4 out of 5

Label: Deathwish, Epitaph

Produced by: Kurt Ballou (recorded by, remixed by)

I realize that Jane Doe is very much the jumping off point for Converge’s takeover of hardcore punk of the technical-leaning variety – meaning that’s the album that “made” them, and rightfully earned a classic status in the scene and for the group. But I do think it’s the albums following that one that really saw the band hitting a stride that fully ante-upped their sound, combining their punkier origins with then-modern (and still modern) complex and layered hardcore, resulting in a string of releases I sincerely believe have not had peers, at least when considered as a whole. And the first knot on that string is You Fail Me.

A commonality for these albums is their unrelenting intensity, which can be pretty exhausting until you’ve adapted, and know a given disc’s beats. YFM is really no different in that regard, but there’s also some thoughtful sequencing consideration that gives some breathing room in the album’s middle, as well as that breathing room acting as something of a pivot point between styles and tone: the A-side is dread: million BPM drumming and a constant nervvy shifting of how any given song approaches a riff; the B-side is like the panicked response to that dread, welcoming back in a punk flavor that finds Bannon shouting instead of growling, and the songs mostly momentum over layering. Or: we start with Converge breaking down expectations; we finish with a celebration of them; meanwhile, the whole album hangs on to its “theme” of confrontation, but the uniqueness is its sense of progress from defeat to fighting back, synced with that stylistic shift.

Of course, I am listening to the Kurt Ballou remixed “redux” version of You Fail Me, without having heard the original; it’s very possible Ballou has leveled things in a way that serves this narrative after the fact. So, setting that aside, just know that Converge’s Axe To Fall-style whiplash is present on the album’s first half, while the more rambling and loose Petioning-ish punk is present on the latter, with the new mix playing with the pummeling low end, the beefy guitars, and Bannon’s varied vocals such that the general volume and intensity is retained throughout.

While this half-and-half approach ends up making YFM one of Converge’s most relistenable releases, and a fun way to fully bridge from one era of the group to another, the group was still tweaking the sound: Bannon’s singing is a monotone hasp on the A-side, nuances of that approach not yet quite mastered; and sometimes a tune is just slightly beyond their grasp, like the overly-crowded melodies of Drop Out or In Her Blood, where there are maybe a few notes too many. But, damn, monotone or crowding, we’ll almost always get a killer breakdown to shake away much criticism, and then have that song followed up by a killer one.