MERGING POETRY AND MUSIC // Converge - Concubine // Composer Reaction & Analysis

[@educostanzo]

It's crazy how they introduce a new "groove" in the song when there's only 7 seconds left lol

[@bulliemthembu5846]

Metaphors abound

[@Jonathan-jc4ef]

Because it merges with the second track

[@gnarxy]

There is a fantastic YT video where Kurt Ballou talks with a class at Berklee College of Music about the making of this album

[@abzafox7777]

I really wasn’t into this band until I saw them live. I saw them a year after this came out in a small club. It was fucking insanity. They sounded perfect. The singer was a force of nature. They made me a lifelong fan within 2 minutes. They opened with this song.

[@ilovenoise36]

One of the craziest intros to one of the craziest albums. I've always been impressed at just how much they were able to fit into that minute

[@tommaw3204]

There’s an observation about the sung lyrics vs the written lyrics of this album that I love. I can’t remember it verbatim so I’ll paraphrase. But basically, this music critic remarked upon how Jacob Bannon kind of tapped into a bit of emotional genius with this idea, how you can mentally prepare for a confrontation, how you can have all these eloquent point ready to go but when the moment comes, you can just get completely caught up in the emotion and all that elegance goes out the window and all you can muster is rageful bluntness.

[@tommaw3204]

For those wanting to actually read it, it’s in the “Musical Style and Themes” section of the Wiki page of this album.

[@matt-wr4co]

@@tommaw3204 dope ass observation. appreciate the citation man

[@cgo7395]

I'm boppin' along while Bryan seems to be in pain.

[@morgue_file]

😂 same. That blast came in and he winced and I was like “NOOO THATS THE PAYOFF WEVE BEEN BUILDING TO”

[@converge26]

This and fault and fracture need to be played back to back... It will make more sense to you , this is how the music video was edited as well

[@OriginalMrocco]

Lol i just recently discovered this album and it (and some other mathy/grindy stuff) opened my eyes to a new level of heavyness. Probably jumped into my top 10 albums of all time.

[@weirdfishes100]

The second track should really go along with it, but it’s still absolutely devastating. This is the album that showed me how heavy music can be.

[@keister1169]

🤣🤣🤣🤣 This is one of the greatest albums ever made.

[@bulliemthembu5846]

I don't listen to metal core except for this album

[@justsomejusstsome8994]

Checkout Gaza and Botch, good metalcore bands youll like if you like Converge ​@@bulliemthembu5846

[@iancraig5415]

Based on the stank face from the first breakdown, I think you'd get a huge kick out of a song like Unsilent Death by Nails.

[@azithoth6860]

disjointed thoughts -there's a third piece to the multimedia, Bannon does all the visuals for every converge release. it may not be as direct as lyrics and music but ever album cover is part of the package, and if you get the physical media there's a lot inside that too -it's cool that you picked up on the emotion in the vocals right off the bat, and also the "internal vs external" of the lyrics and vocals. I'm also not sure how many other converge tracks do this tbh, if any. I definitely wouldn't call it a common thing like that annotation did -Kurt Ballou (their guitarist and producer and owner of godcity studios, blue shirt in the thumbnail) is one of the two all time great metalcore producers in my opinion, along with Adam D of Killswitch Engage. everything he touches has a precise messiness. it never feels weak or muddy no matter how crushed and distorted and loud it is. I think it's a big contributor to their legend status, along with how long they've been doing it -and speaking of legend status, I definitely won't pretend they invented metalcore but this album is ALWAYS top of lists pointing to what defines the genre. call me biased (I am) but I think Jane Doe is the black sabbath by black sabbath of metalcore

[@gnarxy]

Converge - Jane Doe DEP - Calculating Infinity Botch - We are the Romans holy trinity for early metalcore staples

[@shortdrink873]

@@gnarxyalthough I don’t actually like the album (do love the band though), Poison the Well’s Opposite of December should be in there too for opening up the melodic side of metalcore that would turn it into the eventual mainstream genre it is today.

[@SaturnineXTS]

Ahhh, Jane Doe. The album that single-handedly turned me from a biased hater who thought all metalcore were just those crabcore idiots, now I'm a huge fan of all sorts of hardcore hybrid genres, and this single album can probably be credited with that.

[@DiiNovensiles]

I wouldnt've come across Integrity or English Dogs or Rorschach if it weren't for Jane Doe, I think.

[@SaturnineXTS]

@@DiiNovensiles Integrity, Botch, Shai Hulud, Norma Jean... not to mention all the actually good deathcore-adjacent bands such as The Red Chord

[@Defaultis_hit]

This song have one of the shortest but heaviest breakdowns ever! In this week you should have listened to "The supreme necrotic audnance" by Anaal Nathrakh, I think it's one of the most violent songs ever written.

[@gillaliglaou2840]

bind torture kill (a next week special selection) is perfect for this week's theme

[@UrBeat06]

Converge! Always kind of thought they were a poor man's Dillinger, but had to see the reaction and analysis - I feel like this is sort of an opener track, like good for opening a show or something, sort of like Dillinger's Mullet Burden

[@xavierbonilla1164]

One of the greatest hardcore albums of all time! ❤

[@rubysoffner4557]

Chat Pile has a new album out. It's well worth a listen. I am Dog Now or Masc are well worth reviewing

[@deadnabeg4834]

this band is everything

[@JordanPeacock]

sometimes 79 seconds is all you need

[@ShanevsDCsniperr]

it would be worth getting further into what elements mark the contrast between sections (fast 'grinding' sections, short fills of differing length, chaotic scalar runs, brief breakdowns). this kind of song structure and pacing would be less overwhelming if you exposed yourself to some grindcore (i humbly suggest assück or discordance axis)

[@xdrezcorex]

for me, due to the formats frequency limitations, this album only sounds good on vinyl.

[@10101110]

Jane Doe is quite possibly my personal favorite album of all time. I bought it on the day it was released, and my first listen to it, I absolutely hated it. It didn't make sense to me one bit. I think this is a record that you really have to immerse yourself in, as pretentious as this is going to sound, and absorb as a multi-disciplinary piece of art rather than trying to approach it as strictly music.

[@pechondelgado]

Converge got better after this album. Jane Doe is over rated.

[@doritosoccultclub8478]

No way Jane Doe is overrated. Jane Doe has a very expressive sound and it is an absolutely classic album for a reason. The production is great and the riffs are awesome. I would say that converge just went in another direction from this point with Dark Jorse and All We Love We Leave Behind where they add some country elements and become more punk-ish. There simply wasn't another album like Jane Doe but all modern converge is amazing too.