Love in the time of hardcore music
Jane Doe, a lyrical masterpiece I have read it said that there are two types of Converge fans. Firstly, there are those who were there in the beginning, who dig 1998's When Forever Comes Crashing and what came before it, and those of us hooked by and on 2001's seminal Jane Doe and everything that's followed. It is certainly not true that the early material only has merit purely for historical reasons (in the same way a visual artist's rough sketches and student drawings become interesting), but one year into the new millenium, the Salem, Massachussets five-piece (as they were then)'s fourth studio album showed the world just how intelligent really heavy music could be. Converge pushed themselves kicking and screaming above their peers and have remained out on top ever since. Often imitated but never bettered, indeed. This is hardly news. The band still opens its shows with the one-two sucker punch of Concubine/Fault and Fracture, the shirts in the crowd...