Petitioning the Empty Sky

Artist: Converge
Label: Equal Vision Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Enhanced
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 794558110921
EAN: 0794558110921
ASIN: B0007OP16M

Release Date: 2005-03-22

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Listmania:

Important blast beat bands
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The first ever "metalcore" bands (no order)
My top ten hardcore albums
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Tracks:

The Saddest Day
Forsaken
Albatross
Dead
Shingles
Buried But Breathing
Farewell Note To This City
Color Me Blood Red
For You (Live)
Antithesis (Live)
Homesong (Live)
Love As Arson

Similar Items:

When Forever Comes Crashing
You Fail Me
Jane Doe
Unloved & Weeded Out
The Poacher Diaries

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant little upgrade chap!.......2006-01-23

Okay so I was kinda hesitant as you'd expect when it came to buying the same record twice. But rest assured this my friends was worth it (plus the LP looks nice, first press suckers! Good things come to those that wait). Anyways, I gotta hand it to you the one thing that really makes this cd is just how much better Farewell Note to this City sounds! I'm not kidding, on the orginal record the songs is barely audible and you can barely hear the dynamics, so Farewell Note just doesn't sound as freaking epic as it does on this joint! I honestly listened to that song like 5 times straight in a row and I was super pysched, I didn't really pay to much mind to it on the orginal release but... bravo! Saddest Day didn't require way too much touching up, it does sound a bit more audible (like all the tracks do, this means you don't have to play with the volume on each song as much as you did with the orginal release) and Jake sounds a little more pronounced. Dead sounds a million times better and it's probably my favorite all around Converge track. The rest of the album is greatly improved, in fact it almost sounds like an entirely diffrent album, it's as if your hearing Petitioning for the first time all over again! Highly recommended if you already own the orginal version.

I Wouldn't Call It Empty.......2005-11-15

Though released years ago, and still miles above anything that the modern metalcore / hardcore scene has put out, 'Petitioning the Sky' seems to fall short of the work that Converge has put forth since then. Granted, at the time, 'Petitioning...' was up there, rivaling anything that other bands could put out (with the exception of the great Deadguy - who happens to be appropriately name dropped in the liner notes on this reissue), but in comparison to works like 'Jane Doe' and 'When Forever Comes Crashing' sounds dated and tired, lacking the ingenuity and musical progression found in later works. However with all that said, 'Petitioning the Empty Sky' is still a hell of an album and basically the template for every metalcore album since: raging guitar riffs, oddly clean sung verses, melodic chord progressions, the whole deal. I mean, "The Saddest Day" is arguably the best song that anyone having to do with the whole bare-bones hardcore / metalcore has ever put out, cathy, emotional, and brutal. On the part of the reissue, the producion is much cleaner, while still retaining its "rough around the edges" sound, the bonus song is solid, though the original artwork far more suited the record, the new packaging is decent. The clean up work on 'Petitioning the Empty Sky' is imaculate, warrenting even those who own the original to pick this up, definitely a worthy reissue.

8 / 10

On A Mission.......2005-11-13

( I obviously need to get this out my system since one of the only bands I have been able to listen to for the past few months has been Converge. Over the past couple days I've written three reviews for Converge albums and I might as well finish it off now. I'll get to "Caring and Killing" later, but this will be my last Converge review for a while.)

It's almost hard to believe "Petitioning the Empty Sky" was released in 1998. Playing this type of technical hardcore/ thrash was almost nonexistent. The more popular former thrashers like Sepultura and Machine Head who were going in the nu-metal direction and death metal was pretty much gone. The liner notes in the reissue of this album and "When Forever Comes Crashing" do an excellent job of explaining what was going on in the underground during Converge's rise to become legends. This album is the one that catapulted them into the center of the creative side of the underground.

"The Saddest Day" broke a big rule in hardcore since it runs over the seven minute mark, yet they still managed to keep the sound even harsher than their peers. It definitely is not an extended Grateful Dead style, hippie jam session, but it's many fragments of thrash metal chaos thrown together into a manic attack. It's easy to see how this song could turn a crowd in a small concert venue into mental patients during a free methamphetamine giveaway at a psyche ward.
Another interesting note about "The Saddest Day" is the lines that could be drawn between it and a certain Slipknot track. Listen to the hidden track at the end of Slipknot's self-titled album, which was released in `99, and see if you can find several similarities to the "The Saddest Day." Since Slipknot's album was released a year after this one, you must wonder if they were "influenced" by it.
For the rest of the album Converge stick with their formula jumping from technical chaos to heavy riff and back again with striking results. In traditional hardcore fashion, it sounds like five young men giving everything they have. The Slayer influence is fairly strong throughout the album, but it is by no means a rip-off. In fact, Converge seems to bring a much more broad range of dynamics than Slayer ever did on their albums. Also, there is the hardcore elements such as the gang shouts and the absence of studio enhancements to make even more exhilarating.
Another side note about this album, and it's not meant to be an insult, is the similarities between "Farewell Note to This City" and a more popular song. It may just be me, but the beginning of the song sounds a little bit like "Don't You Cry" by Guns `n Roses.
The bonus tracks may be the best part of this new version of "Petitioning the Empty Sky." These songs are the most creative and best of Converge's early material which almost makes "Caring and Killing" unnecessary for the collection. The songs are live and raw, yet still have great sound quality. When they stop in the middle of "Homesong" to repair a broken string and begin talking, it's in classic hardcore fashion.

After "Petitioning the Empty Sky," Converge would begin to grow at a phenomenal rate and their next album would show them taking bigger risks than ever before just one year later. It's so refreshing to see a band break the rules of hardcore and metal yet stay true to the original vision of their genre.

asdf.......2005-09-02

I look behind me just to make sure I'm alone every time I listen to this

I'd buy this CD alone for Farewell Note To This City, but...Dead, The Saddest Day, Albatross, For You, I could go on

Buy it, and then buy Jane Doe, and then try not to jump out a window

A Modern Masterpiece.......2005-06-15

It still stands the time even after 8 years, this is just about better than most of the stuff today has to offer. This band is probably the most influential band in the Metalcore scene, I mean, this band equals existance. Jacob Bannon's lyrics are great inspiration for me to be a lyricist, and many people complain "The recordings are too unclean sounding". Well, they wanted it to sound like it was recorded in a basement.

The album starts off with the metalcore classic "The Saddest Day", the opening riff gives me chills everytime I hear it. nEXT IS "Forsaken" a pretty good follow up, considering the last one is a masterpiece. "Albatross" is a song where there are a good bit of melodic vocals, and it transitions well into "Dead", the others are the Converge you know, then "Farewell Note to This City" has an eerie vibe to it, whispered vocals, then it whips back and forth between screams, it's another great song on this album, and the rest are common Converge songs, this album is truly great and it deserved a re-issue.

1. The Saddest Day- 5/5
2. Forsaken- 4/5
3. Albatross- 5/5
4. Dead- 4/5
5. Shingles- 4/5
6. Buried But Breathing- 4/5
7. Farewell Note To This City- 5/5
8. Color Me Blood Red- 4/5
9. For You (Live)- 4/5
10. Antithesis (Live)- 5/5
11. Homesong (Live)- 4/5
12. Love As Arson- 4/5

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