It is a fact that Converge is the greatest hard core band ever. They always have been and they always will be. You don’t have to like them as long as you understand that they are the best, okay?
Converge put out three records that were influential to me during college: Petitioning the Empty Sky (1996), When Forever Comes Crashing (1998), and Jane Doe (2001). I couldn’t just pick one to single out. Jane Doe is what put Converge on the map for a lot of people, but my first record was Petitioning the Empty Sky. I bought it immediately after hearing the first track from the record, “The Saddest Day.”
It was When Forever Comes Crashing that turned me from a casual listener of Converge to an obsessive fan. WFCC was heavier and more complex than anything else I had ever heard. I listened to that record ALL THE TIME. I can’t say that Petitioning or WFCC were well recorded, but the songs were amazing. Now you can get them both remastered, which is an improvement.
My friend and college roommate Bryan has actual footage of me running around our living room going nuts while Jane Doe plays in the background. That record was a game-changer. The first time I heard it all I could say was, “What in the world was that?” It was a blur. Then I listened again and each song started to take on its own identity. I began to see the complexity of the composition, the attention to detail, and the mad skillz of their (then) new drummer. Jane Doe is brutal, fast, brooding, epic, melancholy, and scary all at once.
A lot of people are surprised that I like music this heavy or fast or whatever. I don’t know how to explain it. I just know that at that time, this music was very important to me no matter how dark or different from Cool Hand Luke it may sound. It actually had a huge influence on a lot of Cool Hand Luke songs at least on my part. I can’t say that I listen to much heavy music anymore, mostly because I don’t think any of it is as good as the stuff I was listening to ten years ago. Maybe I’m old or lame or both. I do know that when Converge puts out a new record I always get it and love it. Their newest album Axe to Fall is no exception.
