Anyone that's met me knows that Salem, Massachusetts Converge are my favorite band. In my opinion, they are the most creative band in extreme music for the last ten years or so. The music always changes between albums and these are "albums" everybody - listened to all the way through from start to finish is rewarding and not many bands or musical acts accomplish this feat in this electronic day and age. Ben Koller's drumming is the sickest of any band that I've ever heard, Nate Newton's bludgeoning low end and back-up vocals invigorate the songs, Kurt Ballou's guitar arrangements are always brutal yet always completely interesting and Jacob Bannon's unique, screaming vocals and unparalleled artwork for each release make Converge THE best band, not only in extreme music, but in music in general.
The gateway album for me to this band was "Jane Doe", released on Equal Vision Records in September of 2001. I got interested in Converge after reading an interview with one of the guitarists from the band Thursday (I don't remember which one) in a guitar magazine (again; I don't remember which one).
On December 11th, 2003, my friend Stefan and I went to a club called Tink's in Scranton, PA and attended my first hardcore show; the lineup was Found Dead Hanging, Ringworm, The Unseen, Agnostic Front and Hatebreed. Fucking ridiculous. Anyways, on the way home after the show, we stopped at a gas station for sodas and junk food; while sitting in this Exxon listening to the mixed sounds of muzak and tinnitus, I grabbed a guitar magazine from the rack and proceeded to flip through it, looking for anything interesting. Under the glow of fluorescent lights at 3 a.m. is when I first saw the words "Converge" and Jane Doe" used in conjunction with each other.
Being a huge fan of Thursday, I wanted to check Converge out, particularly the album "Jane Doe" after reading that their guitarist was a fan of this record, particularly the guitar sound. The very next morning, I went to the local Gallery Of Sound and purchased "Jane Doe" on CD. I left the store and walked to my car, not having the slightest clue as to what lay ahead of me. My expectations were vague; I knew it was a "hardcore-metal-noise" amalgamation; maybe it would sound like Most Precious Blood or Premonitions Of War or something. I was totally wrong. I left the store, got in my Hyundai, peeled the shrink wrap off of the CD and place the disc in my CD player. As I was admiring the cover and booklet artwork (which happens to be some of my favorite to this day), opening track 'concubine' melted my face clean off. As 'fault and fracture' came to a close, I remember saying to myself, out loud, "What the hell did I just buy?" Only 4 minutes and 25 seconds had passed and I still hadn't left the parking lot of Gallery Of Sound. I was completely blown away.
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| (2001 Equal Vision Release - cover) |
I began my way home and let the disc play, intent on finding out if this band would be something that I would be into or if I had just blown $9.99. 'distance and meaning' and 'hell to pay' slow down the pace a little after the first two. I have always felt that 'hell to pay' is reminiscent of Fugazi's song 'returning the screw' from their "In On The Killtaker" album, at least in the guitar work.
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| (2001 Equal Vision Release - back cover) |
'Homewrecker' is up next and kicks the program back into high gear. "No love. No Hope". The crowd goes apeshit when they play this tune. 'The broken vow' follows; it comes in fast then slows down a bit before closing with their epic line "I'll take my love to the grave".
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| (2001 Equal Vision Release - gatefold/inside cover) |
Two more barn-burners are up next; 'bitter and then some' whose main guitar riff I have practically memorized by the time I've gotten home and 'heaven in her arms' which is just relentless.
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| (2001 Equal Vision Release - side A) |
Another detour occurs, this time in the form of 'phoenix in flight'. This track builds slowly with kind of a "shoegaze" vibe. All the build up in that song is destroyed in the follow up 'phoenix in flames', which is cacophonous. Both songs back to back are jaw dropping.
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| (2001 Equal Vision Release - side B) |
'Thaw' is another relentless track, perfect after the discordance of 'phoenix in flames' and segues excellently into the closer, title track 'jane doe'. I continued driving despite the fact that I already passed my house. I had already confirmed that I had found something incredible and I needed to hear it through to the end. Eleven minutes of beautiful heartache through sound is what 'jane doe' is to me. I have since managed to see Converge at least 15 times since 2004 and have not yet had the pleasure of seeing them play this one out.
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(2001 Equal Vision Release - side C)
The pictures above are of my 1st press brown/white split color edition (numbered out of 550) released on Equal Vision in 2001. Additional pressing information is as follows: orange/red split (out of 150), clear (out of 300) and black (out of 2000). |
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| (2001 Equal Vision Release - side D) |
In 2010, Deathwish Inc. re-issued the album, which had been out of print since 2004, with an extended booklet, much like the CD release. It has also been remastered and sounds awesome. Below I have pictures of my 1st press clear red color edition (numbered out of 1,305), released on Deathwish Inc. Additional pressing information is as follows: red/gold swirl (out of 150), clear gold (out of 440), white (out of 2000), clear gold (exclusive band color out of 550) and clear green (exclusive Equal Vision color out of 560). I ordered mine directly from Deathwish Inc. and got the package that included a limited edition Jane Doe t-shirt.
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - cover) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - back cover) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - gatefold/inside cover) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - booklet cover) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - booklet pages 1-2) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - booklet pages 3-4) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - booklet pages 5-6) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - booklet pages 7-8) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - booklet pages 9-10) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - booklet pages 11-12) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - booklet pages 13-14) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - booklet pages 15-16) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - booklet pages 17-18) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - booklet pages 19-20) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - booklet pages 21-22) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - booklet pages 23-24) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - booklet back cover) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - side J) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - side A) |
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| (2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - side N) |
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(2010 Deathwish Inc. re-issue - side E)
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| (Limited edition Jane Doe t-shirt - front image) |
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| (Limited edition Jane Doe t-shirt - back image) |
Although I hold the opinion that 2009's "Axe To Fall" is their best work and 2004's "You Fail Me" is my personal favorite, "Jane Doe" will forever be the record that changed my idea of what heavy music could be. This is a classic record, no matter what genre you listen to. Do yourself a favor and listen to it.
