Music

Retro Review: Converge ‘Jane Doe’

Published

13 years ago

September 5, 2011

Ten years ago I was 14 at the start of my teenage years trying to figure out the person I wanted to be. I had already been raised on steady diet of independent punk and hardcore bands to widen my music palette, but nothing could prepare me for this album. This album has been beaten to death for the last ten years for changing independent music and rightfully so. So I would like to share with you my Retro Review with you on Converge‘s “Jane Doe“. Enjoy.

It’s hard to think back that far how much hype there was surrounding this album prior to it’s release but I had already been a fan of Converge from seeing them on prior tours with bands such as The Dillinger Escape Plan and Coalesce, so I already assumed the album would be awesome. I remember seeing the artwork for “Jane Doe” and thinking to myself, “Holy shit, that’s incredible.” Little did I know that this album was going to change my life forever.

The day the album came out (10 years ago yesterday to be exact) I had my sister drive me to our local record store (Record Breakers when it used to be in the northwest suburbs of Chicago) at midnight so I could get my hands on it as soon as possible. Thinking about listening to the opening riff of Concubine for the first time still gives me chills to this day. It pretty much let me know that I was going to get pummeled.

Everything from that moment and on is just non stop. The record confused me because this isn’t what hardcore normally sounded like. But it was and still is the most aggressive record I have ever heard. Songs such as Homewrecker, Heaven In Her Arms and Phoenix In Flight have always stood out to most to me as the album’s best songs. To be honest though it really is hard singling out songs though, every song on the album was just as good as the one before it. The final song on the album Jane Doe clocks in a little over 11 minutes and to me is one of the most haunting tracks I have ever heard. In between screams it sounds like Jacob Bannon is saying “, which giving the tone of the song it just really makes the song that much creepier.

To be honest it’s really hard for me to write a review on this album, much less a retrospective. Everything great about this album has been said. But this is coming from the heart of a true fan who’s life was genuinely changed by this record. This album made me look at hardcore, art, relationships, and life very differently. It’s very rare that a band can achieve that in their career and Converge really just outdid themselves with this album. And because of that so many people and bands have been greatly influenced by this record.

Since “Jane Doe” Converge have released “You Fail Me“, “No Heroes“, and “Axe To Fall“. Every album the band has just gotten better and better with their sound, and though some might disagree, the albums have never been a disappointment. But it’s nice to look back on “Jane Doe” and think back to things that were going on at the time and the impact this record had on independent music. I will forever be indebted to Converge for this album.

SuperRadMike

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Music

“He Walks By Night” – Listen to a Brand New John Carpenter Song NOW!

Published

2 weeks ago

April 9, 2024

John Squires

It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.

“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…