Converge - Jane Doe Album Review and Listen-Along
A song-by-song review of the mathcore classic.
Intro
If you found this page - I am thrilled!
I am not publishing this to my existing subscribers, though all my subscribers have access (also non-subscribers, as it’s all free), I do not assume my existing subscribers are all interested in extreme music, they joined for the “Israeli War Diary” section - feel free to check it out, it is about the current war.
This is the first post of my newest section - Grimmer’s Music Flares.
There is no grand scheme here, what I publish is aligned with what catches me at the moment. During the past month, I’ve been totally taken aback by this album, I’ve listened to it on repeat, and it will probably show up as the most played artist/album on my Spotify end-of-year review - not that anyone looks at that!
When something affects me emotionally or impresses me thoroughly I write about it. Both happened with Jane Doe.
If you’re already a fan coming to read a new review - enjoy! If you have no idea what mathcore is but are curious - be open-minded! In the beginning, it sounds terrible, but with time, it becomes beautiful, like cigarettes or whiskey, but in a healthy way!
Note - This is an experimental review with a song-by-song reaction. See you on the other side 🎸.
Preface
After a dozen years of coming across Converge’s critically acclaimed album, Jane Doe, in my Spotify recommendations, I’ve finally “got it”.
I tried to like it before. I believed the reviews, listened to a song here and there, and even put the entire album on a few times but never reached beyond the second or third song. It was impossible to listen to. It was deafening, loud, grating, and thoroughly unpleasant.
Now I love it. It is like a wild fairy-tale forest that I ventured to alone for years because I was lured by its unsettling perplexity, but could never walk in further than a dozen meters. I dipped my toes in, sure, to try it out, to taste it. But I never went in. I was afraid. Afraid something there will… get me…
Then the day came where, not out of bravery, not as a result of some genius plan, but just out of some whif in the wind, some scent, some heightened, otherworldly sensation, I was pushed deeper into the forest and for the first time I found myself not in a chaotic realm of torment, but immersed in a magical realm, and it was beautiful. It showed me parts of myself I didn’t know before.
That’s Jane Doe for me.
But my venture “into the forest” was much more calculated and pragmatic. One of my ways of getting into hard listens is putting them on when I am focused on something else, like a technical task at work - just as one would do with white noise. I am unfamiliar with the melodies so they don’t distract me from the work. Meanwhile, my subconscious registers the music. Later that week I’ll be humming a riff from somewhere and have no idea where from. Then the next day or the day after I’ll put the album on again and catch that riff, and that’s when it clicks, that’s the Eureka moment when I realize there might be something to it. Then the journey begins.
The hidden melodies in Jane Doe are fascinating. The guitar work, my god, the musicianship, the drums. The last song. Heaven in her arms. All masterpieces.
Drill down into the songs
You have probably seen or heard of YouTube reaction videos, where some expert listens to a song and gives their live reaction. I’m no expert on anything but as this is my Substack and I have some freedom I’m going to experiment.
I wrote my reactions to each song while listening to the entire album.
Put the album on if you continue reading!
CONCUBINE
Fucking hell. What an ultra-violent one-and-a-half minutes. This song thrusts a stabbing punch right through your heart and out the other side, holding it behind your back. Then just as you turn around…
FAULT AND FRACTURE
It’s your fault. (Sorry for the cringy Pun).
It just goes on. You barely notice the transition. “Concubine” was so short. And it’s the most popular song on the album (?).
After two minutes Kurt Ballou (guitarist) shows off his melodic abilities. The guitars shred and the drums are right there guiding it, like a golf caddy who is sometimes more impressive than the golfer.
I love this song.
DISTANCE AND MEANING
Starts differently. Not relenting. This album is far from relenting, but this song is less brutal.
Jacob’s vocals seem like they come from the depths of hell. And you the listener, are hearing it from even deeper in Hell. So he’s in Hell on some red burning rock, and you are below that by about a hundred meters, on a redder, hotter rock, and you hear his screams piercing down from above like a violent mist.
All the while there are spaceship-like-sounding synthesizers.
Spaceships in hell…. OK.
This song is kind of progressive. The drums come out of nowhere towards the end and take you on a roll massage, like that thing at the end of a car wash that rolls on top of your car as the dryer tumbles.
HELL TO PAY
Starts soft. I can hear my tinnitus for the first time since putting on the album. Since I got tinnitus I’ve been listening more to distorted music like metal and this punk-like stuff on my headphones. I can’t listen to quiet music on noise-cancelling headphones with tinnitus.
I love the jazzy bass in this song. You can tell these guys are talented musicians, not just emo, scene kids yelling without purpose. Kurt Ballou is a talented musician and sound engineer. He was also another type of engineer. Even Berkely brought him (along with the producer of Jane Doe) to talk to students.
In regards to Ballou's technical precision as a producer, Jacob Bannon (of Converge) has stated, "Nothing gets by him—it is inspiring to watch him work." - From Kurt Ballou’s Wikipedia page
I love the build-up on this song. It reminds me of Tool. Ben Koller (drummer) reminds me of Danny Carry in places all over the album.
“Drummers in local bands on Cape Cod were a huge inspiration when I was in high school. Some drummers that I dig are Bill Stevenson (Black Flag, Descendents), Danny Carey (Tool), Dave Lombardo, Bonzo, etc. There’s so many, it would be impossible to try and list them all.” - Koller.
Ben Koller is fucking amazing.
HOMEWRECKER
A rock anthem?
The chorus is a blackened distorted version of something like Velvet Revolver or one of those catchy “Heavy Metal” bands. But Converge is dark and not afraid to show it. It’s as if the band members use Converge as an outlet for their madness and depression, then pour it out on the audience. I love it, let’s pour together. I poured out things I didn’t even know I had while listening. It’s cleansing. Cathartic.
The ending here also reminded me of Tool.
THE BROKEN VOW
If one were to start the album on this song they would fucking barf and faint. But if you get through the first twenty seconds it becomes beautiful and interesting. Like climbing a ladder, the riff after the first twenty seconds takes you somewhere.
All the while Jacob wails in the background, as if he has been left behind, forgotten (around 1:00).
One of the things I love about distorted music is that the frontman does not always have to be a “frontman”. He is another instrument and each instrument is given an equal place in the music. It makes the music that much more interesting.
The last forty seconds are just a straight-out banger.
BITTER AND THEN SOME
Another unrelenting son-of-a-bitch of a song.
HEAVEN IN HER ARMS
This was the first song I enjoyed listening to from this album. It “reeled” me in. I’m forever grateful for it.
It’s one of those songs where you wait for one riff, this beautiful riff that bears naked the core of the heart, we hear it first at around 1:15, and it feels like that one minute before is so frickin’ long.
The emanation of soft beauty amid chaos is akin to a mad, hyper-active kid who is angry and reckless with the world and is partially so due to a soft and vulnerable core. Like a pearl in the oyster, Converge are a hard shell with a pure, beautiful, and fragile inside. The most fragile things are most fiercely protected.
I feel they are similar to Modest Mouse in this way.
PHEONIX IN FLIGHT
Reminds me of Have a Nice Life. This song emphasizes the mellow and depressing side of Converge.
I love sinking into the slow darkness of low-tempo depressing music. Life is a slow death. Let’s slow it down a little more because it’s beautiful.
It’s an instrumental song without many lyrics. I love it when bands get away with an instrumental song.
PHEONIX IN FLAMES
I am not sure what this song is about. They’re deranged. It’s like a war cry. Like, “We’ve fought so much” there’s just a little more.
THAW
Thaw spins around a center. As if the Phoenix from before is now lying on its side, spinning violently as it dies - and as it spins it sees flashes of the beautiful moments it had in its short life. It fights with all its strength to stand up but it’s stuck to the cement. And the cement is wet with gasoline. He is burning, remember?
There is a lot of violence in this album. It’s merciless. But the bird’s shriek as it does not want to let go of its memories is beautiful.
The last part has you singing with it. The bird’s final moments.
Today I Thaw
Maybe it means after the flames are gone and the bird is dead it will thaw.
One of the better songs on this album, and there is no lack of them.
JANE DOE
The magnum opus.
It starts slow, you don’t know where it’s going to lead. It gets to the chorus just after the one-minute mark and you’re like, “There’s ten minutes more, what are they going to do with them?”
But this album is like a good TV show where you gotta watch the entire show to understand and love the finale. This song is most satisfying after listening to the entire album.
It lets you off easy, it feels nice and releasing, like Shavasana after a good yoga session (where you lie on the floor and meditate).
Then comes the 9-minute mark. Jacob takes off with some of the most depressive screams of the album, and Ballou, like Sam for Frodo, shreds in some hope for the last mile, he takes your hand and leads you. In the end, the album is hopeful. It is beautiful. It is like escaping through a small bright portal from a world of endless darkness.
Jane Doe is a true classic.
AFTERNOTE
I fought with my cat earlier in the evening I wrote this. The moment I finished listening to the album, I made up with her. I felt cleansed. I had the patience for her. I felt good. And she can be a nasty bitch.