Review by Saxy S for Converge - Jane Doe (2001)

My relationship with Converge, and Jane Doe in particular, is...complicated. For starters I didn't hear this album when it was originally released in 2001. My initial exposure was in 2004/5 as I was learning about the metalcore subgenre through bands like Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, and later on, Protest the Hero. I found Converge's music to be very alienating and obtuse, but somehow also completely unmemorable. Which I find odd today since Converge is almost always paired with The Dillinger Escape Plan as champions of mathcore in the 21st century, and I like those guys.

So I went back to this album with relatively fresh ears not too long ago to see if my opinion has changed and whether or not the massive amounts of critical acclaim this album receives is justified. And my findings came back with a resounding...meh. I understand that being in the moment most likely makes an albums cultural impact more significant and I understand if that is the case for Jane Doe, but I still find the record very forgetful.

Let's start off with what really pisses me off: the songwriting. The tunes on this album are composed with very little connectivity, if any at all, and because their are no discernible melodies to latch on to, after a while the songs start to blend together. The very little variation we get from the mathcore formula feel tepid and hardly worth writing home about. What riffs we do get are almost all broken up in the most simplistic mathcore formula you can imagine. I mean some tunes are fine; I genuinely enjoyed "Heaven in Her Arms" as the albums most well thought out piece, "Hell to Pay" also serves as a decent slow down song that attempts to add some melodic phrasing into the mix.

I wish that the mixing didn't sound like liquid ass! This album has a serious problem when it comes to the low end and bass presence throughout the project. I've said it before and I'll say it again: just because you have down-tuned guitars, it doesn't mean you can't have a real bass line. The percussion sounds muddy on the first half of this album, but does make some modest improvements from "Heaven in her Arms" and beyond. The vocals from Jacob Bannon are blown out in the mix to all hell and back. Good luck understanding ANYTHING that is said on this record without a lyric sheet directly in front of you. And that leaves us with just the guitars, which have their moments for sure, but without the aforementioned bass or a decent vocal counterpoint, the guitar riffs just fall flat.

I'm being overly harsh on this record even though I don't think it's completely terrible. There are a couple of stronger moments during the middle portion of this record that save to being at least a passable record. But my criticism is more pronounced since so many people praise this as the crowning achievement in the subgenre, when Dillinger Escape Plan were doing it a lot better at around the same time as Jane Doe was released! The band got significantly better during the 2010s as they began to adapt more post-hardcore sounds into their music, but as it stands, Jane Doe is an album that I may appreciate, but hardly enjoy.