a 4-track recorder. Converge have enjoyed a relatively high level of recognition. Their popularity began to rise with the release of breakthrough album, Jane Doe. Converge's records have gradually become more elaborate and expensive to produce. This progression began with their move from a small independent label (Equal Vision Records) to a considerably larger one (Epitaph Records). Special releases have traditionally been handled by Bannon's record label, Deathwish Inc.

After Supermachiner released Rise of the Great Machine[12] and after Converge had completed recording Jane Doe, Bannon started writing and recording solo material under the name Dear Lover.[13] Although a number of releases were lined up none of them saw the light of day except a demo version of one track "Grant Me the Strength" which was made available for download on Converge's website in January 2003.[14] The track was supposed to be part of en EP titled The Blood of Thine Enemies,[14] but the EP was never released. The track was later featured on Supermachiner's 2009 album Rust. There was also a Dear Lover double album planned titled Wear Your Wounds to be released on Icarus Records.[13][14][15] In January 2005 Dear Lover recordings were said to have been in the editing and mixing process,[16] and it was believed there would be multiple releases of Dear Lover recordings which included the Wear Your Wounds double album throughout the year,[16] however this did not happen. In March 2008 the single "The Blood of Thine Enemies" was released on Deathwish,[12][17] Bannon released the song under the name J.Bannon. Bannon has said the song was never intended it to be part of an album, only to be a stand-alone piece.[12] Converge's website also changed the use of the name Dear Lover to J.Bannon in the upcoming section where the Wear Your Wounds album was listed.[17] Initially planning since 2008 on releasing solo music under his name only, in 2012 Bannon began using the Wear Your Wounds name for these projects. This allowed others to collaborate and work with Bannon on future projects.

Bannon in 2005

On November 16, 2012, Bannon and Ben Chisholm of Chelsea Wolfe released a split 7-inch EP titled Wear Your Wounds and Revelator,[18] it was the first time Bannon released anything under then name Wear Your Wounds. On January 15, 2013, a digital single was released under the name Wear Your Wounds entitled "The Migration".[19]

The long-awaited Wear Your Wounds album, now titled to the abbreviation WYW was finally given the release date of April 7, 2017, and was released by Deathwish. The album has multiple guest musicians such as Kurt Ballou, Mike McKenzie, Chris Maggio, and Sean Martin. The single "Goodbye Old Friend" was released on January 13, 2017.[20] On March 3, 2017, the non-album single "Arthritic Heart", physical copies where available with New Noise Magazine.[21] Wear Your Wounds' live debut was on April 22 at the Roadburn festival in Tilburg, the Netherlands.[22]

The Wear Your Wounds live band has been described as a supergroup with Bannon on piano, bass and vocal duties, guitarists Mike McKenzie (of The Red Chord) Adam McGrath (of Cave In), Sean Martin (of Hatebreed) and drummer Chris Maggio (of Trap Them). Bannon has said, "[a] lot of them are guys that contributed on the record. We're going to be a three-guitar band and I'll be playing bass sort of intermittently with a lot of the stuff, because there is bass on the record but not all over the place. It's basically a bunch of friends that were available and want to play this sort of music, have fun and explore this world that I started on my own."[23]

Supermachiner was an experimental rock project formed in 1994 by Jacob Bannon and Ryan Parker. Supermachiner originally began as a collection of 4 track recordings by Bannon and Parker, recorded in 1994. The project remained nameless and dormant for a number of years. With the help and inspiration of his good friend Ryan Parker, they casually brought the project back to life in the winter of 1998. With his input, they developed collective song ideas into the Rise of the Great Machine album, released through Undecided Records. However Bannon continued to write music that was sonically different from Converge, which was later released as solo material many years later.[12][13] Three of his solo projects, Urtica, The Blood of Thine Enemies and Dear Lover were quickly signed to Undecided Records.[24][25][26] Bannon was also commissioned by Undecided Films to compose and record a new score for the 1922 film Nosferatu in 2003.[27][28]

Irons is a musical collaboration between Jacob Bannon, Dwid Hellion and Stephen Kasner.[12] In 2006 Hellion approached Bannon about creating music together sometime.[12] In late 2007 fine artist and musician Stephen Kasner also expressed interest in working with the pair.[12] This led to the formation of Irons in 2007. The band's goal was to create apocalyptic, non-linear music from a fine art based mindset.[12] Irons only released one split album with Pulling Teeth entitled Grey Savior, the album was released through Deathwish on April 1, 2011 .[29]

In 2020, Bannon joined the industrial metal supergroup Blood from the Soul, which started out as a collaboration between Shane Embury and Sick of It All vocalist Lou Keller. The line-up of the band also features drummer Dirk Verbeuren and Nasum bassist Jesper Liveröd. The band released the album, DSM-5, in 2020 on Deathwish, Inc. Bannon has handled the vocals and visuals on this record.[30][31]

In 2020, Bannon formed the death metal group Umbra Vitae with members of Twitching Tongues, The Red Chord and Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats. The band released its debut album, Shadow of Life in the same year.[32][33]

Bannon has worked on art and design for dozens of bands, including:[35]

Deathwish, Inc. is an independent record label founded by Jacob Bannon of Converge and Tre McCarthy.[52] In late 1999, McCarthy and Bannon decided to turn Deathwish into a full-fledged business.[53]

Deathwish is one of those labels that deserve to be the biggest indie label on the planet. They not only put out interesting acts, but they go through painstaking efforts with every aspect of each release from artwork to recording to the band's branding. These efforts definitely do not go unnoticed to their many die-hard fans, but it is disheartening to see bands/labels with less than 10 percent of the integrity that Deathwish has continued to outsell them. It gives me comfort that these are things that Jacob and Tre do not concern themselves with as they continue to put out powerful and beautiful releases.[34]

— Virgil Dickerson, IndieHQ

Bannon co-owns a home décor and antique store with his wife in Beverly, Massachusetts called Diamonds & Rust, which offers, "a variety of new/vintage industrial and mid-century furniture and lighting, textiles, art, and other collectibles and accessories."[54]

• Halo in a Haystack (1994)
• Petitioning the Empty Sky (1996)
• When Forever Comes Crashing (1998)
• Jane Doe (2001)
• You Fail Me (2004)
• No Heroes (2006)
• Axe to Fall (2009)
• All We Love We Leave Behind (2012)
• The Dusk in Us (2017)

• Rise of the Great Machine (2000)

Studio albums

EPs

Singles

• DSM-5 (2020)

• Shadow of Life (2020)