Iām quite glad they didnāt tbh, think their legacy is spot on as it is
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Very very slowly getting into them. Did a run through all their stuff probably a couple of years ago and doing an album a year (Jane doe onward) like I did with pavement.
Once you tune in they are ace.
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Not reallyā¦ but hereās some other tracks that might be of interest
Farewell Note to the City
Color Me Blood Red
Jane Doe
You Fail Me
In Her Shadow
Worms Will Feed / Rats Will Feast
Cruel Bloom
Wretched World
Empty On The Inside
Glacial Pace
Coral Blue
All We Love We Leave Behind (start with Precipice)
Eve
Under Duress
The Dusk In Us
Thousands of Miles Between Us
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++ Grim Heart / Black Rose
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I donāt know their music at all really and do didnāt vote.
But every year me a three other mates play each other bits ftom our favourite albums of the year and there has almost always been at least one choice from them that is mentioned as being āproduced by the guy from Convergeā and I (nearly?) always like what I hear.
hero! thanks. i made a playlist:
cruel bloom! halfway through this playlist and its great.
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Left off Hell To Pay and GH/BR as they had already been mentioned
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This may well be true for other fans, but was certainly not the case for me. I initially got into heavy music through Cave In, who supported Foo Fighters in 2002. They played stuff from the more melodic Tides of Tomorrow/Antenna releases they were touring at the time, but then I went back on their website and heard their early stuff and was blown away by how chaotic and crazy it was. My dad had long been into Black Sabbath but Cave In were the first new heavy band I ādiscoveredā.
This pre-Spotify, and was also a time of Ceefax, Rock Sound and music forums as gateways for heavy music. Through Cave In, I got into bands like Isis, Botch, and DEP, hardcore adjacent acts like The Locust, Cursed and Trap Them, as well as slightly more accessible (but no less rewarding) acts like Glassjaw, Thursday and Blood Brothers. Also, through Rock Sound, I got into more underground weird metal stuff like Eden Maine, Beecher and Rolo Tomassi (still have fond memories of seeing RT play a Brighton basement show pre-Hysterics to a very small crowd and them being insanely tight and good even then).
I had heard of Converge, but hadnāt actually listened to them until around 2008. This was because everyone mentioned how awesome they were, and itās quite complicated thinking about it now, but maybe I felt, āI donāt want to hear Converge, how good can they be? Plus, the stuff I like is great and personal to meā. But when I heard the song No Heroes I realised how awesome they really were, then got into everything else they made.
@Tiergarten I donāt think weāve done a Napalm Death HGATR, but I would bloody love it. One of those acts that Iād really love to hear people talking about. Itās about time we had a grindcore HGATR, and in a perfect would, a Pig Destroyer HGATR? A man can dreamā¦
@Scagden I love your story about CTTQ and Jane Doe. I think what they have in common is also that both releases hold absolutely nothing back. Jane Doeās been discussed on this thread, but ATRU is insane- so many styles, utterly overwhelming guitars and vocals, brilliant poetic lyrics, so well doneā¦it forces you to pay attention.
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Plagues off No Heroes could be another one that fits
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Late 00s to early 10s Rock sound was absolutely incredible
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Agree. Gateway to so many incredible bands.
Do you know magazines/websites which are similarly great curators of heavy/punk stuff?
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I dont know about news or features but every week I have a look at the New Noise and Distorted Sound reviews section and pick out stuff from there. Stereogum also does a monthly column for hardcore and another for metal which highlights new stuff which are ace
I get a lot from Spotify playlists too - every Tuesday at work I spend 15 mins or so queuing up stuff from new releases. No Echo do a good hardcore one, the band Respire do a monthly one, Church Road and Deathwish records each have a weekly playlist, BrooklynVegan has a 2022 punk/emo/hardcore one they update frequently
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This as well is probably my favourite
Seen Eden Maine mentioned twice in this thread. Their first EP that was produced by Kurt Ballou and still gives me goosebumps listening to it. Was at their last ever show too
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A good friend has been lead vocalist in some of the heaviest bands Iāve ever heard and Jane Doe is his favourite record of all time by a considerable margin. Most metalheads I know through him hold it on considerable reverence.
I guess the reason it attracts the indie (and electronica in my case) kids too is because it is seen as so seminal and ends up as a good place to start.
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Thank you for finally doing this btw, you made a few nerds happy x
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They were so good man
Yeah thatās great ā wasnāt meant to be a broad brush as I think my post might have come across and being realistic, Iām sure there are loads of Converge fans who are massively into hardcore and/or metal more generally. Itās a weird one and Iām not sure Iām expressing what I mean properly, but from my own, entirely anecdotal, experience, more casual fans seem to see them (and Jane Doe in particular) as the absolute pinnacle of hardcore and so it isnāt worth bothering with any other bands or albums because nothing is going to top it/them. I donāt personally agree ā I donāt even think they are the best metalcore band (Integrity for me) - but again, totally based on personal experience, the thing that really gets me is that people seem to write off a whole varied genre based on being familiar with this one band. Appreciate that itās probably more a bugbear of mine than anything else, and Iām sure itās not limited to hardcore either. Imagine people can (and do) say equivalent things about Frank Ocean or Burial and other artists that have made brilliant records that break through to have an impact way beyond the scene they came out of.
(Iām not having a go at Converge at all either ā I think they are great)
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I too would enjoy a napalm death round.
Because theyāre great.
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