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Rating: Turn off the light. Return to pure passion for a moment. Lose control.
Turn the light back on.
Objects of such pure essence are rare, but above all, one risks not recognizing them by casting merely distracted glances in their direction. Or listening too briefly. The sonic violence is a climax; only by sensing its "growth" is the human ear able to appreciate it. The searing vitriol of the guitar. The hoarse breath of the bass. Jacob Bannon's tormented voice. The words that, though indistinguishable, manage with their blind sound to convey the message for which they were crafted. Torment and pain. Primal rage. Creativity.
Listening to Converge is a mystical journey, an erratic ascent and descent. A carousel of emotions and states, and when shivers seize you, calm returns. And right after, a new thunder.
"Jane Doe" is universally (and rightfully) considered the masterpiece of the Boston band; the compositional skills of Bannon-Ballou & Co. unarguably reach their peak here.
Tracks like "Thaw", "Distance & Meaning", and "The Broken Vow" enthrall with their phases, punctuated by a drum that is as perfect as it is schizoid. Episodes of pure fury like "Phoenix In Flames" and "Concubine" genuinely surprise even the most extreme listener.
The songs unfold into a single overwhelming plot, without dead spots, concluding in the ultimate moment of ecstasy: the eleven minutes of the title track. When the shuffle places this piece before you, it is difficult to fully "get into" it without the rest of the album preceding it. The instinct to cease one's current activities and join Jacob's scream is strong. To unleash all negativity.
It's not metal, it's not hardcore. It's beyond. Some call it noise-core or simply post-hardcore. It's Converge, it's indescribable; and in the XXI century, it is immensely satisfying to say that something unheard-of has been born again.
Perhaps the unaware passerby sometimes thought they sensed a care home? I was listening to "Jane Doe". And I was shaking my fists in the air.
It's cardiac music, no doubt about it.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Concubine (01:19)
Dear, I'll stay gold just to keep these pasts at bay
To keep the loneliest of the nights from claiming you
and to keep these longest day from waking you
For I felt the greatest of winters coming
and I saw you as seasons shifting from blue to gray
Thats where the coldest of these days await me
and distance lays her heavy head beside me
There Ill stay gold, forever gold
02 Fault and Fracture (03:05)
You were most beautiful as the damage and the trauma
Pounding hard with battered wings of destiny
You were my last great war
You were my heaven ablaze
Riddled with faults and fractures
And I spent my last of days burning my oldest of bridges
And I spent my last of nights killing the best of friends
In the company of thieves, liars, beggers and whores
I'll lay waiting, just waiting for my time to come
03 Distance and Meaning (04:17)
And like that heart that got in the way
I'll become the lost cause
The child of burden and rage
Like the distance in your touch
Like the years we burned down
I heard that phone call
The hesitation, the ackward silence
I felt everything in those seconds
Splinters of sentence and heartless advice
Nothing's changed but these days entwined
05 Homewrecker (03:51)
I have bled and I have given
the longest of rivers and the longest of ropes
And you're not grasping and my light is sinking on the horizon
Knee deep among your wreckage and uncertainty
With anguish my crown and heartbreak my throne
I lay claim to this day - No love, no hope
I've lost count of the second chances
I lay claim to this day - No love, no hope.
06 The Broken Vow (02:13)
Those nights we had and the trust we lost
The sleep that fled me and the heart I lost
It all reminds me just how callous
and heartless the true cowards are
And I write this for the loveless
And for the risks we take
I'll take my love to the grave
As tired and worn it is
I'll take my love to the grave
07 Bitter and then Some (01:27)
Death to cowards, traitors, and empty words
To those adorned with the touch of rose petals
And the blessed gift of forgetfulness
For these are your years and days to outshine
Push on and soar higher
This is your memory, your everything, and the in-between
Push on and soar higher
08 Heaven in Her Arms (04:00)
Death was just a simple glance across a dim lit room
And those eyes did it
Those three words did it
Those three words killed him
And I surrender to it all
Between you and me, I surrender to you
Forgive me for the sadness
And the bringing of you down
I just needed a lover and I needed a friend
And there you were
Running from forever like all the rest
Three simple words bled me dry
Three simple word bled us dry, bled us dry
I love you
09 Phoenix in Flight (03:48)
And I write this to you my dear
For your eyes alone
I'm out of heart and these tanks are low
So cast your days to flame
And set your phoenix to flight
Let her turn to ash
Among those flourescent lights
Let your love drift deeper
Let her wings catch the sky
Just remember my name, girl
And remember what died
11 Thaw (04:29)
In the want, the need, and this desperation
You'll find me as the time-bomb
As the last great stand in this history
When all our roads have been travelled
And all have come to a most bitter end
Today I thaw
12 Jane Doe (11:33)
These floods of you are unforgiving
Pushing passed me spilling through the banks
And I fall
Faster than light and faster than time
That's how memory works
At least in the dark where I'm searching for meaning
When I'm just searching for something
I want out
Out of every ackward day
Out of every tongue tied loss
I want out
Out of the burdening nightsweats
Out of the rising seas of blood
Lost in you like saturday nights
Searching the streets with bedroom eyes
Just dying to be saved
Run on girl, run on
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Other reviews
By Hybris
This CD is alive. It speaks to you. Caresses your face, but hides a blade between its fingers.
Jane Doe screams whispering to our ears. To our brains. To our souls.
By Don_Pollo
The only right thing is silence. The silence that during the 45 minutes of duration you will never hear for more than a second, but after those 45 minutes will be infinite, perpetual, deafening, annoying.
Jacob Bannon screams in an incomprehensible manner, not of this world.
