Jacob Bannon

Jacob Bannon (born October 15, 1976) is an American musician and visual artist who is best known as the vocalist for the metalcore band Converge. He is the co-founder and owner of the record label Deathwish Inc. and the author of many visual works for independent punk rock and heavy metal musicians. Bannon has also composed and performed experimental music as Supermachiner with Ryan Parker and more recently as Wear Your Wounds.

Bannon exclusively employs screaming and other forms of harsh vocals without the augmentation of clean singing. Joe Davita of Loudwire described his style as "at times sounding less like a voice and more like a percussive instrument adding yet another hard-hitting layer to the music".

Early life Bannon was born in 1976. He grew up splitting his time between Andover in the Merrimack Valley, Charlestown, and East Boston on some weekends.

At 17, he graduated high school early and chose to work until leaving for college. He received the "Excellence In Design" accolade from the institution, and briefly instructed there himself, participating in its "Continuing Education" program.

Wear Your Wounds After Supermachiner released Rise of the Great Machine and after Converge had completed recording Jane Doe, Bannon started writing and recording solo material under the name Dear Lover. 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. The track was supposed to be part of an EP titled The Blood of Thine Enemies, In January 2005, Dear Lover recordings were said to have been in the editing and mixing process, and it was believed there would be multiple releases of Dear Lover recordings which included the Wear Your Wounds double album throughout the year, Bannon released the song under the name J.Bannon. Bannon stated the song was never intended to be part of an album, only to be a stand-alone piece. 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 titled "The Migration".

The long-awaited Wear Your Wounds album, now titled to the abbreviation WYW was finally set on release on 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. On March 3, 2017, the non-album single "Arthritic Heart", physical copies were available with New Noise Magazine. Wear Your Wounds' live debut was on April 22 at the Roadburn festival in Tilburg, the Netherlands.

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, " 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."

Additional projects and contributions Supermachiner (1994–2000)

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. Urtica's full-length album, The Oblivion Sessions, was scheduled for release via Undecided Records in the summer of 2001, but was abandoned.

Bannon was also commissioned by Undecided Films to compose and record a new score for the 1922 film Nosferatu in 2003.

Irons (2007–2011) Irons is a musical collaboration between Jacob Bannon, Dwid Hellion and Stephen Kasner.

Blood from the Soul (2020–present) 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 Koller. 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.

Umbra Vitae (2020–present) 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.

Visual art

After working an assortment of design jobs at various firms throughout his youth, Bannon became a freelance artist and designer, primarily working within underground and extreme music communities. Work for these bands has involved packaging, poster, web, apparel, and logo design. Some of his design work has been credited to his art company Atomic! ID. He designed a shirt for Hatewear, the online boutique of Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta. He is also responsible for the art direction, and often the design work, for some of the releases on his Deathwish Inc. record label.

His work has been described as "heavily textured with a kinetic energy and unsettling feel". Bannon's style has been influential; as one magazine article put it, he "is often credited with inventing the so-called skull with wings aesthetic that became so popular in the punk underground and mixed martial arts scenes that today knockoffs are available in stores like Target and Marshalls."

In 2004, Bannon released a series of 4 "museum-quality" giclée prints, with a run limited to 100. He has worked with Burlesque Design to have limited series screenprints produced of some of his artwork, including two limited edition Converge tour posters and limited prints based on the album artwork for the Converge albums Jane Doe, No Heroes, and Axe to Fall. The Jane Doe cover art was featured on the cover of the sixth issue of Beautiful/Decay Magazine, which also contained an interview with Bannon. He also designed a limited-edition cover for the May/June 2005 issue of Punk Planet, which was their third Art & Design themed issue.

On August 15, 2004, he participated in Strhess Fest in Cleveland. In February 2008, he participated in the Public Domain group art show, and October 2008, his artwork was featured in a Halloween themed group show titled Horror Business, both held at Tradition in Los Angeles. In October 2010, Bannon had work in the Scream With Me show at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco, which featured the artwork of selected musicians and tattoo artists.

List of bands for whom Bannon has designed Bannon has worked on art and design for dozens of bands, including: In late 1999, McCarthy and Bannon decided to turn Deathwish into a full-fledged business.

Diamonds & Rust 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."

Impact Sammy O'Hagar of MetalSucks wrote:

Personal life He is a vegetarian and follows a straight edge lifestyle. From 2005 to 2008, he was nominated for the title of "World's Sexiest Vegetarian" by Peta2. Bannon is married and has two children. He is concerned with the greyhound-racing industry,

Bannon is also an avid mixed martial arts and kickboxing fan, Accordingly, Deathwish has sponsored some MMA fighters. Bannon is known for his extensive tattoos. He received his first tattoo at the age of 15, which has since been covered by other tattoos. He has been tattooed by Darren Brass, among many other artists. In 2013, Bannon was the subject of a short documentary directed by Ian McFarland titled "Rungs in a Ladder." In the documentary, Bannon reflected on pivotal moments in his life and his motivation as an artist.

Discography

With Converge

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) Bloodmoon I (2021) Love Is Not Enough (2026) Hum of Hurt (2026)

With Supermachiner

Rise of the Great Machine (2000)

As Wear Your Wounds Studio albums Released: April 7, 2017 Released: May 19, 2017 Released: July 12, 2019 Label: Deathwish EPs Released: November 16, 2012 Label: Self-released Singles TitleYearAlbum"Grant Me the Strength" (released under the name "Dear Lover") 2003 "The Blood of Thine Enemies" (released under the name "J.Bannon") 2008 "The Migration" 2013 "Goodbye Old Friend" 2017WYW"Arthritic Heart" 2017

With Blood from the Soul DSM-5 (2020)

With Umbra Vitae

Shadow of Life (2020) Light of Death (2024)

Art exhibitions Bannon has various art/gallery appearances: 2004: Cleveland, OH, StrHess Festival 2008: Los Angeles, CA, Tradition Gallery/Store, "Public Domain" 2010: San Francisco, CA, 111 Minna Gallery, "Scream With Me" 2011: Beverly, MA, Ursa Major Gallery 2012: Cleveland, OH, Loren Naji Gallery, "Life & Death ..." 2012: Salt Lake City, UT, Fice Gallery, "Day of the Dead" 2012: Austin, TX, Mondo Gallery, "Universal Monsters" 2013: Boston, MA, Fourth Wall Project Gallery, "Street Diamonds 2" 2013: Austin, TX, Mondo Gallery, "EC Comics" 2014: Boston, MA, Distillery Gallery, "Skies, Water, & Death" 2014: Beverly, MA, Mingo Gallery, "Abstracts & Dimensions" 2015: Minneapolis, MN, Co-Exhibitions, "Fragments" 2015: Austin, TX, Fun Fun Fun Fest, "50/50.3 Project Loop" 2015: Tyler, TX, Preacher Gallery, "50/50.3 Project Loop Benefit" 2015: Austin, TX, Mondo Gallery, "Originals: No Pop Art Allowed" 2015: Los Angeles, CA, The Seventh Letter, "The Printed Works of BRLSQ" 2016: Chicago, IL, Revolution Brewing Co., "Art Gives Me Hope" 2016: Austin, TX, Mondo Gallery, "House Party" 2016: Montreal, QC, Neon St. Hubert, Solo art demo 2017: Tilburg, Holland, "Full Bleed"